6/3/09

Big Trade...Pittsburgh-Atlanta

The Pirates sent CF Nate McLouth to Atlanta in exchange for CF Gorkys Hernandez, RHP Charlie Morton, and LHP Jeff Locke. McLouth was hitting.256/.349/.470 in Pittsburgh this year. He won a gold glove last year, but advanced fielding statistics say he may have been the worst fielding outfileder in baseball last year. Hernandez was hitting .316/.361/.387 in Double A. Locke has a 5.52 ERA in 45.2 innings this year at class A advanced (Myrtle Beach). However he's struck out 43 in that span. I'd give you Charlie Morton's stats, but my computer is being crazy and won't let me get to 'em. I can tell you he's a promising young pitcher, a 3rd round pick in the '02 draft that debuted last year. The Braves released Tom Glavine today in another move. I think Pittsburgh won this deal by a lot, McLouth is overrated and Hernandez and Morton could help their team a lot in the near future. They signed McLouth to a 3 year, $15.75mm deal during the past off-season. So they lose a little salary as well.

Pittsburgh will bring up Andrew McCutchen to take over for McLouth. They also have Delwyn Young (.298/.375/.351), Brandon Moss from the Jason Bay deal (.264/.307/.475), Nyjer Morgan (.275/.356/.344), and Jose Tabata (former Yankee prospect who they acquired in the X-Man/Marte deal). Add in Hernandez and the Pirates have a promising outlook for their 2010 or 2011 outfield, having McCutchen, Hernandez, and Tabata in the same outfield would be a tremenous force. Then when they add Morton to a rotation that already has Zach Duke(2.62 ERA/1.13 WHIP) and Paul Maholm (3.82 ERA/1.35 WHIP) that team could rise up out of the NL Central's cellar in the near future...and don't even get me started on 3B prospect Pedro Alvarez....

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