Busy Morning for the Bucs

The Pirates try to win their second successive series today against the Rockies. Zach Duke is on the hill for the Bucs, against Ubaldo Jimenez for the Rockies. Just looking at the batter vs. pitcher stats on ESPN, the LaRoche boys are a combined 7 for 12 against Jimenez. And a number of Rockies have had success against Duke, most notably Matt Murton (10 for 25).

Anyway, the Pirates have also placed reliever Tyler Yates on the 15-Day DL this morning and recalled Tom Gorzelanny. Here's the PBC Blog piece on it. So, apparently Gorzelanny will pitch out of the bullpen, which finally gives Pittsburgh a long reliever. Gorzelanny had been pitching okay in Indy. In 40 2/3 innings, 40 hits (only 2 homers), 16 walks and 36 strike outs. Nothing spectacular, but decent. Yates, of course, has been struggling a bit this year and it looks like right elbow inflammation is at least partially to blame. Gorzelanny in the 'pen is interesting. I doubt the Pirates would pull Karstens from the rotation too quickly, since he has been pitching pretty well, but having Gorzelanny around might make it easier to make that switch, if and when the times comes.

Also today, the Bucs made a couple of small trades. They acquired outfielder Jeff Corsaletti from Boston and pitcher Randy Newson from Cleveland. Both were acquired for players to be named later and both are to be assigned to AA Altoona.

Doing a little research, I see that Coraletti is 26 years old and bats left-handed. Splitting time between AA and AAA last year, he hit .285 with 14 homers and 65 RBIs, with a pretty respectable BB:K ratio of 71:93. He's even stolen some bases in the minors. Though at that age, and having not yet seen the majors, I doubt the upside is too high.

Newsom is a 27 year old right-hander. He's been a reliever his entire pro career, reaching the AAA level this year and last. In his minor league career, in 275 innings, he has an ERA of 3.17, with 115 walks and 166 strike outs. Not especially impressive numbers. Both of these acquisitions were, most likely, just organizational moves aimed at increasing the overall talent in the system. Neither players will likely have an impact in the Majors.