Hugo Pivaral

He was kind of a legend while I was growing up. He was the biggest kid in guatemalan baseball and threw the hardest. When he turned 16 (midnight on his birthday, actually) he signed with the LA Dodgers, adding to the lore.

Things didn't turn out for him in pro ball, but I found this nifty little report on USA today's website. It's from 1996, when Hugo was around 17.

The writer is ranking the top teen prospects in baseball. Here is the company Hugo was in at the time:

The top 10 teens:

No. Player Pos. Team
1. Andruw Jones OF Atlanta
2. Kerry Wood P Cubs
3. Chad Hermansen SS Pittsburgh
4. Mike Kusiewicz P Colorado
5. Ben Davis C San Diego
6. Hugo Pivaral P Los Angeles
7. Damian Moss P Atlanta
8. D'Angelo Jimenez SS N.Y. Yankees
9. Joe Fontenot P San Francisco
10. Ben Petrick C Colorado


Notice that most of those guys made it to the big leagues and contributed. Only three of them were unheard of to me, which says a lot.