Chan Ho Park and Chris Resop

I’m not sure the Pirates claimed Chan Ho Park and Chris Resop off of waivers today in direct response to the inability of Steven Jackson and Wil Ledezma to get hitters out, but if they did I’m not sure I’d have a problem with it (Jackson has already been DFA and actually it’s more likely that Justin Thomas is more likely to get the boot than Ledezma next, but I’m not sure that really matters at this point). We all knew the Pirates were going to have to do something to improve their bullpen after dealing a big chunk of it away on Saturday and they managed to do that today without giving much up.

Let’s start with Resop. FanGraphs had a great post about him back in June, discussing his career path from outfield prospect to reliever that lead to a terrible arm injury and a surprising resurgence as a starting pitcher for the Braves’ Triple-A club this year at the age of 27. Resop has been excellent in 15 starts with Gwinnett this year, striking out 91 in 82 innings with a respectable 3.5 BB/9 rate and a GB% of nearly 50%, he’s definitely worth a shot in the Pirates’ bullpen. In fact, since the rotation still has Jeff Karstens in it, I’d say it’s worth giving him a shot in the rotation as well. That will probably wait until next spring though, and since Karstens is still pitching fairly well for five innings a start, I suppose I can live with that (McDonald is on my list to get starts before Resop).

Park is a bit different. As far as I can see, claiming him is basically a desperate cry for relief help. He’s on a one-year/$1.2 million contract with the Yankees, due for free agency when the season ends, and not anywhere near a sure thing to nab a compensation pick as a Type B free agent in the off-season if the Pirates want to risk offering him arbitration (he was a Type-B last year and didn’t perform well at all with the Yankees in 2010). The good news is that his K/BB ratios are pretty much the same in New York as they were in both LA and Philadelphia in 2008 and 2009, when he was a serviceable reliever. His home run rate was waaaay up with the Yankees, but now that he’s out of new Yankee Stadium and the AL East it’s reasonable to think that it will come down and he can be at least a serviceable reliever again.

The question is whether there’s someone else you’d rather see get those innings than a guy who might not be a Pirate for more than two months. I won’t miss Steven Jackson or Justin Thomas/Wil Ledezma, so I guess my answer is “no.” Worst case scenario is that Park bombs out, but even then he won’t be much worse than current options. If that happens, a few years from now we’ll be perusing Baseball Reference and saying to each other, “Man, Chan Ho Park was a PIRATE?!? When did that even happen?”