Royals trade for SS; Berroa done

I don’t see it on the Newsblog yet, so here it is:

The Kansas Royals have acquired shortstop Tony Pena Jr. from the Atlanta Braves for minor league right-handed pitcher Erik Cordier. To make room for Pena on the 40-man roster, the Royals placed reliever Joe Nelson on the 60-day Disabled List.

You can analyze this anyway you want, but it more or less spells the end for Angel Berroa.

Please read it—the writer caught up with Moore, and has a quote from him. I didn’t want to copy/paste the whole thing here, so please check it out.

--------

Some links: Pena’s projections for this year, his minor league stats. He is the son of all-star Tony Pena, the former Royals manager (who I believe is still a catchers coach with the Yankees).

Well, this is good news for this year, if only to remove Berroa’s bat and defense from the equation. Pena certainly doesn’t look like any offensive juggernaut, but he’s having a decent spring offensively (hitting .342 in 38 ABs). He’ll be 26 this year, I believe, so he’s no spring chicken and likely only represents a short-term answer at short. The Royals still lack any major SS prospect that can be in the bigs by this year or even next.

Erik Cordier is young, 20 years old. He had a 5.19 ERA in his first year, in rookie ball. He didn’t play any in 2005 (his 21-year-old season), but I don’t know why. He did a little better in ‘06, but has only advanced so far to single-A. Perhaps the Braves see something in him Moore doesn’t.

---------

Is it weird to anyone else that Moore is trading with Schuerholz?