Move on over, Rinku and Dinesh. Pirates Prospects notices that, after Indian-born "The Million Dollar Arm" reality show winners Rinku Singh and Dinesh Patel, another Pirates prospect is a reality-show winner. This one is Dominican lefty pitcher Christopher Richardson, who won his country's show "El Rookie."
↵↵↵Pirates G.M. Neal Huntington downplays the connection. "We are not interested in signing winners of reality shows," he says. "Rather, we are interested in signing talented baseball players."
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As silly as it might sound that three Pirates minor leaguers have been on reality shows, Huntington deserves some slack on this one. Patel isn't really a prospect, but Singh had a strong season in rookie ball and won a promotion to Class A- State College this year, despite a serious lack of baseball experience. And while Richardson, 18, posted a 5.68 ERA in the Dominican Summer League this year, he also struck out 47 batters in 38 innings, which is a better indicator of his potential. Both Singh and Richardson are huge longshots at this point, but they've proven they aren't mere novelty acts. Here's some video of Richardson.
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