Indians Acquire Bubba Bell

A minor move but the Indians have acquired Bubba Bell from the Red Sox organization. After spending part of 2009 and all of 2010 in AAA, Bell is nice emergency depth for the Indians should their outfield suffer yet another injury or two. Bell is hardly an elite talent, or a prospect at all really, but the 29 year old corner outfielder did show some decent pop in 2007, belting 26 home runs and 13 more in 2008. Since then however the power numbers have fallen off. He's almost certain to be nothing more than Minor League filler in 2011, but there is at least a remote possibility that he cracks the roster, so the move is worth mentioning.

Indians Send Jayson Nix to Blue Jays

With an abundance of infielders, the release or trade of Jayson Nix, who had fallen on the 2nd and 3rd base depth charts, seemed a mere eventuality. On Tuesday it finally happened as he was traded to the Blue Jays for cash considerations. The move primarily served to free up a valuable 40-man spot and ensures the Indians get at least a minimal return instead of potentially seeing him swooped up on a waiver claim.

During his time with the Indians Nix hit just .234 with a .705 OPS - which actually represented one of his better offensive performances. A historically strong defensive second baseman with a career +11.4 UZR/150 who could get away with subpar offense there, Nix was shifted to third due to the abundance of second basemen in the Indians system and struggled with the spot defensively, essentially eliminating any value he had to the organization.

When it was announced that Jack Hannahan would be the clubs opening day third baseman, his chances, already slim, took another hit. The it was announced that Adam Everett had won the job as the teams backup infielder and it was all over.

White Sox Part With John Shelby - A Lesson In Tools v Skills and Upside v Projectability

Yesterday a minor trade was made that most folks won't care about in which a 26 year old who'd struggled in back-to-back seasons at AA was dealt off to the Rays for cash consideration. Happens all the time. But in this case it was a toolsy 5th round pick named John Shelby. Shelby put himself onto the prospect map with a phenomenal 2007 season, posting a .868 OPS in A ball and prompting Baseball America to add him to their 2008 White Sox Top-10 Prospects list. In their description of him they said;

"Shelby has the best combination of power and speed in the system. Though he's only 5-foot-10, he's strong for his size. He adds to his plus speed with good baserunning instincts and could develop into an even bigger stolen-base threat. He's improving in center field and has an average arm."

White Sox Trade Kyle McCulloch

On Wednesday in a move that garnered little national attention, the White Sox traded away former 2006 first round pick Kyle McCulloch to the Cincinnati Reds for cash considerations. A star shortstop in high school, McCulloch became a full time pitcher in college at Texas. But after five relatively obscure seasons in the White Sox, the Sox have finally given up on him.

Once a well regarded prospect. McCulloch works in the 88-92 range with his fastball and features a changeup that once held a lot of promise but never turned into the sort of swing and miss pitch that scouts had expected. He also throws a curve. The mix has produced decidedly uninspired results, as his career strikeout rate stands at just 5.1 and his command isn't anything special either, with career walk rate of 2.9.

While McCulloch has slowly advanced through the Sox system, reaching AAA last season, he'll be head to Cincinnati as more of an organizational bullpen arm.

White Sox Dump Scott Linebrink and I Rail Against Long-Term Deals For Relievers

Following the 2007 season, the White Sox, needing help in their bullpen took the rather extraordinary step of extending a four year nineteen million dollar contract to relief pitcher Scott Linebrink. Despite having a bit of a down year in 2007, the White Sox were undeterred and instead invested in Linebrink's history of strong performances. Over the preceding four seasons, Linebrink put up some very strong rate stats: 8.0K/9 - 2.8BB/9 - 1.0HR/9 to go with workhorse numbers from a reliever as he racked up over 300IP in those four years. But perhaps the White Sox overlooked something important in that HR rate however, because as someone with GB rates consistently in the mid 30s, Linebrink was a heavily fly ball prone pitcher.

After spending so much time pitching in the hitters hell that is Petco Park, the move to US Cellular has proven brutal and Linebrink's home run numbers sky rocketed. It is in that regard alone where Linebrink had seen significant decline as his HR rate nearly doubled from one park to the next. The propensity for the long-ball made Linebrink a questionable late-inning option for White Sox and a favorite for fans angst. That strikes me as unfortunate, because Linebrink, for his part, never did anything differently.

In the end however, it was circumstances largely beyond Linebrink's control that led to his trade. Chiefly, the White Sox needed payroll flexibility to resign Paul Konerko. The Braves were ready and waiting and they may have made a gem of a trade because in picking up Linebrink's strong strikeout and walk rates, they lost only middling prospect Kyle Cofield who will open 2011 as a 24 year old in AA with little success at any level of the minor leagues.

Let's be clear, while Linebrink struggled at The Cell in giving up home runs, his peripherals suggested he was still a perfectly capable reliever, especially in a 7th inning role and even in a spot setup role. This was a pure salary dump, one where the Sox were giving up a solid player, yet still needed to finance 3m of his 2011 salary. Let that be a cautionary tale to those who would be willing to sign middle relievers to long-term deals.

Even the best middle relievers - all relievers actually, closers included - are replaceable. That's a result of the fact that they pitch relatively few innings and because finding capable options can be done quite easily either internally, or right off the free agent scrap heap. The teams that realize this and eschew giving out those long-term deals are the ones who will ultimately not find themselves in the position of needing to finance the departure of a solid player like the White Sox just needed to do.

Royals Trade Carlos Rosa for Rey Navarro

Way back on the first of this month the Royals dealt minor league reliever Carlos Rosa to the Diamondbacks for shortstop prospect Rey Navarro.

My initial reaction was, WHAT? That's generally been my reaction to everything the Royals have done so far this year. From demoting Mike Aviles, to releasing Juan Cruz, to sending Alex Gordon to the minors.

Upon further examination, it appears that the Royals are motivated by the belief that Rosa has simply regressed and is not as good of a pitcher as he was a couple seasons ago. That appears to bear itself out in the stats as his K rate has been in decline while his fly ball rate has been increasing. There is talk that he's lost a lot of the life on his fastball since moving to the bullpen and that he has trouble pitching in back to back games.

In return, the Royals are receiving a very young shortstop prospect. Navarro's range at short is apparently strong though by the numbers, he commits a lot of errors. That's not uncommon of course for someone his age.

Offensively, while his numbers can only be described as poor, it's worth noting that he is merely 20 years old and already playing in High A ball, a challenging level for someone his age. He posts reasonably (though certainly not great) strikeout and walk rates, which suggests he at least has some eye, and he also steals some bases. His offensive game is still extremely raw, but he has tools and the Royals are desperately thin at shortstop.

If the Royals are right, and Rosa's chances to be an effective big-league pitcher are in decline, and if Navarro can become a reasonable prospect over the next year or two, I suppose I could understand the move.

All things considered, I'd have preferred to take my chances with the 24 year old who has at least seen some success at AAA and throws 94. But it's probably not as bad a trade as it first seemed to me.