There was a slew of minor league transactions from March 30 to April 5, and Matt Eddy of Baseball America has written them up and included info on some noteworthy names. Here's more on those …
- The Cubs released righty Chris Huseby, an 11th-round draft pick in 2006 who signed for a hefty $1.3MM. Huseby wasn't panning out as a pitcher and saw action in the outfield in recent seasons.
- The Indians released third baseman Matt Cusick, one of the two players they received from the Yankees in last season's swap for Kerry Wood. The other player – Andrew Shive – had been previously released.
- The Rockies released reliever Craig Baker, who led the Minors in saves in 2009 with 33. A fourth-round pick 2006, Baker's 2010 was derailed by the injuries that haunted him earlier in his career.
- The Astros released reliever Bubbie Buzachero, who is among the active career leaders in minor league saves.
- The Royals released speedy outfielder Hilton Richardson, a seventh-round pick in 2007 who has 77 steals in the minors in 100 attempts. The Braves then signed Richardson.
- The Dodgers released lefty reliever James Adkins, a sandwich-round pick in 2007 out of Tennessee. The southpaw is the Volunteers' career leader in strikeouts but has struggled with control and against righties in the minors.
- The Brewers released hard-throwing lefty Evan Frederickson, the 35th overall pick in 2008. Frederickson has been excessively wild in his minors career, never walking fewer than 7.6 batters per nine, according to Eddy.
- Twins righty Chris Province, acquired from the Red Sox in the Boof Bonser trade in 2009, voluntarily retired. Province surrendered a lot of hits in 2010, but seeing as he posted solid groundball rates for two poor teams, Eddy wonders whether he might have fared better with a better defense behind him.
- The Padres released catcher Mitch Canham, the 57th overall pick in 2007. The Friars hoped Canham would develop into an offense-first backstop, but he was abused by basestealers, and his production with the bat didn't hold up at other positions.
- The Giants released righty Craig Whitaker, a supplemental-round pick in 2003. Whitaker, as Eddy notes, is something of a rarity as an unsuccessful power arm drafted by San Francisco. Outfielder Ben Copeland, the Giants' first pick (fourth round) in 2005, was also released.
- The Rangers released righty Danny Gutierrez, formerly one of their top-10 prospects. Gutierrez had been acquired from the Royals, but his stuff has diminished and was suspended 50 games for amphetamines prior to the 2010 season.
- The Blue Jays released speedy outfielder Eric Eiland, a second-round pick in 2007. Eiland has been an efficient basestealer but has struggled overall offensively.
The guy that never gets released: The Sandwich pick named “Reuben”.
Cashman and Shapiro made a equitable trade with Wood. The indians shed payroll and the Yankees loped off two bodies that were not going to stick in the organization. The Yanks rented Wood, who helped them to reach the play-offs and the Tribe saved money and took a gamble on a pair of maybe’s.
An equitable trade? Speak for yourself. The Yankees got a major league reliever who performed quite well in return for salary relief, and …. nothing. Neither of those two guys ever played for an Indians team. The Austin Kearns trade might turn out to be a little better. McAllister has been throwing well and, as long as he keeps throwing well, might make it to the majors.
The Wood deal was about money as far as the Indians were concerned. Cleveland wanted to dump Wood’s salary as they were going nowhere with him and still had a considerable amount of money to pay out. Wood was a free agent at the end of the season and had made it clear he was not coming back to the Indians.No other team was going to pick him up, so they made the best deal they could.
Keep in mind that many trades taking place at the trading deadline often have monetary ramifications as well as player movement.Shapiro is no fool, he wasn’t to give Wood away unless he could not find a better deal than he got from Cashman.
More than likely, he could not do better, so he took two nobodies in exchange for salary relief. That’s why I consider the trade equitable.
You’re memory is correct, I just have an issue with your characterization of the deal as “equitable.” Perhaps I’m being picky.
Wood appeared to be just what the Tribe needed when he was signed. He was coming off a decent year with the Cubs and the Indians had no real closer candidates. Wood ended up being a disaster. Just terrible. He should be embarrassed of his performance. Of course, as soon as he landed in New York his ERA plummeted.
It was hard to see him succeed with the Yankees then see the Indians pick up two players who would never play an inning for an Indians’ affiliate. We were fortunate to simply get rid of him and his salary. I just don’t find the result very equitable.
Dam Gutierez. He could have been the RH SU guy for the Rangers this year with Ogando moving to the rotation.
The Rangers are going to be better than people think. Even without Cliff Lee…Watchout!
Dylan Hernandez Tweet: Preston Mattingly re-signs with Dodgers after Cleveland release.