Pirates Caffeine: Gayo Calls Jorge Soler ‘Not in Same Class’ as Yoenis Cespedes

By now

most of us have heard the rumors about the Pittsburgh Pirates reported interest in Yoenis Cespedes.

If you listen to our podcast you heard what Neal Huntington had to say about the extremely talented Cuban outfielder.

But when we clicked on the article below, the last thing we thought we would see would be a Pirates Scouting Director delivering the majority of the featured quotes.  Director of Latin American Scouting for the Pittsburgh Pirates, Rene Gayo is all over the story from Jerry Crasnick.  It’s almost remarkable and at the same time incredibly refreshing to see.

Of course one of the quotes about a 19-year old like Jorge Soler not being in the same class as Yoenis Cespedes is rather obvious to most of us that have watched each of the players.  But maybe it’s a smokescreen?  The Pirates might like Soler, well maybe not.  But it’s the Saturday before the Winter Meetings….we can speculate about anything right?

I guess mainly because the entire Cespedes-Pirates connection seems so unlikely to happen that must be the reason the article caught us off guard.  After all, how likely are the Pirates to invest in a player that many around the game feel has all the tools.

We have one of those players, and the way it looks another one on the way in Starling Marte.   In our dream world, Cespedes could play right field in PNC Park rather well, but let’s face it.  He’s expensive.  Bob doesn’t know expensive.  So, we think the the bidding is just going to get too much over the top for Huntington and the rest of the Pirates brass.

Damn, I would try everything to make it work because there is little doubt about the talent the guy has. It’s freaking scary. The Bo Jackson comparision, the quotes about the toy cannon by Gayo was great because Gayo knows Hurdle used that comparision during the 2011 season. Well played.

It all just seems like a huge stretch for the Pirates to be in on a player like Cespedes that appears likely to be landing at least $50 million in the near future.  The price tag just seems astronomical when the entire Pirates payroll might not reach $50 million in 2012.