The Pirates have agreed to trade relief pitcher Salomon Torres to the Milwaukee Brewers for a couple of minor league prospects. Torres, the team’s longest tenured player, had been a mainstay in the Pirate bullpen since 2002.
Torres is a perfect fit for Milwaukee, where he will probably get a spot setting up games for new closer Derrick Turnbow. Since losing closer Francisco Cordero and set-up man Scott Linebrink to free-agency, the Brewers have been scrambling to find bullpen depth, and with Torres, it looks like they’ve plugged up one of those holes.
Torres’s disappointing ’07 campaign was a fluke. He spent the entire season very unhappy with management (a.k.a. ex-GM Dave Littlefield). Littlefield somehow “tricked” Torres into signing and undervalued contract, promising to help fund a baseball facility in the Dominican Republic. I don’t know exactly what happened, but for whatever reason Torres was not happy.
Torres’s ’07 is no indication of what Torres can still do. Injuries, alongside his growing feud with the front office, really hindered his performance last season. So long as the injury doesn’t linger, expect Torres to return to his ’06 form, when he was baseball’s most used reliever.
This is a deal the Pirates needed to make at some point, and as far as I’m concerned they did a pretty good job. They pick up a couple of guys who might be dependable bullpen guys in a couple years, and they managed to dump Torres’s 3.5 million dollar salary. Expect to see a few more moves in the coming months designed to simply cut back payroll as GM Neil Huntington keeps trying to clear out some of the garbage that Littlefield has left behind for him.
The Penguins waiving of Hall of Famer Mark Recchi signifies a sad day in the life of this Penguins’ fanatic
And now to the sentimental portion of today’s post. The Pen’s tried to waive my all-time favorite Penguin (sorry Alexi Kovalev) Mark Recchi to the minors this week, but the Atlanta Thrashers stepped in and claimed the future Hall of Famer.
Recchi, a part of the 1991 Stanley Cup champion Penguins’ squad, was traded near the end of the 1992 season to Phucking Filly. Two year old Jake balled his eyes out when mommy tried to explain to him why the team traded.
Anyways, its a sad day for Penguin hockey, although the Pens did make the right move in cutting him loose. Also, I was happy to see GM Ray Shero and company gave Recchi all the respect he deserved.
Doesn’t change the fact that I’m going to dearly miss the Recching Ball. I’ll be crying in my dorm for the next few days if anybody needs to find me.
Posted by yinzer24 
Wise Words From an Exiled Yinzer 