Tuesday, August 14th, 2007 by Adam Wagner
Pirates Make Unimportant Moves
The Pirate made a few completely pointless moves today, designating Masumi Kuwata, who was just destroyed last night, for assignment, placing Ryan Doumit on the 15-day DL with a sprained wrist, putting struggling pitcher Zach Duke on the 60-day DL, calling up utility infielder Matt Kata, and backup catcher Carlos Maldonado. Analysis after the jump.
The Kuwata move is embarrassing to the pitcher, as his family watched him pitch in America for the first time last night. It is a shame that hitters realized that an 80 mph fastball is very hittable before Jim Tracy did.
The Ryan Doumit move is a shame, as it probably means that the catcher/right fielder is done for the year. Wrist injuries tend to linger and sap power. This is not a good sign for the Craig Wilson clone’s future.
Calling up Carlos Maldonado simply seems to be a panic move which really doesn’t make sense. Josh Phelps is fine as a backup catcher and he can’t honestly be any worse defensively then Ronny Paulino. The team really needed to call up an outfielder, particularly if it wants to keep playing Jose Bautista at 3B. The logical candidate would be AAA un-prospect Michael Ryan, who won’t turn any heads and would simply not receive much playing time.
Calling up Kata makes sense because Tracy is obsessed with “versatility.” Kata still should never start games, though. He is simply not a major league-caliber baseball player.
The calling up of two position players means that the Pirates are now carrying 12 pitchers instead of the 13 that they were carrying before. The carrying of 13 was simply ridiculous, as the Pirates really don’t need eight guys in the ‘pen. Tracy’s team isn’t good enough that he needs to play mix and match from hitter to hitter. It’s more important that he figures out a way to make the offense work and having another player on the bench (as long as it’s not Matt Kata or Carlos Maldonado) accomplishes that.
Placing Zach Duke on the 60-day DL seems surprising, as it indicates that the pitcher is hurt worse than the Pirates originally anticipated. All the move was really designed to do, however, is clear a spot on the 40 man roster for the Pirates to bring in Kata and Maldonado (the other spot was cleared by designating Kuwata).
This series of moves, outside of maybe the Duke move and Doumit’s being hurt, means absolutely nothing. It’s simply more spinning of the tires by Dave Littlefield.
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