Didn’t see last night’s game and don’t feel the need to offer up anything on another loss, but I did see that the Pirates announced Zack Dodson’s signing along with Colton Cain’s last night, and that’s worth mentioning. The reports say that Cain signed for $1.15 million (that sound you hear is Bud Selig groaning over a seven figure bonus for an eighth round pick) and Dodson is signing for somewhere between Cain’s number and Trent Stephenson’s $350,000.
This means the Pirates have signed three of the four high school arms they nabbed in the top ten rounds that had fallen because they were expected to be hard signs. That leaves Zach von Rosenberg, thought to be the best of the four. Looking at the money given to Cain, I’m guessing that if the Pirates don’t sign him, money won’t be the reason. Von Rosenberg is from Louisiana and committed to LSU, probably the most storied college baseball program in America. It’s entirely possible he’ll want to play there no matter what the Pirates offer him, especially with the Pirates being the Pirates. Even if Von Rosenberg doesn’t sign, getting three out of four of these guys is impressive for Huntington, I think.
Whatever happens with Von Rosenberg, the Pirates are still maintaining that they plan to match their draft spendings from last year. They’ve got a ways to go to do so, but there are still several guys out there picked later in the draft that should come with a hefty price tag (especially college juniors coming off of bad seasons like Inman and den Dekker). There were also some high school pitchers picked much later (Matt Dermody comes to mind) that seemed to be fallbacks if Cain, Stevenson, Dodson, and Von Rosenberg didn’t sign. We might see some of their names pop up as well as August 17th approaches.
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