Cubs Make First Trade of Off-Season
Trader Jim put a buzz through the GM meetings by pulling off the first trade of the week....RHP minor league pitcher Matt Avery has been sent to the Washington Nationals for LHP minor leauge pitcher Ryan Buchter. Avery was drafted in the 9th round of the 2005 draft out of the University of Virginia and played three years with their 3rd basemen, Ryan Zimmerman. Avery started off well in the organization with solid partial seasons in the Rookie League, Peoria and Daytona but has flatlined in AA in both 2007 and 2008 with ERA's above 4 and peripheral numbers that suggest he won't ever amount to a major leaguer.
Buchter was drafted in the 33rd round out of high school in 2005 by the Nationals and is just 21 years old. He's only pitched 70 innings of pro ball since then and the ERA isn't much, but he has maintained a K/9 rate above 9 which is always a good sign. The wonderful wide world of the web hasn't turned up a scouting report for me though.
Arizona Phil posted the potential Cubs minor league free agent list a few weeks back which looked like this:
Andres Blanco, SS
Mike Burns, RHP
Hector Carrasco, RHP
Edward Campusano, LHP
Robinson Chirinos, C-IF
Matt Craig, 1B-3B
Jason Dubois, OF-1B
Doug Deeds, OF-1B
Danny Fatheree, C
Luis Figueroa, INF
Dumas Garcia, RHP
Adam Harben, RHP
Josh Kroeger, OF
Jason Stanford, LHP
Bobby Scales, IF-OF
Andres Torres, OF
I received a list of all the potential MLB minor league free agents and the only disparities was that RHP Leonel Perez was on this one and AZ Phil had him as a Rule V eligible and this list did not have LHP Ed Campusano. It also had Koyie Hill on this list but it must have been before he was put on the 40-man roster. I'm sure Arizona Phil will be along soon enough to tell us why that's incorrect.
Inside the Ivy also has a subscription piece on the potential minor league free agents with a quote from Oneri Fleita that final decisions won't be made for a few weeks.
- The folks who took up our old spot at MVN, The View From the Bleachers put together a little historical draft review on the Cubs inability to develop an outfielder. It's the best fucking piece I've ever read...fucking awesome. Fuck Yeah!
Okay, not really, I just wanted to curse...fuck you MVN. But the guys that run The View From the Bleachers are good guys, so check them out.
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