This is like the trade that’s been talking about for a couple of months and it finally went down and for the life of me, I still don’t understand why you’d want to give up a legitimate young power hitter for a relief pitcher who walks a ton of guys. Mike Gonzalez was very good in his rookie season, but since then he’s just good. So we’re going to get about two innings pitched out of Gonzalez for around every homerun LaRoche hits. I’d hardly call that an even trade.
The Braves also got minor league shortstop Brent Lillibridge while the Pirates get minor league outfielder Jamie Romak. Lillibridge had a decent season year playing A Ball last year so he might be a nice pick up. We just won’t know for a couple of years.
