Friday, April 15, 2011

Pittsburgh Lands Snyder

Pittsburgh and Austin have swung a mega-prospect trade, featuring the 2 players rated the top prospects at their positions in recent JBT articles.

The Alleghenies get reliever Chris Snyder, Season 15's #18 pick overall. Not sure what his projections looked like back in Season 15, but he has developed better than just about any prospect I've ever seen (for example, his vR improved 30 points over his 2nd, 3rd, and 4th pro seasons). Snyder appears to be an excellent fit for Pittsburgh, who has outstanding young talent just about everywhere on the roster except the bullpen. He's expected to jump into the closer role immediately.

Austin gets a pretty nice haul in return - C Orlando Aguilera, RP Ruben Villanueva, and OF Miguel Zorilla. Aguilera was one of last year's top IFA's and was recently named Belle's top catching prospect by both the JBT and the accompanying owners' poll. He looks like he'll be a .300/35 homer guy when he hits the majors in Season 21 0r 22. Villanueva looks to be a serviceable reliever; Zorilla will have a spot as a platooner against righties.

Interesting deal for both teams. Pittsburgh has a couple of relatively young catchers on the ML rosters now, so they used a big chip to go get what they needed. Austin is looking a couple of years down the road, so they moved a ready-now pitcher for what is probably more value in the future.

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