Archive for the “Transactions” Category

With the Cardinals lingering around the area of first place in the NL Central behind the juggernaut that is the Pittsburgh Pirates and with several areas that need obvious help in the back of the rotation and the bullpen.  I’m not here to talk about who the Cardinals will be bringing in, but who will be going out.

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It appears the Cardinals have signed right-handed relief pitcher Hyang-Nam Choi. Here’s the low-down:

• Choi has had a taste of pro ball in America once before. Just in 2006 he pitched for the Indians AAA team and over 106 innings, he posted a 2.97 FIP with a K/PA rate of 23%. Pretty impressive, yet he didn’t get a call up.
• Weird story behind how he was signed. The Cardinals initially signed him for $70, 000 as a free agent but his team, the Lotte Giants, wanted to put him through the posting system. The Cardinals put in the only bid, a whopping 101 bucks.
• He’s 37 years old but don’t call him and oldhead. He’s a multiple degree black belt in Taekwondo and will probably take you out.
• He’s said to be in excellent shape, but his fastball rarely breaks 87 MPH. He also throws a slider.
• He spent last season in relief, where he posted a 3.58 ERA with 9 saves.

You can read more about Choi the East Windup Chronicle, where they also has some links to him in action. Hopefully there’s no relation to Hee Seop.  I’m glad the Cards are becoming more active in the Far East, even if it is just minor moves at the moment, although I still think they may have missed the boat by passing on Kenshin Kawakami.

I was asked what I thought of the signing of Japanese pitcher Katsuhiko Maekawa. What better way to answer then with a haiku?

Um, who is this guy?

Not the East son we hoped for

Quad A ‘pen filler.

The Nationals signed him to a minor league deal last winter, but he had troubles getting a visa due to some legal issues involving a hit-and-run accident he was involved with back at home. He’s left-handed and was formerly a 1st round draft pick of the Kintetsu Buffaloes, but has some put up some pretty underwhelming numbers, both in Japan and now in the Venezuelan Winter League. Meh.

You can check out some of his old japanese baseball cards here, if you wanna.

Linky

The hot stove is burning now, baby!

As we’ve seen with lefty relievers, the Cards seem content to bring as many middling middle infielders to spring training and let themselves sort themselves out as to who will be the new utility infielder. Seems redundant, but Thurston is kinda interesting, I suppose, for a quad A guy. He was a top ten prospect in the Dodger system between ’01-’03 and their organizational player of the year twice in a row. He was thought to be Mark Gruzielanek’s heir to the keystone, but apparently did not play well enough to convince the Dodgers to start him over Alex Cora. He’s wandered the wilderness of AAA ever since, but has put together a couple of nice seasons in a row, and hit for a .365 wOBA last season for Pawtucket. The scouting reports I’ve seen digging around in BA’s archive all note he’s a pretty solid defensive player back in his prospect days, and BP’s Fielding Runs Above Average metric has his defense a +19 last season, higher than any player in the International League.

Digging around the web, he also seems to pass the TLR litmus test with flying colors-

• Good clubhouse guy
• Outstanding makeup and work ethic
• “off the charts” instincts.
• And of course, he’s now a veteran.

Knoedler looks like he’s pulled a reverse Motte, as he struck out 38 batters in 29 innings as a 20 year old, but was moved off the bump to behind the plate to fulfill his destiny as a journeyman catcher. He actually hit a little bit last year, posting a .816 OPS for AAA for Fresno, but his OPS dropped .200 points this past season at Sacramento. 23 of his 38 hits went for extra bases, which is pretty weird. It looks like he still has an arm, nabbing 23 of 52 base stealers this past season. I’d like to see him throw a few innings for Memphis, just for fun.

Former top prospect Anthony Reyes was traded to the Indians for right-handed reliever Luis Perdomo. According to Mozeliak:

“We could have gotten into the offseason and looked at what was available, but to maximize his value we thought it was better to do something sooner rather than later.”

Um, maximize his value? Was it really that low? Maybe so, and that’s the bummer about this whole thing. The fact that he’s been yanked up and down to the point where he has only one option remaining can’t have helped his trade value. Neither can the fact that there’s long been a rift between him and the coaching staff. Neither can the fact that aside from Game 1 of the World Series and a couple of good starts here and there, he’s been mostly bad. Who is to blame for that is another debate for another place and I don’t know what to believe nor do I really care at this point. It’s been discussed ad nauseum, it’s time to turn the page. Even considering all the negatives, a 24 year-old reliever who started the season in A ball sounds like a light haul. I’ll be back with more in a bit, I have some googling to do.

Update: This site has a profile of Perdomo. They say he throws a 95-96 MPH fastball, while Goold says he’s throws more in the 90-94 MPH range. Both agree he has a good slider. He was promoted from advanced A to AA after posting a 0.96 ERA in 37.1 innings, with 42 K’s and 15 BB. In 15.1 innings at AA, he has 17 K’s to 7 walks and 12 hits allowed. Here’s a video of him from this past spring training.

Looks and sounds like this could work out for both sides, we’ll wait and see. I have to think the change of scenery will do Reyes a world of good, and I wish him the best of luck in Cleveland. Thanks for Game 1, A-Rey. I’ll miss the flat brim/high socks combo.

Today the Cardinals have promoted Mike Parisi to the major leagues while sending reliever Anthony Reyes to Memphis. Parisi becomes the first member of the Cardinals’ 2004 draft class to make it to St. Louis. It is not clear what his role will be, but I would expect he will just assume Reyes’ long reliever role. This seems to be the move that set everything into motion over the last 24 hours. P.J. Walters was promoted to Memphis to take Parisi’s start today, with Tyler Herron filling in for him in Springfield. There are other rumored moves, but none of them have been officially announced to this point.