After one final negotiation on the eve of the Trade Deadline that is really nothing more than a polite going through the motions, we ship Jim Burton out to the 'Stros for a couple cheap guys who might just give us something down the track.
Jim's demands for the next two seasons had actually ballooned to $12m+ and, while we are able to pay that sort of money I just don't believe he's the guy I want to be spending it on.
Tom plays 1B and a barely acceptable catcher in addition to CF and was selected in mind purely for the eventuation of Kmerce Kmet not being with us much longer. Daniel, a middle IF, has hit over 300 in limited ops up in the bigs, which is well above his scouting projections. For now, both will start at AAA. Rick Forney gets the call-up to replace Jim.