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7 July 2050
onlytheboxscore.com/Magpies
Two home runs one day, traded the next: Magpies send Sato to Indianapolis for top pitching prospect Vargas
Posted by Curtis Behemoth, @bigC
Yesterday, Kenkichi Sato smashed 2 home runs for the Magpies in the 11-1 thrashing of the Deltas. Today, Billy DePodesta traded him. The swings and arrows of baseball fortune. In all, DePodesta has traded Sato, former starting pitcher Aurelio Alomar and minor league relief pitcher Vincente Torres to the Wildcats. In return, the Magpies have required the SCL’s #8 rated prospect, 19-year-old lefty starting pitcher Ricardo Vargas.
Magpies front office insiders say it was always DePodesta’s plan to trade Sato around this time, and promote the club’s top position prospect José Pereira to the roster to back up starting catcher Ernesto Solís. The Wildcats sit just 5 games out of 1st place in the Eastern League Central Division and 2 games out from a wildcard, and were desperate for a catcher to improve on their current replacement-level options. Sato also provides plenty of pop with the bat, as last night’s barrage reminded everyone. Those insiders say that DePodesta had also run out of patience with Alomar’s inconsistent performances, deciding the club had better in-house pitching options which made the 24-year-old expendable. Alomar and Sato have both gone straight onto the Wildcats’ active roster.
Vargas was only a supplementary round pick in last year’s draft, but has developed rapidly in the Wildcats’ system, and his acquisition represents quite a coup for the Magpies. He regularly hits three digits with his fastball, which he mixes with a tasty curveball and deceptive splitter. He also occasionally throws in a knucklecurve, although that’s by far his least effective pitch. Vargas struggles to control the strike zone at the moment, but if he can improve over the next couple of years as the scouts project, he will be a top-of-the-rotation star. Wildcats fans are up in arms about losing Vargas, even though the trade certainly strengthens their squad for this year’s playoff push.
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