The relevance of this deal is, of course, that Strickland pitched for the Pirates' AAA affiliate for the entire 2006 season. While the Pirates were claiming Juan Perez and calling up Britt Reames and basically any other AAA arm they could find, Strickland was shutting down Class AAA hitters the whole season. Now he's signing a major-league deal. It's strange. It's not unprecedented - the Royals signed Chris Truby to a major league deal after playing the entire year for the Pirates' AAA affiliate in 2004. But that was Chris Truby and the Royals. Scott Strickland is a guy who can actually help a big league team, and I don't understand why the Pirates didn't at least see if he could help them.
Happy trails, Scott.
Thanks to WTM, who posted this over at OnlyBucs.