According to two links here and here (both in Spanish) The Pittsburgh Pirates yesterday signed three young players from the Leones de Yucatan team in the Mexican League. Two other the players have experience, one does not. According to the official Leones website, all three players will report to the Dominican Academy. According to the one article, Pirates scout Jesus “Chino” Valdez has scouted the players for awhile prior to signing them.
Eduardo Vera, RHP, 17 years old with no pro experience
Omar Basulto,LHP, 18 years old. Pitched 4 innings over two relief appearances last year, gave up one run on one hit. He’s 6′ 3″ 190lbs
Julio Perez,1B, 20 years old. Played 19 games last year, hit .297 with two homers. He’s 6′ 2″ 216lbs , bats and throws righty.
Video of Basulto warming up from late 2010. Warning, it’s just seven minutes of him warming up.
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball.
When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.
Having just seen a video of Julio Perez playing 3b from a year or so ago, he is definitely a first baseman. I’d post it but the video is just a minute long with music and some shaky camera work, not much to see
Any significance to these guys?
There isn’t much known on them as of now. Basulto has pitched for some Jr National teams so he has been on the radar for awhile now. I actually knew the Pirates were interested in him for some time now but he was just signed today. A 6″3 lefty with a good amateur resume is always nice, especially since he is HS senior age right now. Vera is just 17 so it would be hard to put a potential tag on him at this point. Perez is fairly old for a first time signee and his father is the coach for the Leones team so that doesn’t sound good off the bat(made me think his signing was a favor for training/signing these other two players but that is just a presumption on my part) He has pretty good size and showed a little power in his brief playing time so you never know. Pirates could definitely use another power bat in the system
What is important about them is when they are signed, meaning before July 2nd when the new rules come into effect that put a cap on Int’l spending. These players won’t count against that 2.9mil the Pirates are able to spend. At this point, the more signings before that date, the better because once July 2nd hits, every dollar will count and the Pirates need to stretch that money the best they can.
Glad they didn’t sign the catcher (watch the video starting at 4:53) Funny!