Just a few days after signing Kirk Saarloos, the Athletics have traded him for a relief pitcher in the Reds organization. Shafer had a very good season for the Reds Double A affiliate but you also have to be a little careful because he was 24 while doing it and he doesn’t show up as a top ten prospect and barely showed up on Sickels Top 20 List. I’m not saying he might not pan out, but he was probably one of the older players on the team. He struck out 52 in 49 2/3 innings and he only walked 16. Also impressive was they he gave up only two homeruns. His worst months were July and August so teams must have figured him out.
You have to give Billy Beane the benefit of the doubt though. Saarloos probably wasn’t going to amount to much more then a fifth starter or even a spot starter so the A’s bailed and picked up a potential bullpen candidate. Each team also gets a player to be named later so it’ll be interesting to see what happens there.
