Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
December 07, 2005
Pinto to the Marlins!

This is big. The Marlins and Cubs agreed to a deal last night that send Renyel Pinto to the Marlins. Pinto is another high strikeout, low home run pitcher, which seems to be all the Marlins are getting in these trades. And all the Marlins had to give up was Juan Pierre!

Actually, the star of the deal appears to be Ricky Nolasco, a 23 year-old righty with impressive minor league numbers. Again, lots of strikeouts and few homers, but in Ricky's case he doesn't walk many either. Sergio Mitre was also in the deal, although he doesn't fit the profile of pitchers the Marlins are acquiring.

With the Marlins overflowing with live, young arms, I'm starting to wonder if they're not going to turn some of these pitchers around to bring in some position players for the 2006 season. Or maybe, in a couple of years when they know who is going to be the heart of a new staff, they trade the rest away for the talent to win. The more I see the way the Marlins are going about this restructuring, the more I like it.


Posted by David Pinto at 07:53 AM | Trades | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I like the way the Marlins are rebuilding too. However, I wonder if they should stock up on some position players too. They seem VERY high on pitching prospects, and pitching prospects often flame out much quicker than solid offensive/defensive tool guys in the Minors.

Posted by: Benjamin Kabak at December 7, 2005 10:02 AM

Cubs gave up a bit much in this trade. As a Cubs fan, I'd be a lot more comfortable with this trade if it was just Mitre plus EITHER Nolasco or Pinto...not both of them.

Posted by: Swick at December 7, 2005 10:19 AM

For a second there I though i was going to be seeing you out there on the field! :)

Posted by: Derek at December 7, 2005 12:27 PM

For a second there I thought i was going to be seeing you out there on the field! :)

Posted by: Derek at December 7, 2005 12:27 PM

As a Cubs fan it will be interesting to see if this is a Dontrelle for Alfonseca/Clement or rather a Choi for Derreck Lee type trade. What happens to Corey Patterson now?

Posted by: Matt W at December 7, 2005 12:34 PM

corey patterson gets to see the door........ cubs win division next year after getting abreau

Posted by: colin at December 7, 2005 01:08 PM

abreu is yours if you give us mark prior plus a AA third baseman.

Posted by: gr at December 7, 2005 01:13 PM

I understand the Marlins thinking, there is no more precious commodity in baseball than cheap young pitching.

Now that they have stocked up with young arms, in a year or 2 they can spin some of these guys around for high end, major league ready position players when they are needed.

They could be ready to contend quicker than most people realize, especially since they're rotation figures to have Jason Vargas, Scott Olsen and Josh Johnson contribute significant innings starting in 2006.

Posted by: Mike A. at December 7, 2005 02:02 PM

Too bad neither Pinto nor Nolasco saw any September action. Would have been nice to see what they did in blue/red before sending them packing--certainly Pinto seemed to have earned a shot.

Realistically, Hendry had to bag a leadoff hitter during the off-season or the run-up to April would have been a disaster. His hand was pretty much forced, and given the level of desperation in the air, the deal was bound to draw some cubbie blood.

Pierre certainly has the creds and sounds like the right kind of guy to have in the clubhouse. Add to that he joins fellow former fish Derek Lee.

As an aside, Rozner in the Daily Herald this morning took off on an e-mail he received advocating for Brad Wilkerson rather than Pierre. For all I know, that possibility was fully explored. Nevertheless, the comparison was interesting.

Posted by: Bob Kunz at December 7, 2005 04:37 PM

As a Cubs fan, it'll be interesting to see how Mitre develops away from the tender mercies of Larry Rothschild. Mitre was pretty decent in Iowa, but never seemed to go to the next level in Wrigley.

It seems like struggling Cubs pitchers do better once they're away from Rothschild.

I'm willing to bet that Mitre and Farnsworth will turn into decent, journeymen pitchers under different coaches.

Posted by: Walt at December 8, 2005 10:18 AM
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