J-Rod Era Ends, Wood Claimed

The Josh Rodriguez experiment ended yesterday as the Pirates designated their utility infielder for assignment. You have to wonder what happened here.

The Pirates owned the first pick in the Rule V draft and presumably had plenty of time to decide on who they wanted. I was on board with the choice of Rodriguez since he had hit well in AAA and was capable of playing shortstop. It seemed like a good idea to bring in absolutely anyone to replace Ronny Cedeno.

Rodriguez got into only seven of the 19 games played so far, starting three times. The first time he played a full game was also apparently his final appearance in a Pirates uniform Thursday night. Josh went 1-for-3, drove in a run and also reached base another time via hit by pitch. Then a day after collecting his first major league hit, Rodriguez was gone.

One wonders why Ronny Cedeno deserves to get a shot at a 592nd game playing in the big leagues tonight, a game which will also be his 204th game in a Pirates uniform. After 1,915 major league plate appearances in which Cedeno hit .242/.282/.351 overall, Pirates management is intent on continuing to give him a shot to see if he can turn things around. Yet after 14 plate appearances, Josh Rodriguez is judged not a major league shortstop.

I'm not saying Rodriguez was the definitive answer, but we'll never know. I am reminded of the time when Brandon Phillips batted .000 in nine plate appearances for the 2005 Indians. The Tribe sent their infielder to Cincinnati for a player to be named later. It was a shortsighted move not because everyone knew what Phillips would become, but because no one knew what Phillips would become.

To be sure, Neil Huntington has had his share of success in the Rule V draft. One All-Star setup man isn't a bad haul in a four year stretch. But with the second and first picks in the draft the past two years, how did we end up with two players who batted a grand total of 25 times in Pittsburgh?

Brandon Wood Claimed
The reason for this claim is that with the #1 waiver priority, the Pirates claimed infielder Brandon Wood from the Angels. I remembered Wood being a top prospect, but it's also true that he's hit .168/.197/.259 in 494 plate appearances in his MLB career. Now OBP isn't everything, but .197 is pretty bad considering National League pitchers compiled a .177 OBP last year. No matter, he isn't Ronny Cedeno so I'd like to see him starting and find out if he can ever learn to hit the curveball. Wood did put up very good numbers for several years in AAA, so maybe he can figure things out in Pittsburgh.

Pirates Add Infielder in Rule V Draft

The Major League Basbeall Rule V draft was held this morning. By way of a quick review, teams are able to draft any player who is not on a 40-man roster after either four or five years with their organization. The drafting team must keep the player on the major league 25-man roster for the entire season, either active or on the disabled list, or he must be offered back to his original team.

Your Pittsburgh Pirates had the first pick and chose infielder Josh Rodriguez from the Cleveland Indians. While the majority of Rule V picks don't stick with their organization, I think Rodriguez is a player who stay on the major league roster all season as a positive contributor.

The Tribe's second round pick in 2006, Rodriguez looked like a pretty solid prospect in his first full season. He hit .262/.351/.460 with the Carolina League's Kinston Indians including 84 runs, 20 home runs, and 82 RBI. He lost his prospect status with a terrible 2008 in which he didn't hit at all at AA Akron, followed by a 2009 in which injuries limited him to 33 games (albeit with a .426 OBP).

As a side note, I highly recommend seeing a game in Kinston's historic Grainger Stadium. In Faulkneresque fashion, the park hasn't been renovated or really changed at all since it opened in 1949. Think of the classic minor league "family atmosphere" only without families, or fans really, and with shotgun shacks across the street. Beer is priced such that anyone holding an Economics degree, such as myself, is basically required to buy one's own 64 ounce pitcher in the first and sixth innings. Unfortunately I didn't make it to that many games during my time in North Carolina because there was at that time a decided lack of people who wanted to be designated drivers for a 190 mile round trip.

In 2010, Rodriguez re-established prospect status. He showcased improved plate discipline and the power he had shown three years before returned. He hit .317/.405/.476 at Akron and was quickly promoted to Buffalo where he hit .293/.372/.486. That's a solid 12.9% walk rate over the past two seasons. Not only that, but Rodriguez played a super sub role in which he played shortstop, third base, second base, left, center, and right field.

I put Rodriguez's AAA numbers into the Minor League Equivalency Calculator and came out with a resulting batting line of .247/.315/.395. Ronny Cedeno's career batting line is .245/.284/.356. So here is a vastly superior shortstop that we added for the $50,000 Rule V price. Remind me why Cedeno was signed for $2 million...

Adcock Drafted by Royals
With the fifth pick in the Rule V draft, the Kansas City Royals drafted Bradenton starter Nathan Adcock from the Pirates organization. He put together a nice season in 2010 going 11-7, 3.38, with a 3:1 K/BB ratio and a 1.20 WHIP in 141 innings. That also was incidentally Adcock's only good year ever and there's no indication he has prospect-level stuff. Although the Royals rival only the Pirates in ability to keep non-MLB baseball players on their major league roster, I would be pretty surprised if Adcock doesn't end up being returned to the Pirates - maybe as early as spring training.