Pirates Call Up More Reinforcements from AAA, Evan Meek DFA’d

The Pittsburgh Pirates added three players to their roster today.

As we reported yesterday, The Pittsburgh Pirates have added infielder Chase d’Arnaud, right handed reliever Bryan Morris and selected Rick VandenHurk from Triple-A Indianapolis.

The Pirates needed room on their 40-man roster to get VandenHurk in Pittsburgh, so the Pirates have designated right-hander Evan Meek for assignment.

d’Arnaud hit the hell out of the ball in the short Indianapolis playoff series. He was the Bucs fourth rounder back in the 2008 First Year Player Draft. For the Indians during the regular season d’Arnaud had 34 stolen bases. Neal Huntington mentioned pinch running yesterday on his show, so I would think that d’Arnaud is going to be used primarily in that manner down the stretch.

d’Arnaud hit.252 while with Indy. The 25-year-old d’Arnaud struggled while getting his first shot in the bigs last season. He played in 48 games, but hit a paltry .217.

Morris, was recalled earlier this season, but didn’t appear in a game. The hard throwing Morris is the only remaining player the Pirates have from the Jason Bay trade. The reliever had a 2.67 ERA, but was pitching poorly as of late.

The most interesting move was the 27-year old VandenHurk who was the freaking Team MVP. Why it took this long for him to get to the big leagues is puzzling to us. He was lights out early in the season, but never got the call.  He wound up scuffling in the third portion of his season, but came back and fixed it.

The Pirates GM mentioned the team has beeen looking at him for a few years and noticed something with his mechanics that they believed they could fix.   They did that in a big way.  Check out Jayson Stark’s comments…

"Meanwhile, Benedict, the man who turned Charlie Morton into Roy Halladay Jr. last year, has helped the well-traveled Rick van den Hurk undergo a “Charlie Morton-esque” transformation this year, according to another scout. Van den Hurk is 13-5, with a 2.92 ERA and a 113-to-35 strikeout-to-walk ratio, in Triple-A, and now appears to figure in the Pirates‘ rotation plans for next year. “He used to be straight over the top, with an average curveball,” the same scout said. “Now he’s got a three-quarters slot, with a little turn in his delivery. He’s throwing a slider instead of a curve. He’s throwing 93-96 [mph], and it’s nasty. And that’s all Jim Benedict.”"

So why did the Pirates wait so long?

The right hander has made 46 big league appearances, thirty-five of them starts, for the Miami Marlins and Baltimore Orioles. While with Indy he made 19 starts and posted a 2.97 ERA.

2010 All-Star Evan Meek has been with the Bucs for five years and was a Rule 5 pickup by Neal Huntington. The right hander had shown a loss in velocity and was battling back from whatever was holding him back.