Saying Farewell To A Legend

The Pirates parted ways with Dinesh Patel yesterday. There's a very good chance that some of you do not know who Dinesh Patel is, so I'll jog your memories.

Dinesh came over with Rinku Singh from India. These two won a contest called "Million Dollar Arm", where different contestants compete to see who has the best throwing arm. They aren't throwing baseballs however. In Dinesh's case, he was throwing a javelin. However, Dinesh and Rinku showed good ability and were able to throw a small ball similar to a baseball near 90 miles per hour. That was good enough for the Pirates to step in and sign them, trying to establish a presence in a country where no other team had ever been before. Rinku and Dinesh were the subject of a lot of jokes from baseball fans all over the country, but it was definitely an interesting acquisition. These two had never played baseball before, and yet they were getting professional contracts.

For the last 2 years the two had been playing ball in the Gulf Coast League learning the game and working on their skills. Rinku has had some success, but Dinesh lagged behind, posting an 8.59 ERA in 7.1 innings last year. Extremely small sample size, so numbers certainly didn't have any influence on this decision.

Nobody really expected either of these guys to ever turn into real professional baseball players, the move was more of a statement that the Pirates were willing to search the globe and go to places where no one had ever looked before to find talent. These guys have live arms and definitely have some ability in there that could be molded into a serious professional pitcher some day, but the chances are extremely small. Clearly, Dinesh just couldn't hack it.

We'll keep our eyes on Rinku however, he actually has made some major progress. Last year he earned a promotion to State College and posted a 2.38 ERA in the 2010 season with them and with the GCL Pirates. His strikeouts were impressive as well, striking out 8.3 batters per nine innings. Granted, he pitched only 22.2 innings, but it's good to see success no matter how significant it really is. Definitely a guy to keep an eye on. If he would ever make the big leagues, he would get his name in the record books.

So Rinku will have to continue his journey in professional baseball without his pal Dinesh. We wish him the best and hope that he can get his name out there sometime, somehow. He deserves applause for leaving his home country to take a huge risk and jump into something he never knew before. Definitely a positive experience for both of these guys no matter what happens.