Pirates Outsource Their Pitching Needs

Today's news to be depressed about comes from your Pittsburgh Pirates. The Bucs, in their quest to creatively mine for talent to compete with bigger spending teams, have signed two pitchers from India. Please re-read that sentence and refrain from moving out onto a ledge. The story has already been reported by several other blogs, including Walkoff Walk, Deadspin, Mondesi's House, and also the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Here's some fun nuggets about Rinku Singh and Dinesh Kumar Patel, the first-ever Indian athletes to sign pro sports contracts outside the country.

--They've been playing baseball for about six months
--When they came to the U.S. for training they did not know how to play catch
--They were the winner and runner up, respectively, in a talent contest
--They're from fucking India
--Did I mention they're from India

Now, all senseless bashing aside, if it turns out that these guys can pitch and can help my Buccos, I don't care if they're from Antarctica. It just seems to me that if no one else was really mining India for talent, then the Pirates might not be on to something here. Even GM Neal Huntington admitted as much, remarking that in 25 years, the two players might be seen as a blip on the radar or as pioneers. Somehow, I'm willing to bet the latter.

The signing of Singh and Patel (who, with his low 90s fastball and smallish build, should remind Pirates fans of an Indian Ian Snell) adds to the list of players the Pirates have signed that are from odd locales, to say the least. They've also signed Mpho Ngoepe, an 18-year-old South African shortstop, and Christopher Aure, a pitcher from North Pole High School in Alaska. This is not encouraging.

There's about a 1% chance that the Pirates struck gold here. And in this case, one of these guys making the majors in under 4 years would qualify as striking gold. So, while the Yankees and other big market teams are looking to improve by throwing the GNP of Lichtenstein at C.C. Sabathia, the Pirates are apparently scouting players by watching Office Space and Harold and Kumar.