BREAKING NEWS: Snow Pirates trade Paz, minor leaguers for SP prospect Moreno

According to ESPN, the Snow Pirates have just reached a deal with the Colorado Springs Night Watchmen that will send Harry Paz and minor leaguers Harry Serra and D.T. Woodson to the Night Watchmen in exchange for prized pitching prospect Jose Moreno, who was already traded once this year from New Orleans.

Prezuiwf told ESPN that the organization considered the trade to be a "coup," but that both sides have come out ahead. Colorado Springs is looking for major league help in order to help it win another World Series, while the Snow Pirates, despite winning their last two games, have been actively seeking to shake up their bullpen. The move has also fueled speculation that Paz's bullpen spot will soon be filled by Don Wang after Cyrus Torres is called up.

My analysis of the deal is a tentative win. Paz has been something of a disappointment during his tenure in Syracuse, and his performance so far this year has been awful. We were promised improvement this year, and while the sample size is small, Paz's 6.14 ERA certainly isn't doing wonders for our team. Serra is a guy who prezuiwf said today he "didn't really see being a major league contributor anyway," and Woodson lacks the ability to consistently shut down lefties. All in all, we unloaded three problematic guys for a player with tons of potential.

Moreno, selected 17th overall last year by New Orleans, was a coveted pickup for many reasons, not the least of which is that, according to Prezuiwf, we came very close to drafting him. While the decision was ultimately made to draft Tony Barrett (knowing he wouldn't sign and thus securing the 4th overall pick this year), prezuiwf made no secret of the fact that he was never entirely happy passing on Moreno. Today he commented on how surprised he was that Moreno "just fell into our lap." As a player, Moreno certainly has lots of potential, showing off his considerable talents for three seasons at Vanderbilt. He has gotten off to a rocky start this year in AA, but the organization indicated that Moreno would be played in A ball and would likely not see major league action until he turns at least 25 (he is now 22). He is a big strikeout pitcher, something the organization is somewhat lacking, and he projects to have four decent pitches including a low-90's fastball. He also sports a changeup, but our minor league coaches will likely tell him to drop it, as it is by far his least effective pitch. He did have a fairly serious knee injury his sophomore year at Vandy, but he said last year that it has completely healed and that we should see no more problems there.

The odd thing about this deal is that it doesn't really clue us in as to whether prezuiwf intends to continue attempting to contend this year. It's true we gave up ML talent for prospects, but the prospect is one we've always coveted anyway and the ML talent is a guy who's struggling right now. Perhaps we're in for another trade or two soon, but either way I'm already looking forward to seeing Moreno join our roation in three years.