JOAN MONTERO | RIGHT HANDED PITCHER |
 | Born: October 26, 1988 Height: 6′ 0″ Weight: 186 Bats: Right Throws: Right Signed: Int. FA, Pittsburgh Pirates, 2009 How Acquired: Int. FA Country: Dominican Republic Agent: N/A |
WTM’S PIRATE PLAYER PROFILES |
| The Pirates signed Montero at a relatively late age (a little short of 21) for a Dominican prospect, then brought him to the GCL after only a cameo in the DSL. I don’t know whether the quick promotion indicates that the Pirates consider him a prospect or simply reflects a view that 21-year-olds shouldn’t generally be in the DSL. The Pirates’ Director of Latin American Scouting, Rene Gayo, puts a lot of effort into digging up “older” prospects who’ve been overlooked, with Diego Moreno being an example, so Montero could be a prospect. He definitely throws hard; I saw him sitting at 93-95 in training camp in both 2011 and 2012. He also throws a slider. Moving players like him up to the GCL quickly certainly beats loading the DSL roster with overage players, as the previous regime did. 2009 Pitched briefly after signing. 2010 Did very well in relief in the GCL, except for substantial control problems. Those improved slowly over the season and he had his best month in August, allowing eight hits and nine walks in fourteen innings, while fanning fourteen. He finished with a .206 opponents’ average. 2011 Had considerably more trouble at State College. He walked the same number he fanned and opponents hit .345 against him. He didn’t show any improvement over the course of the season. In fact, he walked the same number that he struck out in all three months. The Pirates’ current management has made a practice of signing, both in the draft and on the international front, pitchers with live arms who lack pitching skill, with the obvious idea of trying to teach them to pitch. Naturally, most of these guys are going to flame out pretty quickly. This approach is easily preferable to the approach of the previous front office, which looked for pitchers with low ceilings who were likely to be able to advance at least to the middle levels. Montero is clearly a product of the new approach. Hopefully, he’ll make some progress next year. |
STATS |
| Baseball Reference–Minors MiLB.com |
CONTRACT INFORMATION |
| 2012: Minor League Contract |
PLAYER INFORMATION |
| Signing Bonus: $70,000 MiLB Debut: 8/7/2009 MLB Debut: N/A MiLB FA Eligible: 2015 MLB FA Eligible: N/A Rule 5 Eligible: 2012 Added to 40-Man: N/A Options Remaining: 3 MLB Service Time: 0.000 |
TRANSACTIONS |
| 2009: Signed by the Pittsburgh Pirates as an international free agent with a $70,000 bonus. |
