Trade review: Olmeda for Gabriel

Hey guys-- sorry I wasn't able to blog about the latest minor league trade when it went down, but I've been a bit busy with a new job. Riding high on a 6-game winning streak also gives me far less to grumble about. Losing tonight was tough, but if for every 6 wins we have 1 tough extra innings loss, I think I can certainly accept that.

Anyway, this trade was fairly straightforward. We traded Omaha Tony Olmeda, the highly-touted catcher prospect we signed out of Cuba last year, for Omar Gabriel, an equally hyped prospect who came from the Dominican Republic last year. We also gave up Ed Hunter, a former 21st round pick who hasn't been terrible in the minors, but he is inconsequential; for the sake of argument it was basically an Olmeda-for-Gabriel trade.

Prezuiwf has been trying to unload Olmeda for some time so as to thin out our organizational depth at the catcher position and add depth at other positions (namely, pitching). Given that two of our three best hitters this year are catchers, it seems to be our least needed position. Olmeda is only 19 years old and has performed well in the minors, but as he was signed to a major league contract and only has one option year left after this season, he'll be forced to join the major league squad at age 21. The Snow Pirates prefer to let prospects simmer longer than most other organizations, so from the moment we signed Olmeda he was likely on the way out. Olmeda will certainly be a great player in his prime, possessing the durability to play a full 162-game schedule at catcher and having the hitting ability to back it up. Overall, definitely a good prospect, but apparantly not as useful as Danny Milligan and Felipe Reynoso look to be over the next decade or so.

Gabriel has been a bona fide puzzle ever since he was signed by Omaha last year. He sported a decent 3.71 ERA in rookie ball, but the Hot Pockets organization felt he wasn't yet ready enough to move up to A ball. So far this year, we've discovered why. In two starts in Low A, he's earned a 10.13 ERA and an opponent batting average of .333. He's got a blazing fastball and a suberb changeup, and in many ways is a rich man's Max Guillen. He's a pretty good strikeout artist and scouts rave about the sneaky slider he uses in addition to his other plus pitches. Still, he has struggled mightily in his limited time since the trade, and while I'm not worried at all, I trust that Low A pitching coach Don Childs will have his work cut out for him with this guy. Don't expect him in the majors for several years, but when he gets there, I still expect him to be an excellent long reliever and occasional spot starter.

A couple additional notes on the Snow Pirates:

- Cyrus Torres went 7 innings for the win last night, bringing his record to 4-0 and his ERA to 2.66, easily making him the best rookie pitcher in the AL so far this year. What's more enticing, however, is his consistency: he has started 6 games so far, and all 6 have been quality starts. If he keeps this up he has one heck of a career in front of him. Maybe this 23 year old can teach the 30-somethings on the team a thing or two about pitching.

- Alberto Felix apparantly remembered that he's supposed to suck now. He let up 22 earned runs over his past two starts, ballooning his ERA to 7.26 on the season. Hey, at least we're only paying him $7.5 million. And just think, we'll be treated to a whole other season of this next year!

- In a pleasant surprise, Don Wang is listed as the starter in tomorrow's finale against Augusta. He has definitely earned it; I know his stamina prevents him from going more than 5 innings on a good day, but his 3.32 ERA this season is too good to ignore. Hopefully he can avenge tonight's loss.

- Minnesota's recent plummet back down to Earth shows that this division is still anybody's to win. Last-place Milwaukee is only 5 games back, so one bad week can still bury a team in this division. Our biggest priority should be minimizing mistakes and keeping opposing runs to a minimum. Our offense has been consistently doing its job for a while now. We dropped to 2.5 games back tonight (tied with Detroit for 2nd), but a few more wins could still catapult us into first place before the week is out.

- As I mentioned in my last post, I went to my first Snow Pirates game of the year last week at Alliance Bank Stadium, a fantastic 9th inning win against Augusta with Torres on the mound. It was a great game, but it was doubly awesome because I got my first glimpse of the new Budweiser Quarter-Deck, the promenade section that just opened this year. A few seats had to be taken out, but it is well worth it-- Captain Snowbeard Shakes 'n' Burgers is now the best place in the stadium to get food, drinks, and snacks, and Frosty's is a great place to get a beer (and, at the very least, its prominence in the new section draws the long lines away from the beer stands elsewhere in the stadium). Plus, the Quarter-Deck is the perfect spot to take in a panoramic view of the stadium before the game, as well as the best place to be if you've got standing room tickets or just want to congregate with rowdy fans during close battles (like the one I saw last week). If you haven't been to a game yet, I wholeheartedly suggest you catch one just to check out the new section (and, of course, to support the Snow Pirates).

The draft is just around the corner, so afterward I should be taking a look at our picks and deciding whether we made our like bandits or got robbed. Lots of great talent in this class, so hopefully we can use our big #4 pick to nab someone that will seal our success in the future. Until then, I'll be blogging with all the breaking news and trades as soon as they happen here in Syracuse.