Chows add to Outfield Depth

Illinois Times -- The Chows will now be sitting out both the 1st and 2nd round in next year's draft. Following up the big trade to bring in Zambrano, Illinois addressed their shortage of quality OF by trading Gaudin and a 2nd for Angel Pagan.

GM Brad Sherlag described the move as follows "Morandini now has a lot of choices in mixing and matching. The Chows could go with an OF of Pagan, Bourn and Beltran most of the time or could decide to play Beltran in CF vs. Lefties and go with Pagan, Bourn and Fukudome as their primary OF rotation. He might even do something crazy like play Beltran in all divisional games regardless of what side the pitcher throws from. Without stashing Shields away for next year, Gaudin was really an extra part for us. Instead of having a pitcher we would hardly ever use, we now have an outfielder who can play all three positions and give us some quality ABs."

When asked if this trade was in response to an article that appeared in a Burlington, VT newspaper that gave Springfield an 8 Sherlag lead in the OF, Sherlag said "Of course not - what the heck is a Sherlag? I am not familiar with the article you are talking about, but if it said our OF was a little short, we know that was the case. That is why we pursued Pagan. We had him fairly high on our draft board and were not able to get him in the draft."

When asked if the Chows were done, Sherlag said "I don't know - if the right deal came along we would listen. We would still like to get a CF vs. LHP or a top LF vs. RHP (which would allow Beltran to play CF vs. L), but frankly I am not sure what we have to give up. Our entire roster now has a role. For the right player we could "

The Chows OF now consists of:

Bourn, Beltran, Willingham, Raburn, Fukudome, Pagan & Gomes (though Gomes will likely DH vs. LHP)