SHAWN CHACON

12/23/77; '96 3rd (Colorado); Greeley, Colorado (HS)
R/R; 6-3, 220

Level	W-L-Sv	G	GS	IP	H	BB	K	ERA
1996 A- (Colo)	0-2-0	4	4	19.2	24	9	17	6.86
1996 R (Colo)	1-2-0	11	11	56.1	46	15	64	1.60
1997 A (Colo)	11-7-0	28	27	162.0	155	63	149	3.89
1998 A+ (Colo)	0-4-0	12	12	56.0	53	31	54	5.30
1999 A+ (Colo)	5-5-0	12	12	72.0	69	34	66	4.13
2000 AA (Colo)	10-10-0	27	27	173.0	151	85	172	3.16
2001 NL (Colo)	6-10-0	27	27	160.0	157	87	134	5.06
2001 AAA (Colo)	2-0-0	4	4	24.0	18	7	28	2.25
2002 NL (Colo)	5-11-0	21	21	119.1	122	60	67	5.73
2002 AAA (Colo)	2-0-0	4	4	20.2	23	10	15	4.79
2003 NL (Colo)	11-8-0	23	23	137.0	124	58	93	4.60
2003 AAA (Colo)	0-0-0	1	1	3.0	5	0	2	6.00
2004 NL (Colo)	1-9-35	66	0	63.1	71	52	52	7.11

Level	W-L-Sv	G	GS	IP	H	BB	K	ERA	OAVG	OOBP	OSLG
2005 AL (NYY)	7-3-0	14	12	79.0	66	30	40	2.85	.225	.309	.348
2005 NL (Colo)	1-7-0	13	12	72.2	69	36	39	4.09	.260	.361	.430
2005 AAA (Colo)	0-2-0	3	3	12.2	19	4	11	9.95
2006 AL (NYY)	5-3-0	17	11	63.0	77	36	35	7.00	.300	.389	.525

The Pirates acquired Chacon from the Yankees for Craig Wilson. The Yankees had acquired him from the Rockies in 2005 and he played a key role in their playoff drive, but he fell to pieces in 2006. Prior to his NY stint, Chacon had pitched respectably as a starter for Colorado. For some reason, after a good 2003 season as a starter, the Rockies moved him to the closer role, where all he accomplished was to add to the wealth of evidence showing the silliness of the save statistic.

Chacon's primary pitch is an upper-80s sinker. Despite that, he's a flyball pitcher. He also throws a variety of breaking balls. He walks a lot of batters and generally puts a lot of runners on base, as his lifetime opponents' OBP is .357, and he doesn't fan many. Even in his strong 2005 showing with the Yankees, he had a very poor K/BB ratio, which is a good indication that he's unlikely to be successful in the majors over the long term. Pitchers who allow a lot of balls in play, don't have good control and don't fan many batters are a magnet for the Pirates. In spite of the fact that the team has had almost no success with such pitchers in recent years, they seem to go out of their way to acquire them.

Chacon's acquisition for Craig Wilson was an inexplicably bad deal. Despite the Pirates' blindness to Wilson's abilities, he's good enough to start for most teams and be very helpful to any team, including obviously the Yankees. Chacon, by contrast, is the sort of player the Pirates should have agreed to take as a throw-in, so as to get somebody good in return for Wilson. Getting only Chacon was a miserable return, especially considering that the Yankees were likely to release him. The Pirates reportedly believe pitching coach Jim Colborn can help Chacon straighten out his delivery. Considering that many of the team's pitchers performed far below expectations in 2006 and none exceeded them, that's not a rational expectation. Chacon was expected to join the Pirates' rotation and will likely be a candidate for it in 2007. He's not eligible for free agency until after the 2007 season. This is a factor that Dave Littlefield has said he regards as a significant advantage, yet another indication of Littlefield's tendency to overvalue wildly any player with major league experience.

Return to Pitchers