We'll keep track of today's minor moves right here…
- The Indians announced that infielder Andy LaRoche has been released from Triple-A Columbus (via Twitter). LaRoche, 28, was once a modest prospect with the Dodgers but hasn't been able to make the most of big league playing time with Los Angeles, the Pirates and Athletics.
- The Yankees have signed Jonathan Meloan and assigned him to Double-A, reports Mike Ashmore of The Trentonian. The 27-year-old right-hander had been pitching in an independent league and turned down offers from Mexico and Asia to sign with New York. Meloan owns a 4.58 ERA in 17 2/3 big league innings with the Dodgers, Indians, and Athletics.
- The Braves have signed Fabian Williamson according to the MLB.com transactions page. The 23-year-old left-hander had been pitching in an independent league and has previously been involved in trades for David Aardsma and Eric Patterson. Williamson owns a 4.00 ERA in 472 minor league innings and has never appeared in the show.
Mike Minor replacement? lol
And to think that Andy LaRoche was once a cornerstone piece of the Jason Bay trade…goes from prospect, to every day starter, to bench player, to triple A, to getting outright release papers. Sad to be honest.
He had the one year in 2009 where he was an average player. I think that was pretty representative of his talent level, but he just couldn’t do it on a year to year basis.
Maybe he’s had some nagging injuries over the years, maybe he just doesn’t care anymore.
IIRC, Andy Laroche had nagging back injuries towards the end of his time with the Pirates
Finally seeing some rumors involving T. Williams! I knew it was only a matter of time.
This doesn’t make sense anymore, but just to clarify, the second to last sentence in the last bullet ended with a word ending in “T”. Since Williamson was already linked previously, it didn’t link his name again and someone named T. Williams was linked. An independent league player.
Andy LaRoache was really more than just a “modest” prospect – he was a BA top-20 prospect in both 2006 and 2007. Hard to believe in retrospect…
LaRoche and Meloan were the players the Dodgers gave up to get Manny back in 08.
Actually, it was LaRoche and Bryan Morris.
At least LaRoche was better than the Hansen kid from Boston from the Bay trade…he was said to be the Red Sox “Closer of the Future” and Then after pitching 7-8 games in Pittsburgh he was diagnosed with some sort of the “Heeby Geebies”, has had a nervous breakdown and has not pitched another day in his life.
tO BE HONEST LaRoche did not ever meet the standards ,however he would still be better for the Reds if he worked with Rolen POINT IS Reds need to sign him.
Bryan morris and j macdonald 2 good pitchers that we got from the dogers
lol
Sorry to hear about LaRouche the Dodgers once held him in high regard. It is very tough to get called up to the Big Leagues, it is even harder to stay.