A Touch of Strange

[magnumo]

At the bottom of his Pirates Notebook column in today's Trib, Rob Biertempfel reports that the Pirates have signed their 21st round draft pick..... a 3B by the name of Jordan Steranka, who played at Mt. Lebanon HS and Penn State. (The "Transactions" page, under the "Roster" menu on the Pirates' page at MLB.com confirms the signing.)

Neither site says anything about it being WAY past the signing deadline. I gotta wonder whether there's some kind of previously undiscovered loophole in the draft rules.

Although this signing is unlikely to be significant in and of itself..... if there IS a loophole, guys like Scott Boras will certainly try to exploit it in future drafts. Geez..... I HOPE not. The new, earlier signing deadline seemed to work pretty well this year.

Pirates notebook: Alvarez earns 2nd career NL Player of Week honor | TribLIVE

http://pittsburgh.pirates.mlb.com/team/transactions.jsp?c_id=pit#month=9&year=2012&team_id=134

 

[magnumo]

OK..... I just read the answer in the P-G: Since Steranka was a college senior, the signing deadline date does not apply.

Scroll to the bottom of this article:

Pirates notebook: Alvarez is honored as NL's player of the week - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette