There were a lot of eyebrows raised when the Cincinnati Reds drafted Braves right-handed pitcher Sergio Valenzuela with the sixth pick in the Rule 5 draft this winter. Over at Baseball Prospectus, Kevin Goldstein said this at the time about the Reds' pick of Valenzuela:
Chances To Stick: Seriously, they really took Sergio Valenzuela?
Well, to no one's surprise (except maybe some now-fired Reds' scout), Cincinnati returned Sergio to the Braves, and the Braves accepted. Then as sort of a final F-you to the Reds, and to further reinforce the stupidity of the pick, the Braves traded Valenzuela to Monclova of the Mexican League for future considerations.
A. Trading someone to the Mexican League is more like selling them into indentured servitude.
B. Future considerations? We really need someone to describe what the hell this means. (Like when we traded Langerhans to Oakland last year and got nothing in return.)
C. Sergio was so bad this spring (and by extension, the Reds were so wrong about him) that he never pitched in a regular game, and an intrasquad game yielded this result:
Wow, he was so bad they just went ahead and quit playing their scrimmage.
I don't know why I spend so much time on this nothing pitcher - it just kind of makes me laugh a little.