Draft Recap: Pittsburgh Pirates

The deadline to sign 2008 draftees may have been Friday August 15th, but the details are only now coming out. The Pirates were able to sign #2 overall pick Pedro Alvarez to a $6M minor league deal. The Pirates spent a total of $9.8M on 32 players from the 2008 draft. Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has some great details from the negotions including the time the deal was accepted, 11:55pm. Some more interesting points from Kovacevic's article:

• Unlike Jim Bowden and the Washington Nationals, Pirates GM Neal Huntington seemed especially pleased with the process as much as the result.
• The Pirates draftee signing total of $9.8M was second only to the Kansas City Royals.
  
• There was a restructuring of the scouting department within the Pirates front office and Huntington believes the improvements were drastic.