The Cubs traded reliever Jae Kuk Ryu to the Devil Rays today for outfielder Andrew Lopez and right handed pitcher Gregory Reinhard. Ryu had a solid season in Iowa last year and while he was up and down with the Cubs, he had mixed results. He did strikeout 17 batters in 15 major league innings, but his batting average against was .362 and in his lone start with the Cubs, he gave up six earned runs in 1 1/3 innings. Ryu is best (or infamously) known for hitting a bird from its perch with a baseball and killing it in 2003. I guess he still gets taunted for it at times.
Reinhard had a solid season at Low A but he did it as a 23 year old. He’s a fly ball pitcher though, which is of some concern but he struck out 134 in 142 innings. Somehow, despite a ground ball to fly ball ratio of 0.75, he only gave up eight homeruns.
Lopez is still a work in progress but he could be a keeper. He just turned 20 last month and he had a decent season in the short season Appalachian League. He looks like a player who could be a 20/20 type of player if his power ever develops. He did take a few walks as well, although his strikeout rate was pretty high.
This is one of those trades that probably means nothing. I’m not sure what Ryu’s status was but because he went up and down so much, he’s probably out of options. Rather then cutting him loose, the Cubs got what they could because neither one of these guys even shows up at an honorable mention on John Sickels prospect list.
February 13th, 2007 at 8:55 pm
[…] Rather then rehashing all of the details, I’ll defer to Cubs blogger Aaron Maxwell, who detailed the Devil Rays/Cubs trade that went down today. Ryu has a live arm and he’s a guy who very well could be in the Devil Rays pen in 2007. [link] […]