Yorman Bazardo

Historical stats
2005 stats

Bazardo's a 21 year old live-armed righty, a guy who resides in the low- to mid-90s with the ability to get it up around 97-98 when he needs to. Repertoire-wise, he's got the hard fastball (rated #1 in the Florida organization by BA this spring), a bit of a sinker, a fairly reliable change, and a breaking ball that looks good when it's working, but which misses too often to be a dependable pitch. Stat-wise, his strikeout rates have always undershot what you'd expect, given his raw stuff, but part of this may have to do with his willingness to come right after the hitter. He's shown good control and low home run rates in the past, but his walks are up 68% this year in AA, and his homers appear to have normalized (12 in 107 innings, after allowing 3 in 154.1 a year ago).

Bazardo's got his age and his velocity working for him, but there's still a lot of development that needs to take place here before he turns into a useful Major League pitcher. Which is more than okay, when you're talking about a return for someone like Ron Villone - pitching prospects are all about hordeing as many good arms as possible and hoping that a few of them stick. Bazardo's got a ways to go yet, but he instantly becomes one of the better pitching prospects in the organization, and if all goes well, he should be knocking on the door by September '06.

Flannery, on the other hand, is just a guy, another randomly-generated minor league reliever who's pitching in AA at 25. There's not much promise there, but that's what they're called "throw-ins". On the encouraging side, he's put up a 39:6 K/BB in Carolina this year, but it's his third time repeating the league, so you should kind of expect that sort of performance.

Another win for Bavasi. I don't think you could really ask to do much better in return for an old LOOGY on a multiyear deal.