I had to go to work last night shortly after the completion of the Chris Snyder trade, so I missed the deals that followed.
One such deal was relatively minor – the Bucs sent left-handed specialist Javier Lopez to the Giants in exchange for outfielder John Bowker and right-handed pitcher Joe Martinez. Both players are 27 years old and have histories of success in the minors that they’ve never duplicated in the Majors. They’re both depth players, though somewhat interesting depth players.
The other deal brought two players of interest to the Pirates, as they sent closer Octavio Dotel to the Dodgers for pitcher James McDonald and outfielder Andrew Lambo.
Lambo was rated as the Dodgers’ seventh best prospect by Baseball America in the preseason, but fell out of favor in LA due to a failed drug test (of the non performance enhancing variety – most are speculating marijuana.) He made it to AA as a 19 year old in the second half of 2008, but has yet to make it out as he’s repeating the level this year with underwhelming results. He has managed to hit for decent power at every level and has the potential to be a productive starting outfielder in the Majors.
McDonald had pitched too many innings in the Majors to be rated as a prospect in the preseason, but he’d usually landed in the Dodgers’ top five when he was in the minors, even being ranked as high as their number one prospect by some publications.
McDonald has pitched only 76.2 innings (five starts) in the Majors, with mediocre results. However, he’s always been a high strikeout guy in the minors and has been able to duplicate that part of his game in the Major Leagues. His problem has been maintaining his control at the Major League level, as his 3.4 career BB/9 rate in the minors ballooned to 4.7 in the Majors, leading to much more underwhelming results. Dejan Kovacevic says he’s headed to the bullpen, with a quote from Neal Huntington pegging him as a starter long-term, but I feel he’s probably worth an immediate look in Pittsburgh’s rotation, as their other options there are underwhelming.
In total, the Pirates made three trades at the deadline, and none of them involved players of much consequence. Two of the players traded came from the bench, while three came from the bullpen. The most consequential player given up was Dotel, who was the Pirates’ closer, but Evan Meek or Joel Hanrahan could probably perform those duties better than Dotel did.
