Pirates Pick Up Yates from Atlanta
March 26, 2008 by Geoff Young
Filed under Transactions
The Pittsburgh Pirates have acquired right-handed reliever Tyler Yates from the Atlanta Braves for minor-league right-hander Todd Redmond. The latter is a former 39th-round pick who only struck out 6 batters per 9 innings in High-A last year at age 22. Every case is different, of course, but those guys don’t have a real good track record.
As for Yates, I have soft spot for him. He’s the only current big leaguer from Kaua’i, where I got married. (It was a long time ago; I feel much better now, thanks for asking.)
Anyway, Yates is 30 years old and has stuff that can be overpowering, if a bit erratic, at times. Last year he finished with an ugly 5.18 ERA (82 ERA+) in 75 appearances for Atlanta.
Judging from his splits (.213/.297/.297 vs RHB, .310/.400/.560 vs LHB), I’m guessing that Yates needs to do a better job of changing speeds. If he can, he just might become a useful setup man in Pittsburgh (for whatever glory that might hold). If not, Yates can continue to work in low-leverage situations and maybe have a career as the new Brian Boehringer.
Hey, somebody has to do it…
Other Voices
Yates didn’t have the colossal splits in 2006; I don’t quite understand where they came from.
Yates’ big problem was that he pitched extremely poorly in back-to-back games. On no day’s rest (24 appearances) his ERA was 7.36 and his walk and HR rates were extremely elevated. That, too, wasn’t really the case in 2006.
Thanks, Mac, for the additional insight. I should have checked his ‘06 splits. They were so huge in ‘07, I just figured that was an ongoing issue, but it sounds like more of a fluke. We’ll see if the change of scenery does him good.