Friday, July 12, 2013

Pirates trade for OF/1B, don't get excited

By Jeff

Well, Buccos fans have been screaming for the organization to bring in an outfield bat for months, and the organization listened. Kind of...

The Pirates traded RHP Tim Alderson to the Baltimore Orioles for minor league OF/1B Russ Canzler. You may recall Alderson is the guy the Buccos received from the San Francisco Giants for Freddy Sanchez straight up who ended up losing all kinds of velocity and mechanics once he joined the Pirates system (Ramming head against wall).

Canzler is 25 and only has 96 at bats at the Major League level. He has 11 home runs and 49 RBIs in AAA this season. His career high in home runs in the minors is 22.

Yeah, this is not the move Pirates fans were hoping for when they hear news that the Pirates have acquired an outfielder in July. This is probably just an organizational depth move, so I wouldn't read to much into it. Pirates fans may prematurely call it a repeat of the Travis Snider trade last July, but Snider was actually a first-round pick and highly touted prospect at one point in his career. It wasn't crazy to think he just needed a fresh start. Canzler never had that kind of hype and will probably never play for the Pirates unless a rash of injuries/bird flu outbreak decimates the big league club.

1 comment:

  1. So I just realized my post on this apparently never registered. All I said was I'm pretty sure this is to essentially replace Jerry Sands (that other guy in the Melancon trade) because he's just awful in AAA this year. I agree, this trade wasn't made expecting him to contribute in the majors.

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