Trade Profiles: Antonio Bastardo

Picture Credit: ESPN

The rumors are just flying now on Twitter.  The Pirates are getting linked to a different player everyday.  Last night the Pirates were connected to Philadelphia lefty Antonio Bastardo by Fox Sports Reporter, Jon Morosi and Trib beat writer Rob Biertempfel.  So what does he bring to the table other than a fantastic name?

Scouts from Tigers, Blue Jays and Pirates -- all with interest in Antonio Bastardo -- saw him throw 1 shutout inning tonight with 2 K's.
— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) July 22, 2014

Per @jcrasnick, #Pirates are among 10 teams with scouts in Philly tonight. I'd think lefty Antonio Bastardo is one possible target for Bucs.
— Rob Biertempfel (@BiertempfelTrib) July 21, 2014

Well Bastardo is not going to come in and pitch the 8th inning and be a back of the pen reliever.  That's not who he is.  He's going to be a middle relief guy who comes in for the 6th or 7th inning.  He's a lot like Justin Wilson just with less velocity.  Bastardo's stats are almost Wilson esque too.  He carries a K/9 of 10.92, WHIP of 1.10 (second lowest in his career) and an ERA of 3.30.  Now here's where it gets weird.  You know how I love FIP and xFIP.  Well, Bastardo's FIP shows room for improvement as it is 3.10.  But his xFIP shows regression, as it is 4.01.  I tend to trust xFIP more so I think I'm going to go with that.

Bastardo has his problems.  That xFIP scares me a bit.  And I didn't mention his walk rate for a reason.  His BB/9 is 4.95.  That is ridiculously high.  Relievers who walk a ton of batters are not ideal for any team let alone the Pirates.  Lastly, he doesn't get very many ground balls like other Pirate pitchers.  And since he's a lefty that can work better at PNC but ground ball pitchers are much more preferred.

Now for the good involving Bastardo.  He can be brought back next year for around $2 million, according to Biertempfel.  That's cheap and the Pirates can afford that making him less of a rental.  Also, he is exactly what Clint Hurdle likes to use.  Bastardo isn't a lefty specialist.  His splits indicate he performs just as well against hitters on both sides of the plate.  This deadline scares me because I think Neal Huntington could grab a lefty specialist and then Clint Hurdle would use him against righties too and the guy will get bombed.  That would not be a fear if the Pirates acquired Bastardo.

Overall, I'm indifferent to the idea of bringing in Bastardo.  He could help in the middle innings and you can never have too many lefties.  He would probably provide a slight upgrade too.  So if the Pirates can get him for little to nothing (since Ruben Amaro Jr. is an idiot this is likely) I say go for it.  Just make sure you don't throw AJ Burnett into the package.