Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel got signed by the Pirates yesterday, reaching the pinnacle of a long strange journey that involved both a reality TV show and Tom House. Jeff Bernstein, Barry Bonds' marketing agent, apparently started a reality TV show with Zee Sports in India to find and train talented athletes and turn them into major league pitchers. Pretty wild, but also quite prudent. What's a few million bucks when you could potentially turn a kid into a marketing bonanza worth several times that? India is one of the better countries going at one of baseball's father games, cricket. Combined with that, India's not exactly a sporting powerhouse outside of cricket, and with the exploding Indian economy there's good reason to think that successful Indian athletes in any sport would add millions of new fans and millions of dollars into the pockets of a league. Hell, Pirates GM Neal Huntington all but admitted that: "By adding these two young men, we are pleased to not only add two prospects to our system but also hope to open a pathway to an untapped market."
But the only way they'll tap a market is if these kids can actually play. While it's obvious they can't really play - their baseball knowledge is pretty basic, and there's no doubt these kids are going to spend days, if not months in instructional baseball learning to play the game - it sure seems like they can throw. Singh seems to be the better talent. He's 6'2", left handed, and throws about 90 miles an hour, and actually possesses a rather graceful delivery (though he finishes high, meaning he'll be leaving the ball up until he and a coach work to fix that). Patel's shorter (about 5'10" I'd guess) and stockier, but apparently can throw up to 93 mph. For a pair of kids no older than 20 who haven't done much weight training and are still raw as can be, that's promising, even more so when you consider they've already been able to throw changeups for strikes (Singh with a forkball, Patel with a more conventional circle change).
The biggest challenges are going to be the aforementioned total lack of baseball experience allied with a lack of English fluency (both Singh and Patel grew up poor in Uttar Pradesh, and their English is still shaky). Hopefully the Pirates realize this is a long term investment and bring these kids on slowly - time is most definitely on their side, and the returns could be very good, especially with Singh, since you can't understate how lefties who throw 90 don't grow on trees. Get the kids working with a coach every day on their deliveries, get them to work on fielding drills, and I wouldn't hesitate to just sit them with a coach for a month during instructional league games in order to explain baseball to them. Singh once asked Jeff Bernstein what the shortstop had done wrong since he didn't have a base to defend, proving how raw these guys are.
The two guys also have a blog, endearingly written in their still improving English. It reminds me a little bit of Eddie Murphy's Coming to America as they get their heads around some of the things Americans take for granted (comfortable movie theatre seats!) with the result of some hilarious unintentional comedy. But it's mean to make fun of them for it, as they really are living in fantasyland right now.
USA Today report (with video of the kids throwing)
Hindustan Times report (the Pirates are prestigious?)
Million Dollar Arm blog
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