Chicago White Sox - Acquired C Ramon Castro and some cash for P Lance Broadway. Excellent move by the White Sox here. It's not going to push the Sox to win the division, but when acquiring talent, when you can get a league-average player very cheaply, it's very hard to resist it. This move also represents some very odd planning by the Mets. Omir Santos, the player who has made Castro "expendable" is a 28-year-old with a career .636 OPS in AAA ball who has had a couple of big homers in the majors. This is akin to winning $25 in a scratch-and-win from the 7-11 and deciding that your State Lottery has made your 401k expendable. A.J. Pierogie is going nowhere, however, so Castro's going to see a lot of bench time. Theoretically, the White Sox could give Castro some time against lefties (Pierzynski has a career .654 OPS against them), but I wouldn't want to count on it, as the White Sox haven't shown much of an inclination to spell the Polish Prince much in the past. Of course, one could argue accurately it's been a while since the Sox had a backup catcher that you'd ever want to see in the lineup. Broadway must be a pretty tough guy to survive the beatings that his name no doubt caused in grade school, but he's still a starter that neither has a good fastball nor changes speeds very well and it's not easy making the majors on just a curveball that's good, but not Gregg Olson-like. Without being able to fool International League hitters, it's pretty unlikely he's going to be very effective against the National League. 2009 ZIPS Projection - Ramon Castro ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB BA OBP SLG ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Year-to-Date 79 5 20 5 0 3 13 8 16 0 .253 .322 .430 Rest-of-Year 116 13 29 6 0 6 21 11 28 0 .250 .314 .460 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 195 18 49 11 0 9 34 19 44 0 .251 .317 .448 Year-to-date totals include minor-league translations, if applicable. 2009 ZIPS Projection - Lance Broadway ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- W L G GS IP H ER HR BB SO ERA ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Year-to-Date 1 1 3 3 15.3 18 10 3 5 10 5.87 Rest-of-Year 4 7 17 16 95.3 114 63 18 40 50 5.95 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Total 5 8 20 19 110.7 132 73 21 45 60 5.94 Year-to-date totals include minor-league translations, if applicable.