Sunday, September 05, 2004

Graham on the prospects

Joe Rutter met with Brian Graham, the Pirates' third-year director of player development, and wrote about it.

According to Joe, Graham talked about Eldred, Duke, Jorge Cortes, Bryan Bullington, Bobby Bradley, Jeff Miller, Nate McLouth, and Chris Duffy. Not discussed in Rutter's article but worth considering, I think, is the fact that, on that list, only Bradley is already on the 40-man roster. Duke and Bullington don't need to be protected, but the rest could be taken in the Rule 5 draft - I'm pretty sure - if the Pirates don't add them to the 40-man roster.

Lower in the system, Graham mentioned Tom Gorzelanny, Rajai Davis. Javier Guzman, Craig Stansberry and Adam Boeve. Gorzelanny, Stansberry, and Boeve have less pro time than a player needs before he must be protected. Gorzelanny was just promoted to Altoona for the playoffs. Boeve is 24 and in his second pro year after a college slugging career at the University of Northern Iowa.

According to The Baseball Cube, Javier Guzman is a 20-year-old shortstop who was drafted at the age of 14 by Colorado. Can that be right?

I won't read anything into this, yet, but the ranks of the possibly deserving who were not mentioned include Ronny Paulino, Yurendell DeCaster, Ray Sadler, Mike Connolly, and Leo Nunez.

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