Roster moves, roster moves, ROSTER MOVES!!!

The 2008 Pittsburgh Pirates as they will appear in Atlanta on March 31st are quickly taking shape. The PG details a bunch of moves made today that go a long ways towards clearing things up. The most interesting ones are in the bullpen, where the BK Kim experiment ends before it can even start (if you recall the WHYGAVS Poll on this subject, I think this qualifies as "abject failure," though he didn't ruin any real games for us), Jaret Wright is asked to clean out his locker, Juan Perez and his gimpy elbow are sent packing, and Neal Huntington makes his second trade by acquiring Tyler Yates from the Braves for Todd Redmond.

That trade is certainly an interesting move, and it indicates that Huntington is as concerned about the bullpen as I am. Yates isn't a bad reliever, but I wouldn't qualify him as a good one, either. He does a good job against righties and will probably ably fill the Salomon Torres role that was vacated when Sully was traded to Milwaukee this winter, mostly because he's only 30 and Torres is 36. The question, of course, is whether or not he's worth Todd Redmond. Redmond isn't a particularly great prospect, given that he's only made 3 appearances in AA and he's going to be 23 this year, but he was decent in Lynchburg last year. My guess is that he's simply not the type of prospect that Huntington likes: he's not a power arm (107 strikeouts in 160 innings) and he doesn't have a terribly high ceiling. If you equate Yates to Torres, the two trades net value is Marino Salas and Kevin Roberts for Todd Redmond. I'd rather have the starter than the two relievers, but it's not like we're talking high grade prospects or even high ceilings here. If we add Yates to Capps, Grabow, and Marte as bullpen locks, that leaves three bullpen spots, which will likely be decided among Osoria, Meek, Burnett, and Dumatrait.

In the non-pitching moves of the day, Josh Wilson was DFA'd in favor of Doug Mientkiewicz, which means that Mientkiewicz has a roster spot all but locked up, which I'm fine with. Unless someone gets hurt and he starts over Steve Pearce. Then I will be upset.