The Astros countered the Cardinals acquisition of Jeff Weaver by trading two minor leaguers for Tampa Bay’s Aubrey Huff today:

Houston will pay $1.4 million of the $3 million that remains on the final year of Huff’s contract. Tampa Bay will pay the rest, Purpura said. The Devil Rays get right-hander Mitch Talbot and infielder Ben Zobrist from the Astros’ system. Both players will report to Double-A Montgomery.

This is a great deal for the ‘Stros, and it takes some of the sting out of their recent series against the Cardinals, who won three of four in Houston. Huff is a notorious slow starter, and, true to form, he’s started heating up just in time for his moving van to bring him to Minute Maid Park. His career splits by month:

Naturally, Cardinal fans will wonder why Walt Jocketty didn’t get in on the action, as the Cardinals, too, could use a middle-of-the-order corner outfielder who doesn’t have a .303 OBP. Could the Cardinals have made a similar deal with Tampa Bay? Talbot apparently had the best changeup in the Astros’ organization, and Ben Zobrist the best Strike-Zone Discipline . That’s comparable to the similarly recognized Cardinal players, Phillip Anderson and John Gall. And John Sickels ranked Zobrist, a shortstop, 8th in Houston’s system. The comparable player in the Cardinals’ system would be 3b Travis Hanson, whom Sickels ranked 9th. I’d compare Talbot, a 22-year-old AA strikeout pitcher, with the Cardinals’ Chris Lambert. So: Hanson and Lambert for half a season of Aubrey Huff’s best baseball? You make the call.

More than just advancing his pawns on the chess board, Tim Purpura has moved his knight into enemy ranks. It’s your move, Walt.

This entry was posted by Pip on Wednesday, July 12th, 2006 at 2:30 pm and is filed under news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.