The Astros acquired Enerio Del Rosario from the Reds for cash, according to a team press release. Houston designated Oswaldo Navarro for assignment to make room for Del Rosario on the 40-man roster. The Reds designated Del Rosario for assignment earlier in the week to make room for new acquisition Willie Bloomquist.
Del Rosario, a 24-year-old right-hander, pitched 8.2 innings for the Reds in May and June, striking out three, but allowing about two baserunners per inning. He posted a 3.09 ERA in 64 innings at Triple A this year with 4.8 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 and was a Florida State League All-Star in 2009.
Navarro, a 25-year-old shortstop, collected just one hit and five walks in 25 trips to the plate for the Astros earlier in the year. He hit better in 81 games at Triple A Round Rock, posting a .785 OPS with 24 doubles.
God knows we need pitching. Good pickup ‘Stros.
If there’s one thing that the Ed Wade regime has had success with, it has been picking the right arms off the waiver wire. Since they took power in ’08 they’ve mined 18-11, 4.05 ERA, 234 G, 304 IP, 1.3 UIWHIP, 2.8 UIW/9, 7.5 K/9 out of their 4 pitcher claims (Alberto Arias, Jeff Fulchino, Wilton Lopez, Nelson Figueroa), which is an above average return on investment for waiver wire arms in this era. That said, technically speaking, I suppose this move may go down in history as a trade for more cash than the waiver fee entails rather than as a pure waiver claim. Del Rosario’s minor league stats do seem to fit the arm profile that they seem to covet – a low-walk and relatedly low-WHIP guy with non-overpowering stuff.
I am still patiently waiting however for any return whatsoever from one of their position player waiver claims (Reggie Abercrombie, Jose Castillo, Chris Coste, German Duran, Jason Bourgeois, Anderson Hernandez, Matt Downs, … ).
I believe the position player claims were for depth. None of them are names that you would expect to do good besides back when we claimed Reggie Abercrombie. I was expecting him to be a start in the bigs. Boy was I wrong…
I’m pretty sure Downs will be the first guy to break that bad streak.
2008 A+/AAA .294/.347/.480
2009 AAA .300/.343/.491
2010 AAA .242/.336/.395
2010 hasn’t been great but those are some pretty decent numbers out of 2b.
… Abercrombie is posting (or posted) a .950ish OPS in the indy league version of the American Association (may not be all that high vs the league reference standard). [sorry, I meant to post this as a reply to your comment, rovert22044]
The only thing with Del Rosario…he sucks with inherited base runners, at least it the majors he did.
Otherwise, he’s not a bad pitcher. Just wasn’t going to crack the 40-man for the Reds.