Thursday, August 07, 2008

Two more things

Good news on the draft pick front: the Pirates signed sixteenth rounder Wesley Freeman today. He's one of those much-discussed "high upside" guys that the Pirates almost certainly had to go over slot to convince to come play for them rather than go to college. If Alvarez and Grossman sign on, it's going to be possible that Huntington managed to accrue as much talent in one draft as the previous front office did in six.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox seem to have made a claim on Brian Giles and are trying to work out a trade for him. The claim means that they have 48 hours to get something done with the Padres, at which time he can stay in San Diego if a trade isn't worked out. This kind of waiver jockeying is always interesting to me. The Red Sox can find a role for Giles due to their injury concerns (David Ortiz and Mike Lowell), but the claim was almost certainly made to block the Rays and Angels from grabbing him. Any hope the Rays had of upgrading their corner OF/DH problems went out the window when they couldn't trade for Bay, unless the Red Sox pass them in the standings.