Pirates Trade For Chris Snyder, promote Diaz and Clement *EDIT*

I've been kicking this one around a lot today, and I think I like the move. Obviously it depends on what we give up, and how much money comes this way, but I do believe he is an upgrade over Doumit.

The only thing I don't like is that Kratz (who has been proving it's the catcher not the pitcher in relation to basestealers) might get sent down because of it.

Chris Snyder is a kind of average offensive catcher. His BA is terrible, .233 for his career, but we all know batting average is an extremely flawed way of looking at guys. Despite that low BA he has a decent OPS of .737. He has had some very productive years, and despite two really low OPS' he has sat between .773 and .800 for five out of seven seasons.

While true Doumit has a better OPS over his career, and has been better consistently in that department if he isn't hitting he is worthless. Even though Snyder's BA is .37 points lower than Doumit's for his career, his OBP just higher. That means that when he isn't hitting he is still getting on base. In fact his OBP is more than .100 higher than his career average.

Not to mention that he throws out 30% of would be base stealers for his career, and has only made 6 errors in parts of 7 seasons, I think he could be a valuable addition to this team..... if we don't overpay.

In other news the Pirates have called up both SS Argenis Diaz, and 1B Jeff Clement.... look for a busy day.

*EDIT* The Pirates have sent Ryan Church AND Bobby Crosby to the Diamondbacks. That means we have literally given up nothing to upgrade the Catcher position. It sounds like D.J. Carrasco has also been sent to Arizona. While I am a huge Carrasco fan, it's not a major loss, and I would give up a reliever for a position player almost every time. This is still a good trade.

The Diamondbacks have sent MiLB SS Pedro Ciriaco to the Pirates to complete this trade. Ciriaco is a defensive shortstop, and must be added to the 40 man roster. He was ranked #27 in Arizona's system by Baseball America.