Indian pitchers signed by Pirates

Remember those Indian "pitchers" who tried out to pitch in the USA earlier this year? They earned free agent contracts from the Pittsburgh Pirates. The 20-year-olds don't exactly light up the radar gun (Dinesh Patel reaches 90 mph while Rinku Singh is in the mid-80s), but they did enough to impress. Neither had thrown a baseball before this year.

"The Pirates are committed to creatively adding talent to our organization," Pirates general manager Neal Huntington said Monday. "By adding these two young men, the Pirates are pleased to not only add two prospects to our system but also hope to open a pathway to an untapped market. We are intrigued by Patel's arm strength and Singh's frame and potential."

Talk about thinking outside the box. If you want to call this outsourcing, however, it's not. It's technically in-sourcing, which Major League Baseball's already been doing for years.

"Think of them as two Dominican kids," House told the scouts. "They're very raw. But I think this has a huge upside."

When they first came to the United States and began playing catch, the pitchers were mystified by the concept of gloves and had to taught not to try to catch the ball with their bare hands.

Sounds like the Pirates have their work cut out in bringing along these two.