Pirates claim Brandon Wood on rainy day

Rained out last night,the Pittsburgh Pirates will attempt to get tonight's game against the Washington Nationals in,even with further rain in the forecast.
The scheduled starters remain the same with Jeff Karstens against Livan Hernandez.

There was some Pirates news on the day as the Pirates did exercise their waiver claim on shortstop Brandon Wood and added the former Angel to the roster.
To make space,the team designated Josh Rodriguez for assignment.
The team will have ten days to possibly work out a trade with another team or clear waivers.
If Rodriguez clears waivers,Pittsburgh must work out a trade with Cleveland or be forced to offer him back to the Tribe for a return of $25,000.

Wood was considered to be one of the top prospects in the game as recently as 2008,but a inability to avoid strikeouts,an average that has never gotten over .200 in his major league trials and an OPS that has never sniffed  a well below average .600 has dimmed his prospects immensely.
Clint Hurdle's comments yesterday seem to indicate that he plans on using Wood in a similar role as Rodriguez,including playing Wood at second base,a position that he has never played.
Hurdle's background is as a hitting instructor,so I can see some value in trying to fix Wood and the cost was minimal,but if the thoughts are to use Wood as a utilityman,Rodriguez seems to be a better fit in that role.
If the idea is to give Wood a year to see if he can resuscitate his career by replacing Ronny Cedeno,I am more understanding of the plan.
I am dubious of it working,but I can see where they are coming from.

Rodriguez did look overmatched at the plate a bit,but how much can you really judge from fourteen plate appearances?
Rodriguez's fourteen appearances were over seven games in which just three of those were starts.

All and all,I don't really see much to excited over or about.
Am I pumped about the addition of Brandon Wood?
Not really as nothing of his MLB efforts have proven to be worth being thrilled over?
Am I upset about bringing Wood in?
Not really,when you consider the cost of the waiver claim and the chance of losing Rodriguez,who was not really being given much of a chance anyway to play,the price does not seem oppressive.

The time was right though as it gave me something to write about on a rainy day....

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