So I get the text message from ESPN telling me that Jack Wilson and Ian Snell had been traded to Seattle and the rest of the message cuts off. My first instinct was to immediately say the Pirates got screwed.
The Bucs traded away one of the best defensive shortstops in the game, and "threw in" Ian Snell who has been a bit of a head case but has been lights out at Indianapolis since his demotion.
In return they acquire Jeff Clement who was a first round (3rd overall) draft pick for Seattle in 2005.
My biggest beef with Clement is that he was drafted as a catcher but has bad balky knees. In 203 at-bats last year he hit .227 with 5 HR. Maybe another year older he is ready for the big time. He certainly has a lot of upside, but there's still no guarantees he's worth it.
Plus what I also don't understand is why the Pirates traded for another corner infielder. The system is full of corner prospects, what it lacks is middle infield prospects which is a weakness further exposed because of the fact the Pirates will likely end the day having taded Wilson AND Freddy Sanchez.
Ronny Cedeno sucks...plain and simple. He's not as good defensively as Jack Wilson and as evidenced by his abyssmal career batting average of .238 (WOW!!!) he's not even as good of a hitter as Jack. He's 26 years old so he's a bit younger than Jack but I'm pretty sure we've seen the upper limits of his "potential"
The three minor league pitchers coming back are really tough to evaluate, and frankly I don't think at this point they are worth mentioning. I really hope these words come back to bite me in the ass.
I guess I have to take off the homer goggles and realize that the Pirates dealt a light hitting shortstop and a head case pitcher with a career ERA up near 5.00 for a former 3rd overall pick and a stopgap SS with major league experience. We also got 3 pitchers that hopefully can develop into something.
The trade could be worse, but I'm also not enamored with it.
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