Pittsburgh Pirates Trade Chris Resop, Our Photoshop Tribute to ‘The King’

Chris Resop was traded by the Pittsburgh Pirates to the Oakland A’s for a minor league pitcher.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have traded the King.  Chris Resop is now a member of the Oakland Athletics.  The reliever burst on the scene for the Pittsburgh Pirates with some impressive relief work throughout his tenure, but especially early.  Big strikeout numbers were put up by Resop and he pitched well enough to earn his first big payday.

It just won’t be coming from Bob Nutting and the Pittsburgh Pirates organization.

The continual usuage seemed to catch up with the power pitching reliever and the numbers weren’t as good as they once were, but it’s damn hard to judge what normal usage could produce for a player that was orginally drafted as an outfielder by the Florida Marlins back in 2001.

He was converted to the pen in 2003.   He never looked back despite facing some difficult times.  Naples favorite son recovered from elbow surgery to bounce back and work his way up through the Braves system.  In fact, his last start with the Braves Triple-A club he faced the minimum number of batters during an eight-strikeout one hitter.

When we spoke to him at Piratefest it was easy to tell his disdain for some of the conditions during his time pitching in Japan for the Hanshin Tigers.  It was easy to tell just how educated the man is, and how much he loved coming to the ballpark when the Bucs were leading the NL Central division.

The 30-year old right-hander made 61 relief appearances with the Bucs last season, tossing a career-high 73 2/3 innings as the pitching staff often failed to go deep into games, and the Pirates turned to overusing Resop.   As a result, the fist pumping mad-man used his signature move less and less as the innings piled up.   He stacked up the seventh most innings pitched among NL relievers.

Do you think the A’s see a bargain in Resop?   We get that feeling as well.   Maybe he will finally be converted back to starter as was suggested in this post?    Perhaps the A’s see it as many see it, Resop had an off year.

It’s sad, the Pirates got a sidewinding too-old-for-the-level reliever for Resop,apparently it’s better than nothing according to some.

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Resop provided some great memories during the non-collapse portion of the past two seasons.  One of our favorites was during the PNC Park opener this year:

"Rod Barajas?  We’re not sure about him. After he put his arm around Chris Resop, the Pirates pitcher seemed really pissed off. Some guys just ain’t touchy feely y’know? Next pitch the King threw a serious fastball to whiff some strange looking guy that must be a backup player because he throws weird and can’t hit for shit against the Bucs."

Many have asked why we call him the King.  C’mon.  Chris Resop has the beard. The regal look of a king. And he often inherited the other Pirates pitchers problems like a distinguished diplomat.

We jokingly called the right hander the King of the Scrapheap with his impressive performances for the Pirates after Neal Huntington and company nabbed him off the Atlanta Braves stockpile.

Remember all the inheritance we spoke of above?   Don’t forget it was Resop that consistently inherited baserunners, 39 at one point two years ago which was the most in the majors at the time.

In his most successful campaigns, peril never fazed the King.

We liked this photoshop from one of those impressive runs:

Resop has represented the Pirates faithful followers well when he exits his throne in the bullpen. Just look at what Resop has put up in his past thirty games.

Chris Resop has been impressive coming out of the Pirates bullpen.

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Good Luck in Oakland Chris Resop.  We have a feeling you will do well.