HOUSTON -- Al Pedrique is the first-base coach for the Oakland Athletics, a baseball lifer who has worked as an instructor, scout, manager and administrator over the past four decades.
Through the years, he has watched more players than he can count. Signed some of 'em, released some others and offered advice to pretty much all of them. He'll be the first to admit he has missed on plenty of guys.
And there was that one day in 2007 when Pedrique, who at the time was a special assistant for the Astros, telephoned his bosses and made his pitch for a 16-year-old Venezuelan infielder named Jose Altuve.