Some New Details On Pirates, Miguel Sano Released in Pelotero Movie

The day the Pittsburgh Pirates missed on signing Miguel ‘Hanley Pujols’ Sano was a sad one.  The rumors flew about just what happened.  Sano’s agent was on Dejan’s PG blog and I was lucky enough to be one of the people online firing questions that early morning.  But it was more a platform for Plummer to clairfy his intentions.

He just let Sano sign with the Twins for less money than the Pirates had on the table.

It seemed odd.  Very odd.

But never before had we received much more information on the details of the deal.  Until now.    Baseball Prospectus author Ken Funck details the news in today’s article, Pelotero, or, There’s Sano Business Like Show Business.

The article is about the new movie Pelotero which followed Sano during the time most teams in the majors had an interest in signing the talented player.  But no team was closer than the Pirates.  We still believe that.  We still feel something went wrong.  Terribly wrong if you consider the amount of time invested and how well Sano looks in the Twins system.

It appears we have some new information on the situation.

"Just as Hoop Dreams framed coach Gene Pingatore in a negative light, Gayo is cast as Pelotero’s villain, with the film hinting that he ginned up the age controversy to scare off other teams and give the Pirates more leverage when negotiating with Sano. As the investigation drags on, we see the Sano family arrive at the league offices for a meeting with Gayo and MLB’s investigator. Gayo leads them inside to discuss something “away from the cameras;” subsequently, the family claims both Gayo and the investigator guaranteed them a positive outcome if Sano were to sign with the Pirates.We are then shown an angry Sano family setting up a hidden camera in their house to catch Gayo saying something incriminating about this purported conspiracy—we hear Miguel’s mother steering Gayo to the overstuffed chair on which the camera is trained “so he’ll be more comfortable”—but there is no smoking gun, merely some talk that the Pirates are the only team who will make Sano an offer since they are the only one fully convinced of his age. The film’s narrative is that the family grew to distrust a deceitful Gayo, who got what was coming to him when Sano eventually signed with the Twins, but who can be sure? It’s impossible to know whether Pelotero’s take is the complete truth or just the most compelling way to convey a complex story—but compelling it is."

Here is the website for the movie with some spectacular photography….can’t wait to see it.