Yeah, I know, you already know about it, but I needed something to post today.

Jrsyeagle was the first to report the trade in yesterday's Chum Bucket with Hurricane and Fishcrazy doing interesting research on the topic.  I also would like to thank Fishstick for making a Fan Post about the trade, we don't get enough of those.

Be sure to read everything they wrote, since it contains pieces to the puzzle.

Now, to the topic at hand:

The Marlins traded Kevin Gregg, as expected, in return received Jose Ceda from the Cubs.

The Marlins traded right-hander Kevin Gregg to the Chicago Cubs for Double-A right-hander Jose Ceda on Thursday

Jose Ceda is a 21-year old right-handed reliever who can bring the fast ball.  His normal speed on the pitch is somewhere around 93-95 mph, but he can hit upwards of 99-100 mph on occasion.  He also has a slider with the potential of being a  devastating pitch given its movement.  (It will also make it hard to catch.  But that is a topic for some other day.)

As of last season the highest Ceda has progressed in the minors was 22 games in Double-A.  With a normal club he would be invited to spring training and then sent to the minors for some seasoning.  But the Marlins are far from a normal club and they have a tendency to promote hard throwers to the majors very quickly.  Sometimes it works and other times they decide to send them back down to do that seasoning thing.

I guess what I am saying is that Ceda will have every chance to show what he can do and possibly earn a spot in the bullpen.  Ceda will have the advantage of being recently traded for.

There are a couple of downsides to Ceda at this point.  One being, or as I have been told, in his pitching motion, he relies on his arm too much to generate velocity.  In other words, he is a full-effort pitcher who uses his arm more than his legs.  In 2007 he developed shoulder problems, but has worked past that.  If he was a starter, this might be a cause of concern, but since he is one inning reliever, not so much.

Another side effect of being a young full-effort pitcher, is control of his pitches, which is something that still evades him.  He tends to miss the strike zone way too often for a late innings reliever.

Being as young as he is, and given the organizations ability to groom young pitchers, he may need to be tweaked a bit.  But the fact remains, he has the stuff, so any changes in his motion shouldn't take long.  Assuming he is willing to adjust.

The other problem is his size.  The young man is listed at 6-4 and 275 pounds and growing.  Which direction he is growing is up for some debate.

I'm not going to spend much time on the Cubs side of the trade, but hopefully Gregg will do well for them with his new bionic knee (or whatever was done to it in the offseason).  Gregg is a very useful member to anyone's bullpen and he would've been for the Marlins also.  It is just that he cost too much for the Fish.

The final analysis is that the Cubs got a pitcher who might help in a setup role immediately and the Marlins received one who could potentially turn into an excellent late innings reliever.

Not a bad trade overall.  

Jose Ceda stats