Believe It or Not…

You know, the Pittsburgh Pirates can actually make a good trade or two.

Seriously. No, really. Stop laughing.

At the end of 2006 the organization traded a reliever to the Atlanta Braves by the name of Mike Gonzalez. Now Gonzalez had had some success (24 saves in 2006) and he still has good stuff. But he was still a reliever with limited experience acting as a closer. Regardless, the Atlanta Braves gave up a starting first baseman – Adam LaRoche – and two prospects including a low-level prospect by the name of Jamie Romak for Gonzalez.

Gonzalez went on to pitch in 18 games for Atlanta in 2007 before blowing out his arm and he is still rehabbing in 2008. LaRoche has had an up-and-down tenure in Pittsburgh but he did hit 42 doubles and 21 homers while driving in 88 runs in 2007.

Romak is a bit of a forget man, but he is starting to be taken seriously. The London, Ontario native (my hometown) was taken in the fourth round of the 2003 draft out of high school due to his raw power.

The right-handed hitter was slowed by injuries in his debut season and he spent parts of three years in short-season ball. His 2006 and 2007 seasons in A-ball could be described as good, but not great as he showed glimpses of his power but still struck out a lot as consistency eluded him.

Repeating High-A ball in 2008, Romak has found some consistency. His line currently stands at .286/.365/.565 as a 22-year-old in Lynchburg. Romak has 25 doubles and 18 homers in 283 at-bats. Now the downside: He is still striking out more than 30 percent of the time. In fairness, Russell Branyan has had an OK career with a career K% of 40 percent… but he also showed a little more power in the minors than Romak, including 40 homers in 482 low-A ball at-bats in 1996. Let’s compare the two players’ minor league careers to this point:

Branyan .262/.361/.560 in 2,715 at-bats
Romak   .252/.362/.480 in 1,314 at-bats

With those minor league numbers, Branyan has gone on to post a line of .230/.327/.485 at the Major League level. Romak is still young – and a ways from reaching his potential – but I would have to guess that the Canadian youngster would be pretty happy to achieve an 11-year Major League career with about 2,000 at-bats and 132 career homers. The Pirates would probably happily take it too.

And fans in Cleveland sure enjoyed watching Branyan launch those towering homers when he burst onto the scene.