WHIV 2003 Vol. 4- Adolph dealt to Birmingham

[recte44]

Birmingham acquires:

Chuck Adolph

Las Vegas acquires:

Enrico Gonzalez

Alfonso Castillo.

The Hustlers were not planning on offering Adolph arbitration, and were willing to accept any offer presented to get something in return.

The return they got was meager, but as GM Matt Rectenwald noted "was better than nothing".

Gonzalez is a 24 year old first baseman with some power potential. He's coming off a nice year with Class A Moline (.313, 17 HR, 79 RBI). He's rated as a one star prospect, but has the most upside of the two players coming back. "He's a chance kind of guy," Rectenwald said. "Maybe he'll become something worthwhile, maybe he won't. It's likely he's a career minor leaguer but there's always a chance he could become a poor man's Chuck Adolph."

Castillo is a 24 year old starting pitcher whose best trait is his control. He has four pitches, all of which are average to below average, and throws in the low 90's. 2002 marked his fifth season pitching at the Rookie Ball level in the Birmingham system. "I've seen stranger things happen," said Rectenwald, "but it's likely we just got ourselves a system arm here."

Best of luck to Chuck Adolph, who was given a chance at a career by the Hustlers and made the best of it. "He just became too expensive for what we needed him for," Rectenwald explained.

[7teen]

Looks like a wash. Adolph will probably help Birmingham this season some, but it isn't a terrible loss. Neither player you got expect to provide much return, unless Gonzalez bumps at some point. But as you said, Adolph was gone anyway.