KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Righthander Ezequiel Astacio was claimed on outright waivers by the Texas Rangers on Monday. Astacio, 27, has spent parts of the last two seasons with the Astros going 5-6, with a 6.02 earned-run average in 28 appearances (14 starts). He has thrown 86 2/3 innings and has allowed 107 hits, 63 runs (58 earned) while walking 31 and striking out 72. He was originally signed as a non-drafted free agent by Philadelphia on Feb. 22, 1998 and spent his first six seasons of professional baseball in the Phillies organization. Astacio was traded to Houston along with RHP Brandon Duckworth and RHP Taylor Buchholz for LHP Billy Wagner on Nov. 3, 2003. All three of the players the Astros acquired in the trade are now with other teams. Astacio has a career minor league record of 66-42, 3.46 ERA, with one save in 163 career appearances (144 starts). He spent the majority of the 2006 season at Class AAA Round Rock where he went 8-4, 4.86 in 21 games (17 starts). He was 0-1 this spring with a 2.25 ERA. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/4662044.html
lol, the Rangers are so desprate for pitching that they will go after a guy who started a game against them in which they scored 18 runs. don't let the door hit you in the a$$ beautifull
He's a quintessential AAAA pitcher: good enough pure stuff to succeed in AAA, not enough command to succeed in the bigs. The Bizarro Kirk Saarloos if you will.
If he's the quintessential AAAA pitcher, then it would follow that he is the quintessential Rangers pitcher. (Express and Gambler notwithsdanding)
Good riddance and please bring the same luck you did to us to the crappy Rangers. We will never forgive you for giving up that HR to Geoff Blum in the WS. b*stard.
You never know when a guy might finally get it, he has explosive stuff. The problem is his fastball is straight...but the other pitches are nice. I wish him good luck. DD
Yeah,EZ struggles with his control and it really makes that flat fastball a silver platter job. I still like him though and it wouldn't shock me if he became a pretty decent reliever at some point,somwhere.
We also got innings out of Buchholtz, Zeke, and Duckworth.. granted not the best work. But it's something minor to add if you really want to say "what did we get". Plus their potential while they were here..
So much for our solid #2 starter of the future, which should have been around right now. If only we had hindsight and kept Johan Santana. But at least we weren't the only one to have him stolen in the rule #5 draft. Question: Have we ever gotten any all-star caliber players in the rule #5 draft? If so, whom?
