From the Dodgers,third baseman prospect Andy LaRoche was installed as the starter at third base and former Red Sox players Brandon Moss and Craig Hansen will be interred at key roles as well.
Moss will likely be given a chance to make Bay's job his own in left field,while Hansen joins the Pirate arson squad,err Bullpen and could be high on the depth chart with a few good outings.
The other new player is righthanded pitcher Bryan Morris ,who is headed to the Hickory Crawdads.
The Pirates had to make a few moves to make room for the newcomers and two of them are fine with me!
First,Brian Bixler was returned to Indianapolis after a short stint and then Chris Duffy was designated for assignment to make space on the 40 man roster.
Finally Flammable Frankie Osoria was designated for assignment in more terrific n
ews.Look for Duffy to wind up in Atlanta,who has always coveted him for some reason.
LaRoche likely ends much of Jose Bautista's playing time and creates a dilemma for the Pirates as third base goes from a point of weakness just a year ago to having three nice and young players there in LaRoche,Neil Walker and presumably Pedro Alvarez.
That will not be an immediate problem,but if all three pan out-the Pirates could once again be in a strong trading position.
Moss has been highly regarded for quite some time by Boston and projects to be a sol
id hitter average wise with 15-20 homer power.Moss should eventually either be a starter or be the swingman in the 4th outfielder role.
That will depend on both the performance of Moss and Steve Pearce as well.
Former first round fireballer Craig Hansen has struggled in Boston with his command,but has excellent stuff and may just need to be in a relaxed environment to thrive as his entire tenure in the Red Sox system has seemed to be one big rush to get him to the bigs.
I believe that this is credible when you look at his downright dominant stats at AAA Pawtucket.
Morris was a first rounder by the Dodgers in 2006 and missed all of 2007 with T
ommy John surgery.Morris was compiling solid numbers in the Low A Midwest League this year with Great Lakes.
I like this deal,three very good prospects and a young arm for the long term as well.
I have very few complaints about either of Neal Huntington's two deals with the exception of wishing that he would have gotten one high end arm from the Yankees.
There is a long way to go,but there is some hope for a change in Pittsburgh.
Jason Bay will be missed by the team and the fans,but this had to be done.
Bay was the last remaining chip of value on the table and even though he was signed for next year,part of the value to a team that traded for Bay was having him signed for next year and that could have made his worth go down as time went on.
On the signing front
The Greensboro Grasshoppers made their final visit to Hagerstown and might have been the best signing team all season.
Major pickups were power hitting outfielder Mike Stanton (who was mentioned for two days as part of a three team trade if the Marlins were involved), 2007 first rounder Matt Dominguez (an excellent signer) and catcher Torre Langley.
Langley's card shows him tagging out a Lake County Captain in the best card that I have seen all season.
We will cover the Lexington Legends in the next signing front and arguably the crabbiest SAL player that we have seen all year!
Thanks to a few other collectors for some help in various ways.
Kudos to Tom O'Brien for his help at Bowie with Matt Wieters and Nolan Reimold.
I didn't think I was going to get Wieters Frederick card signed,but Tom helped me out!
Tip of the hat to Dave "The Arby's Guy" (Don't know his last name) for tossing me a few Matt Dominguez cards that I didn't have and to Bill Cover for adding a few of the Reading Phillies,most notably Olympian Jason Donald.
Photo Credits
LaRoche:unknown
Moss:JamesVenes-JamesVenes.com
Hansen:Greg Wahl-Stephens/AP
Morris:Diamond Images
No comments:
Post a Comment