Pirates Looking to Channel Indian Fan Base, Sign Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel

I guess when you haven’t had a winning record since the days Terry Bradshaw was quarterbacking the Steelers, you’re bound to start thinking outside the box. Not only have the Pirates thought outside the box, GM Neal Huntington has swooped in on Taj Mahal, snatching up two potential pitchers with non-draftee free agent contracts. Now how exactly did he get hot on Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh’s trail? MLB Blogs explains:

The two Indian pitchers were discovered while participating in the Million Dollar Arm competition in India last year to find the strongest and most accurate arm in the country. Singh and Patel emerged as the winners and were then invited to train with University of Southern California pitching coach Tom House in the US. After months of training, the two pitchers — who had never played baseball before entering the contest — threw in front of numerous Major League scouts earlier this month.

Hey, I’m not saying these guys are gonna be winning Cy Youngs or anything, but anyone who’s seen cricket bowlers knows that Indian athletes have some damn good arms. With a good amount of work, I’m sure they could turn out to be serviceable one-inning relief guys. On another note, for the skeptics out there, I’m sure you could combine this news with the Xavier Nady trade to the Yankees and say the league puts pressure on the Pirates to act in the best interest of MLB. Who knows? Maybe some of that is going on. Oh, and on a different note, I wonder how the ratings were for that show.