Pirates Trade Romulo Sanchez to Yankees

by Charlie on May 17, 2009 12:13 AM EDT Comment 17 comments

The Pirates have dealt reliever Romulo Sanchez to the Yankees for minor league starting pitcher Eric Hacker. Hacker isn't a great, or even good, prospect--he's already 26 and just got to AAA--but he can start. He handled himself well at Class A+ Tampa and Class AA Trenton last year. (Trenton is a good park for pitchers, but still, Hacker was very good). He also has racked up grounders in the minors. As usual, you should take all secondhand reports about velocity with a grain of salt, but his fastball has been been reported as anywhere from the high 80s to 95 MPH. I think we can probably assume Hacker doesn't throw that hard, but he at least has the repertoire of a starter--he also throws a breaking ball and a changeup.

The Yankees recently designated Hacker for assignment, so they had to trade or release him or subject him to waivers, which he probably wouldn't have cleared. The Yanks have a bunch of starting pitching in the high minors and could afford to lose Hacker; the Pirates have few starting pitching prospects, so this is a good trade for both organizations in terms of franchise needs. (This surely wasn't lost on the Bucs, who acquired starters Ross Ohlendorf, Jeff Karstens and Daniel McCutchen from the high levels of the Yankee minors last year.)

Sanchez could still be a decent major league reliever, but the Pirates clearly had no interest in him, and he hadn't yet established himself in the majors at age 25. There had also been rumblings, at least, about his level of dedication. I'll take an aging, mediocre starting pitching prospect for an aging, mediocre relief prospect any day. The only downside here is that there's no way Romulo will be on a bobblehead now. And we'll have a hard time coming up with a better nickname for Hacker than "Romulo!" From that angle, it's kind of a shame that Hacker isn't a hitter, or the team's IT guy.

The Pirates placed Phil Dumatrait on the 60-day DL to make room for Hacker on the 40-man roster.

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this move should tell you...

Cutch is going to be at Indy for a while…and that Jason Davis very likely has a REAL short leash at Indy. Back to no openings on the 40 man roster.

I’ve seen no indications in the Indy game recap or game notes for today’s game that the removal of Davis after 2 innings last night was for anything other than poor performance.

by Thunder on May 16, 2009 5:08 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

This move has no effect on the number of players on the 40-man. Phil Dumatrait was on it, and now he’s not—Hacker takes his place. It may make the Pirates a little less flexible, but I doubt it will have much if any impact on the timing of McCutchen’s promotion.

by Charlie on May 16, 2009 5:26 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Cutch

anyway to differentiate between A & D?

True Blue Jazz
I'm on Twitter
RIP Nick Adenhart. 4/9/09

by UtesFan89 on May 17, 2009 10:21 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Overall...it has no effect.

But we had already known that Dumatrait was going on the 60 day. So some people were talking as if we HAD an opening if we wanted to use it.

As I’ve said in the last couple of weeks…barring an injury…Cutch won’t be up before the trade deadline. The Pirates seem to be EXTREMELY reluctant to do anything that would interfere with playing Morgan and Moss. Cutch doesn’t come up unless somebody plays themselves totally off the roster (25 and 40 man).

by Thunder on May 16, 2009 5:41 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Or

until Cutch plays himself on it. He’s been extremely streaky this year. His plate discipline has regressed recently and he has yet to show any power. If we brought him up now I’m pretty sure he’d be less productive then Morgan is. Let him continue to develop against pitchers he can actually work on things against and let’s ride the Morgan thing out and let him develop some trade value. Funny how you seem to think Moss isn’t worth the time but McCuthchen is. I know Cutch is young but I have yet to see anything in his minor league career to suggest that he’s going to be an above average major leauger yet. Moss has at least put up pretty good numbers in he minors. If we brought up Cutch and he put up numbers similar to Moss what would you suggest then?

by Slick1 on May 16, 2009 6:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Cutch stats at Indy...

.293 BA, .356 OBP, .496 Slugging avg for an OPS of .852 in 144 PA. Leads the league in triples. He’s 7 for 8 on steals…has 13 BB against only 10 strikeouts.

At 22…Cutch’s age…Moss was in AA, with slash numbers of .285/.357/.439 for an OPS of .796 in 577 PA. He was 8 of 13 on steals…and in an entire season he had 56 BB and 108 strikeouts.

If you multiply Cutch’s numbers by 4 (Indy is 1 game short of quarter way through the season)…he’d be 1 PA behind Moss for his age 22 season. The numbers you come up with are…124 runs scored…32 doubles….32 triples…4 HR…52 RBI…28 steals…32 caught stealing…52 walks and 40 strikeouts. While the HRs are short…the RBI aren’t bad for a leadoff hitter.

Cutch’s last 10 games…he’s hitting .368 with 3 doubles, 2 triples, 7 RBI…5 walks and ONE (that’s right, ONE) strikeout. His OPS in those 10 games… is .995. Plate discipline has regressed…yeah…right.

What exactly…should he be working on?? Trying to hit 30 HR??

by Thunder on May 16, 2009 7:05 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Oops...

that should be 4 caught stealing on a full season for Cutch.

by Thunder on May 16, 2009 7:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yes...

He was projected w a ceiling of at least a Marquis Grissom type. More than 1 HR would be nice. As I said he’s been very streaky. I like Cutch I woud just rather see him reach his potential rather than someone we burned out because we rushed him to the show. This isnt an a Cutch vs Moss thing its more about rushng someone before they are ready regardless of whether or not they are better than who’s in front of them right now. We NEED to have Cutch for his six BEST seasons. I don’t think season 1 is right now. I could be wrong…and you may be right, I would just like to see Cutch put up a strong line in AAA for a while longer before we start his clock. I don’t have the time to look up his stats right now but I know it wasn’t that long ago he was hitting .258. The sample sizes you cite above are very small. There’s no rush. If his line continues at this current pace on in to July it will make this interesting for the FO.

by Slick1 on May 16, 2009 7:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Simply...

what determines when Cutch (or any other player) is ready?? What guidelines?? Is it numbers or skills?? He has improved what he was asked to improve on…SB percentage…plate discipline…he’s not hitting the ball over the fence…but he does have 17 XBH already.

Cutch could sit at Indy for another year or two…so that the Pirates could be SURE to get his best 5 or 6 years…since his body MAY fill out and give him more power. They don’t HAVE to have him on the 25 man roster without losing him until the beginning of the 2013 season (rest of this year, then he goes on 40 man roster, and 3 option seasons 2010-2012).

You are right…it doesn’t matter if he’s better than some already on the roster. Pirates management has NO intention of Cutch playing regularly prior to the trade deadline…and more likely until next season. If for no other reason than they WILL not give up on Moss or Morgan, under any circumstances.

by Thunder on May 16, 2009 9:12 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Also...

the difference, IMO, b/n Cutc and Moss are that Cutch was a #1 pick. I guess y expectations for him, in terms of performance, are much higher for him than they are for Moss. And crap, we are in a rain delay.

by Slick1 on May 16, 2009 7:48 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Now We Have Matching Bookends

Hacker goes on the right and Dumatrait goes on the left.

To compare Hacker with Karstens and Ohlendorf, and even McCutchen, is nonsense.
The latter three were much more proven commodities at they time they were acquired.

For the Yankess to give up on Hacker for a 36 year old journeyman in Brett Tomko says an awful lot as far as I am conerned.

I wish Hacker luck, but I will be very surprised if anything materializes.

The saving grace is all that we gave up is Romulo.

by thegunner on May 16, 2009 8:21 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

To compare Hacker with Karstens and Ohlendorf, and even McCutchen, is nonsense.

I didn’t compare them, except to say they were all high-minors pitchers for the Yankees. Not sure what’s nonsensical about that.

by Charlie on May 16, 2009 8:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Just Nowhere Near The Level Of Experience

by thegunner on May 16, 2009 9:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

That has no relevance to anything I wrote, and is not even true with regard to McCutchen, but yeah, thanks.

by Charlie on May 17, 2009 12:14 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

make yourself comfortable hacker. Stay a while.

by vherub on May 16, 2009 10:48 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

To give up on Hacker for Tomko doesn’t suprise me about the Yankees. They really don’t have the patience with younger players anyways.

by phil79 on May 17, 2009 3:52 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Pirates pick up a couple more minor leaguers.

http://community.post-gazette.com/blogs/pbc/archive/2009/05/17/pirates-vs-rockies-5-17-09.aspx

Corsaletti is an outfielder that was hitting .128 at Pawtucket…but appears to have had some success at lower levels. Newsom was the closer last year at Akron. Surprisingly, he is not a power pitcher. He’s had more walks than strikeouts the last couple of years…and gets about 3 ground outs for every fly out. Not your normal NH pickup…although he was in the Indians organization.

by Thunder on May 17, 2009 11:16 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs