Thursday, August 5, 2010

Pirates pitching revolving door


The Pirates revolving door on their pitching staff continues to spin as two pitchers join the team,one is designated for assignment (likely to wind up back at AAA) and a catcher travels back to Indianapolis.

Chris Resop was claimed off waivers from the Braves and Chan Ho Park arrives from the waiver wire courtesy of the Yankees.
Steven Jackson was designated for assignment and should clear that process and Jason Jaramillo returns to the I-Tribe.
Resop is an interesting case as he looked like a nice bullpen arm with the Marlins in 2006,but has struggled since,although his numbers at AAA have remained strong.
Resop has better than expected velocity for a groundball pitcher and other teams were reportedly interested in him.

Park has lots of baggage,I know,but has always been a better National League pitcher than an American Leaguer and despite an ERA of over 5 with the Yanks,still has a K/BB Ratio of 29 to 12.
Park's contract is only through the end of the season,so he really is a low risk stopgap in Pittsburgh.
If either or hopefully both can help the suddenly ailing middle relievers,these would be worth the cost.

Jason Jaramillo loses out for the backup catcher role to Erik Kratz and returns to the Hoosier State in what really is a choice between playing once or twice a week for Pittsburgh or every day for Indy.
If Jaramillo showed any bat at all this season,he would be the pick.
However,that has not been the case.

James McDonald makes his Pirate debut tonight against Jeff Francis and the Colorado Rockies.
I am looking forward to seeing McDonald,who I might have only seen pitch one for the Dodgers.

Steve Pearce was placed on the 60 day disabled list and his season is finished.
Too bad for Pearce,who was showing signs of being able to establish himself as a major leaguer.

The Pirates signed their fourth round pick in righthanded pitcher Nick Kingham.
Kingham was signed away from an Oregon commitment for an undisclosed,but likely well over slot number.

Forgot to mention in the earlier post about I enjoyed Paul Maholm plunking Mike Leake after Leake hit Andrew McCutchen.
Leake didn't mean tothrow the beanball,but there is always baseball justice to pay and Leake took his medicine.

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