ANTHONY CLAGGETT

7/15/84; '05 11th (Detroit); Univ. of California Riverside
B/R; 6-3, 195

Level	W-L-Sv	G	GS	IP	H	HR	BB	K	BB/9	K/9	WHIP	OAVG	ERA
2005 A- (Det)	0-1-7	21	0	22.1	23	1	12	25	4.8	10.1	1.57	.271	4.03
2006 AAA (Det)	0-0-0	1	0	1.0	1	0	1	2	9.0	18.0	2.00	.200	0.00
2006 A (Det)	7-2-14	51	0	59.1	35	0	20	58	3.0	8.8	0.93	.174	0.91
2007 AAA (NYY)	0-0-0	1	1	5.0	5	1	1	1	1.8	1.8	1.20	.250	5.40
2007 A+ (NYY)	9-8-2	32	16	112.1	119	7	31	76	2.5	6.1	1.33	.274	3.69
2008 AA (NYY)	4-2-9	29	0	58.2	52	1	30	55	4.6	8.4	1.40	.233	2.15
2008 A+ (NYY)	0-0-0	1	0	3.0	4	0	0	3	0.0	9.0	1.33	.400	3.00
2009 NL	0-0-0	1	0	1.0	2	1	0	0	0.0	0.0	2.00	.400	9.00
2009 AL (NYY)	0-0-0	2	0	2.2	11	2	4	3	13.5	10.1	5.63	.579	33.75
2009 AAA (NYY)	7-7-4	39	5	82.0	78	6	32	43	3.5	4.7	1.34	.252	3.07

Claggett went to the Yankees from Detroit as part of the Gary Sheffield deal. The Detroit connection probably explains the Pirates' interest in him, as Pirate scouting director Greg Smith was with the Tigers at the time they drafted Claggett. Baseball America rated Claggett as the 26th best prospect in an overrated Yankees' system going into 2009. He throws a low-90s fastball that sinks well enough to give him GO/AO ratios of 1.57 and 1.28 the last two years in the minors. His out pitch is a slider and he worked on a changeup when he was starting games. The biggest concern with Claggett has to be his K rate, which dropped sharply in 2009. He also had a bit of a problem in his major league debut. He's had a large platoon split in the minors, no doubt due to the slider being his big pitch. The Pirates claimed Claggett off waivers in late September. At that point, their bullpen had fallen to pieces, along with the rest of the team, which had pretty much quit in late August. Whether the Pirates were simply desperate for innings with several of their relievers hurt, or whether they couldn't pass up the chance to claim Claggett, I don't know. It says something, though, that no American League team claimed him. In the end, he made one token appearance for the Pirates. He has two options left and figures to compete for a bullpen spot in 2010.

Claggett is part of a pattern of GM Neal Huntington claiming every marginal reliever he can lay his hands on, especially Yankee rejects. The template seems to be a right-handed pitcher in his mid- to late-20s who has a spotty history in the minors, no track record of major league success, a good enough arm that he got on somebody's 40-man roster at some point, and either a mid-90s fastball or low-90s sinker, often with no other effective pitch. It makes perfect sense to try to build a bullpen on the cheap, as Huntington has been doing. The approach has worked for other teams, but for Huntington so far it's been a miserable failure. Part of the problem, aside from his focus on marginal AAA types, may be that he seems unwilling to move on from many of his acquisitions. If you want to try to unearth hidden gems, you need to discard the ones that don't sparkle when you clean them off and pick up another rock. The Pirates over the last two years have stuck far too long with bad pitchers like Franquelis Osoria and Denny (Will he ever be permanently gone?) Bautista. They handed their right-handed setup role, going into 2009, to Tyler Yates despite his poor performance in 2008. The stockpile of no- or low-ceiling pitchers like Bautista, Yates, Steven Jackson, Chris Bootcheck, Eric Hacker, Virgil Vasquez and Jeff Karstens is reaching Littlefieldian proportions, which is especially alarming. Huntington and manager John Russell also seem reluctant to switch pitchers from starting to relieving, which would make more sense than going to proven failures like Bautista and Bootcheck when in need. Hopefully, at some point all these roster spots that are occupied by AAA leftovers will be taken up by younger pitchers with real potential, who can be moved to the bullpen because there aren't enough spots in the rotation and not just because they aren't very good.

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