Phillies - Acquired Tucker

Philadelphia Phillies - Acquired OF Michael Tucker from the San Francisco Giants for P Kelvin Pichardo.

I appreciate the thought - Ed Wade usually just acquires a weak middle reliever in late summer moves - but though the idea of improving a bench with a whole lot of zeroes is a good one, Michael Tucker isn’t a very good hitter to fill that role.  Pichardo is a 19-year-old starting prospect (a Dominican, so might not be 19) who doesn’t have a big fastball and has had some success in just over a year’s experience (62K in 59 IP last year, 37:3 K/BB ratio in 54 IP this year), but he’s not loved by scouts and is a long way off.  I think I’d still have hung onto him instead of picking up Tucker.

The Giants are making noises about trying out a bunch of young players now that the season’s over; too bad they don’t have many in the system worth the treatment.  The thought’s nice, though.  Too bad it won’t be enough to peer-pressure the Cubs into doing the same thing.