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View Full Version : Kovacevic: From 'sick giraffe' to Citi slugger



X-Terminator
07-15-2013, 12:53 PM
It's a long, long way from the sandlots of Santo Domingo to the big-city, seven-story-scoreboard bombardment of Citi Field.

That seemed abundantly evident in Gregory Polanco's bulging eyes the moment he stepped up out of the dugout Sunday morning, nudging up the bill of his Pirates cap to gaze around.

“I never see something like this,” Polanco turned to say with a sudden grin. “This is the big leagues, huh?”

Not yet, kid.

It won't be long, though, from the look of things.

If you haven't heard, Polanco, a 21-year-old right fielder with Double-A Altoona, is the Pirates' top position-player prospect and possibly their top prospect of any kind. He's a baseball behemoth at 6-foot-4 and filling out. He's got more tools than Tim Allen, and he's slugged his way to a .308 average, .363 on-base percentage, eight home runs, 20 doubles and 48 RBI.

Oh, and a cannon arm and 28 steals, too. Which might explain why he's getting comparisons from typically rational adults to a young Dave Parker.

To boot, here he was Sunday, starting in Major League Baseball's All-Star Futures Game.

“There are so many great players here. I can't believe it.”

Unbelievable?

No, that's how this began.

Polanco was 16 when Rene Gayo, the Pirates' superb Latin American scout, started watching him regularly. And he didn't like much.

“He couldn't really pitch,” Gayo recalled, “and as tall as he was, he moved around out there like a sick giraffe.”

Wait, forget the giraffe.

Pitch?

“Oh, yeah. He played some in the outfield, but his buscon was pushing him as a pitcher.”

Buscon is what they call representatives of young Dominican ballplayers. They're more guardian than agent, but they have one thing in common with agents.

“The guy wanted $100,000 for Polanco, and nobody would give it to him. But the more I watched, the more I liked what he might do in the field. He had the long body, but you could see he felt the game. He had a nice, short stroke, he knew how to hit the other way, ran the bases ... he just had fun. It was easy for him.”

So the buscon got paid.

“I told the guy, ‘I'll give you $150,000 right now. You'll get your money and then some. But he's an outfielder for me.' ”

The buscon's response before taking Gayo's on-the-spot check: “Whatever.”

And that right there is the end of any credit Gayo claims for Polanco.


Read more: http://triblive.com/sports/dejankovacevic/dejancolumns/4346467-74/polanco-gayo-pirates#ixzz2Z8bicHYN
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