12:03am: Taillon's bonus is worth $6.5MM, according to Jim Callis of Baseball America (on Twitter).
9:14pm: Taillon and the Pirates agreed on a deal worth slightly more than $5MM, according to Jon Heyman of SI.com (on Twitter).
7:52pm: The Pirates signed second-overall pick Jameson Taillon, the pitcher's father told to Chuck Finder of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The tall Texas right-hander has drawn comparisons to other power pitchers such as Roger Clemens and Josh Beckett. Back in May, MLBTR's Mike Axisa profiled Taillon in detail.
The specifics on Taillon's deal aren't yet known, but MLB recommended a $3.25MM bonus for the second overall pick last year. The Mariners, who chose second overall in 2009, signed Dustin Ackley to a $6MM bonus and it wouldn't be surprising to see the Pirates pay Taillon considerably more than slot, too. They already appear to have signed second-rounder Stetson Allie.
With less than three hours remaining between now and the deadline to sign picks, 13 first-rounders have yet to sign.
All you “Nutting doesn’t spend money” people need to finally acknowledge he has spent the most money in the draft the last THREE years.
yep. still, the biggest test comes when it’s time to pony up to keep these young guys here. if he comes thru on that, he’ll have my full confidence. right now he’s at about 70% for me.
didn’t the nats outspend the pirates this year? or are you referring to a combined 3 years. in that case, it might have more to do with the buccos having so many high draft picks than anything else..
either way, i’m glad he signed. i doubt its less than 5mil
no, it has to do with going overslot on high school and prep pitchers, to lure them away from other plans (college).
there is more to spending money than drafts though
tmi
Love Taillon, Love Allie, Love Rojas, Love what th Bucs are doing.
*wets pants*
tmi
If you didn’t like that, I did something much worse when I read this.
It’s easy to spend 10 million on the draft every year when you’re not putting any $$$ in your big league team.
They do not need to spend alot of money on free agents when there not going to win next year and when barely anyone would even consider pittsburgh an option and if they do consider the bucs an option we would have to most likely overpay. All they could get for next year is an ok SS and 1 or two 4th or 5th SPs.
thanks for the insight tough guy
I’m a huge Pirates fan and I love what NH’s has done through the draft, but Nutting’s spending on the draft doesn’t impress me. It’s the cheapest way to keep the fans around, to keep them thinking that one day this will get better. Now perhaps it will. I love the Tallion and Allie pichups, but 12 million dollars is nothing in the context of MLB. I daresay that the Pirates gets 50 million a year from MLB (revenue sharing, licensing, TV and internet $$$). They then spend 37 million on the team and 12 million on draft picks. Every cent of PNC park is now profit.
The Pirates could have done better. Why was Cole not drafted in the third round? Everyone’s board considered him a better pick than Rojas.
and this will be the conversation this summer:
“We’ve got Pounders and Black, and Tallion and Allie and Cain, and Dodson and Von Rosenberg and Owens and Morris and Locke and Morton and Miller. We don’t need any starting pitching. And I’m stuck watching 100 starts of Duke, Karstens and other random AAAA pitchers in ’11.
I’m not saying bring in Gil Meche for 55 over 6, but there are affordable options that could help this team and some Pirates fans are OK with the “Nutting will spend money when he needs to, just look at the draft”. Meanwhile Nutting is pulling in eight figures of pure profit again never having to spend a dime in the offseason.
John: the worst part? Ownership does not have to open their books, so Pirates fans will NEVER know how much (not IF) we’ve been ripped off (or fans of any other team in MLB).
I understand this is a business to ownership. I understand they purchased this team to make money, but I would really like to know HOW MUCH money they’ve made while putting a substandard product on the field.
I agree. I also hate our fans “management wastes $$$” on situations like Aki.
Hindsite being 20/20, Aki was a terrible move. 5 million dollars wasted, but the thing is, that 5 million dollars would have never been spent. You cannot waste money you were never going to spend.
How nice would a Kelly Johnson for 10 over 3 look right now? But that would be wasting money when we are not ready to win.
Only Morton there has had big league time and he can not pitch period.Some of the other guys you have mentioned will not be ready for another 5 years.Jeff Locke, Rudy Owens, and Bryan Morris is what will be there in maybe 3 years. The rest do not have much of a chance right now of making it. You can ask the same question about the guy baseball america ranked 9th in the draft Stetson Allie, it was security in the pick of getting somebody who would sign with them instead of going to college and the bucs were not the only team who passed on him.Duke will be gone this winter so that is done with. Who do you as a SP would consider the pirates an option?In reply to John S in Reply To bucco_nation. I can sense your sarcasm, yes Aki was a bad choice but we would have not found out how good Neil Walker is if Kelly Johnson was the 2B.In reply to John S in reply to lazo.
and that is the point I’m trying to make. The Pirates won’t spend money in the offseason because they have pitching three years away and good pitching won’t matter in 2011 because the Pirates won’t win so lets not spend money on pitching.
So Zach is non tendered or traded. This transaction is 4 million off the payroll to be replaced by either a propect or a AAAA guy that is cheap.
Please don’t think for a second that I don’t love the signings of Tallion or Allie. This is a good day to be a Pirates fan. Probably the best day since Pedro signed. I am simply not pacified by the fact that Pirates have spent 30 million dollars on the draft in the last three years while spending 35 million on the big league team this year.
What they need to do is start spreading some cheer. Give Cutch a 300,000 raise. Throw a 100,000 bonus at Walker, Tabata and Pedro. Throw some love at Meek. This would make these players very happy and perhaps they remember this generosity come arbitration time. It’s an inexpensive way to keep a few players happy, but nope. These four players will get their 18,700 raise in the offseason because the F/O lacks the creativity to give it to them.
As for Walker, does it not concern you that our F/O had written this guy off before the season only to have him step up and be a quality major leaguer?
I actually mostly agree with you i do think cutch should get a evan longo type deal this year and the rest of them next year after proving them selves a little more.Is Zach Duke not just a AAAA pitcher right now anyways? I do feel a little pissed off at Neal for doubting Neil because he did not hustle last year in a game but all is good now in the land of Bucsnation, can anbody say 1986 all over again.
5 mil is a good price. Hopefully he doesn`t just get put onto the 40-man roster and instead tries to earn it.
Exactly. If this isn’t a big league contract, this will be a beautiful thing.
Good night for the Pirates. They won for a change too.
They have been winning for the future since July 31st and tonight was a very big step into making that happen. James Macdonald looks like a bright spot in the bucos deep but talent less starting rotation.
This is a big day for Pirates baseball. Taillon is very advanced for his age, and obviously has quite a live arm. He has the pedigree and the talent to be an Ace. And Allie should be right behind him with yet another incredibly live arm. Obviously there are tons of variables in both players progressions, but all things considered, management had a solid day.
McDonald, Brad Lincoln and Tailson. Very good for this club; they need it so badly. Really weird to compare Clemens and Beckett though. HOFer vs. no.2 pitcher?
Its because Beckett was a very highly touted high school pitcher just like Taillon he was also from Texas. Beckett a number 2 is pushing it considering hes been the red sox ace as recent as last year but i can see him being a very good two instead of an average ace right now.Why did you include Lincoln on there we do not even know if he is the real deal.I bet Lincoln was doing cart wheels after they fired the guy who screwed him up Joe Sucksagain.
He’s a Stud. My uncle saw him throw, i didn’t hear him mentioning anything about being a Clemens-Beckett kinda guy though.
Taillon signed: check
Allie signed: check
Heredia signed: we’ll know by Friday.
Signing Taillon and Allie is a big boost to Pirates Nation. Inking Heredia will be the icing on the cake. Now if we could just fast forward to 2014.
Derek: don’t fast forward until after next year’s amateur draft!
Rendon or Purke, ANYONE?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Wow…..$6.5 mil for a kid who hasn’t pitched an inning? The Pirates are bad for baseball!!!
JUST KIDDING!!!!!!!
Who knows what Taillon will do but congrats to the Pirates for spending the $$$$ to reel him in. Hopefully, they will be a good team in the next 3 or 4 years.
[expletive] yeah, seaking!