Park, Resop Added; Jackson DFAd

The Pirates moved to shore up their bullpen after today's loss by claiming righthanded relievers Chan Ho Park and Chris Resop on waivers. Let's meet the new pitchers:

Chan Ho Park, 37, is 2-1 with a 5.60 ERA this year. In 29 games for the Yankees he pitched 35 innings and gave up 40 hits, 12 walks and struck out 29. He throws a 91 mph fastball, 85 mph slider, 77 mph curveball and 84 mph changeup. He's owed about $400,000 for the rest of the season.

I sat next to the visitors' bullpen in section 138 for the Phillies series last year and I can report that Chan Ho is an unbelievable hit with the ladies, with a steady stream of them filtering down to hit on him throughout the game.

Chris Resop, 27, gave up five runs in two innings in his only game for the Braves this year. Yet his AAA numbers look pretty interesting. In 15 starts he went 6-3 with a 2.09 ERA. Throwing 82 innings, he gave up only 53 hits and walked 32 while striking out 91. He throws a 93 mph fastball, 78 mph curveball and 83 mph changeup.

Steven Jackson leaves town 0-1 with an 11.57 ERA. He let 19 baserunners on in 7 innings this year. Jackson did a credible job in 40 games last season, but was clearly not helping the Pirates at this point. He'll likely pass through waivers, as he did earlier this season, and be reassigned to Indianapolis.

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Once a great strength of this club, the Pirate bullpen became a complete disaster after the trades of D.J. Carrasco, Javier Lopez and Octavio Dotel. I am happy with the return for each pitcher, but the moves left the Pirates with only two relief pitchers who are even remotely reliable. The other five guys - Justin Thomas, Steven Jackson, Wil Ledezma, Sean Gallagher and Daniel McCutchen - have ERAs ranging from 4.98 (Gallagher) to 18.00 (Ledezma).

Considering the situation, both acquisitions are good moves. Chan Ho Park is near the end of his career but he is a major league pitcher who won't be a complete embarassment out there, which is more than can be said for the guy he replaces. It looks like he'll slide right into the seventh innings. And Resop is worth a shot by virtue of his AAA numbers this season.

Jakubauskas Is More Fun To Type Anyway

PITTSBURGH, Pa. / January 19, 2010

Further cementing the claim that the Pirates will be a championship team, the club showed today that they have enough good pitchers to give up on a 3.14 ERA reliever by designating Steven Jackson for assignment.

While casual fans probably have no idea who he is, Jackson actually was a pretty solid option out of the 'pen last year going 2-3, 3.14 in 40 games. Despite the slew of relief pitching that the Pirates signed this offseason, this very blog speculated that he would make the team out of spring training, making the move a minor surprise in the universe of Pirates bloggers with two weeks of Pirate blogging experience.

Keeping in mind that this is a stat-focused management group, the release is probably due to Jackson's low strikeout totals and high walk totals, 4.4 strikeouts and 4.6 walks per nine innings. It's unlikely that a pitcher with those numbers would continue to be successful in the major leagues.

Thus, this Blog is fine with the move, as long as it doesn't result in a late inning role for Tyler Yates.

After a player is designated for assignment, the team has ten days to trade or release him. Those ten days pretty much kill the negotiating position in any trade, so the Pirates probably will hope to get a minor leaguer for him.

The Jackson move frees up space on the 40-man roster for Brandon Jones, an outfielder who they claimed on waivers this afternoon. I must admit I've never heard of Brandon Jones, but here are his stats. He'll be in the Indianapolis outfield this summer. He played most of his games in Atlanta in left field, indicating that he's not going to be a legit big leaguer unless he develops some power or changes his name to Nyjer Morgan.