This story more or less made my day. Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, the two boys from India that participated in the Million Dollar Arm challenge I reported on here and here, have finished their pitching lessons/transformation, and will have a tryout tomorrow in front of some 20 major league scouts.
One year ago neither had ever picked up a baseball, but after winning the competition, Singh, who consistently hit 87 mph on the radar gun, earned $100,000. Patel, who could throw harder but was less accurate, was recommended by major league scout Ray Poitevint who was at the original contest. The two came to America and were taught by pitching guru Tom House.
“I certainly had my doubts,” said Poitevint, former international scouting director of the Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox. “I took a 21-hour flight to see every pitcher who could throw over 80 mph. They had such funny motions, the way they ran to the mound and jumped, but I couldn’t believe how hard they’d throw.
“You saw that raw ability, and you wondered if that could be molded. I don’t wonder anymore.”
House, who is the pitching coach at USC and whose facility is credited with helping Park Chan-ho regain 3-4 mph on his fastball over the past winter, had this to say:
“It’s a blank slate,” House says. “It’s like getting 19-year-olds in their infancy. There are no bad habits because they had no habits to begin with. They are a coaches’ dream with their work ethic and makeup. Literally, the sky’s the limit.
“You’ve got to remember, you’re talking about two guys who could not even play catch. I wondered, ‘How is this ever going to work?’ But you look at them now, and you really can’t tell that they had never played baseball.”
Here’s a scouting report:
Singh, a 6-2, 195-pound left-hander, throws 89-90 mph with a split-fingered changeup. He continually tinkers with different breaking balls. Patel, a 5-11, 185-pound right-hander, throws 91-92 mph with a circle changeup. Patel says he’s the conservative one of the two, leaving the experimenting to Singh.
The Red Sox will be there…
The letters and phone calls to major league general managers went out weeks ago, and judging by the early responses, agent Jeff Borris says, there could be a large turnout Thursday.
“The GMs are very intrigued by this,” Borris says. “No one is saying these guys will be in the major leagues in 2009, but in 2012, 2013, who knows?”
There will be at least 20 major league teams represented at the workout, Borris says; at least a half-dozen teams, including the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Indians, confirmed to USA TODAY they will attend.
“We don’t know what to expect, but we’ll be there,” says Allard Baird, assistant to Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein. “We’re intrigued like anyone else.”
But hopefully they’ll end up playing for the Indians.
Thanks to Matt for passing this along.
12 responses so far ↓
1 Chady // Nov 7, 2008 at 2:02 am
First off, why didn’t I find this site sooner? So much time lost….
Second, this is a really fascinating story. It would be amazing to see Indian players in MLB, the more diverse the background of players the better the game will get. Here’s hoping the Cubbies can get in on this relatively untapped pool of talent!
2 simon // Nov 7, 2008 at 2:09 am
This whole series is just utterly fascinating. I guess it’s starting from scratch rather than translating cricket bowling skills. I wonder if the investment to reward ratio will be worth it, I guess we’ll see the results with Singh and Patel (woefully small sample size though.)
3 Ken // Nov 7, 2008 at 4:34 am
But will they pitch during the Dasara?
4 Patrick // Nov 7, 2008 at 6:21 am
Simon took the words out of my mouth. I was watching some cricket on Sunday and even though I didn’t really get the rules, I wasn’t totally lost. It would be great to see baseball gain popularity in a country like India.
5 myworldofbaseball » Blog Archive » Major Leagues Outsourcing Pitchers from India // Nov 7, 2008 at 12:32 pm
[...] Say it ain’t so Barack Obama. Another U.S. job being outsourced, but these pitchers still have to come to the U.S. to pitch. If you want to see the full story go here http://eastwindupchronicle.com/operation-rabindranath-kofax-nears-fruition/ [...]
6 baekgom84 // Nov 7, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Australian Rules Football has had some significant success in importing Irish Gaelic Football players and converting them to the similar, but different code. I realise that this is not the same thing as comparing baseball and cricket, but at least there’s a precendent which suggests that athletes with the required raw abilities are able to adapt to a game with different rules.
If this little experiment turns out to be a big success, baseball will suddenly have a massive new talent pool to delve into.
7 DJ // Nov 7, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Early press reports say that things went alright. Patel rang a few up in the uppers 80s. Singh didn’t break 84 mph.
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5hiPl8cMyOikIhMxvYygyUjI3bpcw
By the way, check out their blog. It’s great!
http://www.themilliondollararm.com/blog/
8 Chady // Nov 8, 2008 at 2:36 am
Thanks for the update DJ. It’s interesting to see that according to the Google report their velocity has dropped, at least from what I read in an earlier article.
I hope they get signed, but I’m curious to see the impact on India’s population if international sports like baseball, golf, and soccer become viable routes to financial success for young men. I know that large Indian families in the lower classes, attempting to bear economically valuable sons, are already a serious issue. If having sons who can make money playing international sports is a possibility, will this conflagrate an already dangerous problem?
9 Non-NPB News: Pittsburgh Sign Indian Pitchers » NPB Tracker // Nov 25, 2008 at 3:58 am
[...] the Pirates have signed Indian pitchers Dinesh Patel and Rinku Singh. EastWindupChronicle had a detailed report on Patel and Singh earlier in the month. The two signed minor league contracts and will participate in the [...]
10 The Insider On Pittsburgh Sports - Pirates make first free agent signings // Nov 25, 2008 at 5:08 am
[...] report. The two pitchers were spotted by MLB scouts through a contest Scouting Report courtesy of EastWindupChronicle Singh, a 6-2, 195-pound left-hander, throws 89-90 mph with a split-fingered changeup. He [...]
11 Pirates Sign First India-born Major Leaguers | // Nov 25, 2008 at 1:42 pm
[...] Comments The Insider On Pittsburgh Sports - Pirates make first free agent signings on Operation Rabindranath Kofax Nears FruitionNon-NPB News: Pittsburgh Sign Indian Pitchers » NPB Tracker on Operation Rabindranath Kofax [...]
12 Transactions Worth Mentioning: Littleton, Wing, Tazawa | DoughStreet.com - A Blog About Everything // Nov 29, 2008 at 12:01 pm
[...] savvy move that extends beyond Singh and Patel. You can read a short scouting report about both here, but let’s examine the larger than intended consequences here. The Pirates have tapped into [...]
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