Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
December 08, 2008
A Trade!

Via The Hardball Times, the Rangers moved one of their catchers:

The Tigers acquired catcher Gerald Laird from the Texas Rangers late Sunday night, fulfilling one of their major off-season needs on the eve of baseball's winter meetings.

Detroit parted with two pitching prospects in the deal, right-handers Guillermo Moscoso and Carlos Melo.

Melo certainly impressed in Rookie League ball. He was seasonal age 17 and struck out 61 in 49 innings, mostly as a starter. Depsite allowing two home runs, however, his ERA was over 5.00. Still, this should be someone Nolan Ryan could develop into a pitch-count resistant hurler. He's young enough that he's the perfect test subject for Ryan's plans.

Moscoso suffered a shoulder injury at one point, but overall put up great minor league numbers. His low walk rate is most impressive, under 2.0 per nine innings. He's also old enough to step into the majors now. It's a very nice trade for the Rangers, getting good potential for an extra player. It also takes a team out of the market for a starting free-agent catcher, which should depress the market for Pudge and Varitek a bit.

Update: Billfer likes the trade.


Posted by David Pinto at 08:42 AM | Trades | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Texas gives up their surplus at C and don't have anyone who has pitched above AA. Texas gets a guy who wasn't very good the 1 yr he played full time - made 8 E's and threw out 28% of the runners last year. Unlike trades that help both teams this team helps neither.

Posted by: Bandit at December 8, 2008 09:12 AM
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