The Detroit Falcons, historically the weakest team in the Moonlight Graham League, pulled off what many WPK insiders are calling a trading coup today when they acquired 25-year old catching prospect Zach D'Amico from Portland in exchange for 25-year old reliever Jamil Morales and 23-year old starting pitching prospect Jesse Wilder.
D'Amico, the 2nd round draft pick for Portland in the 1975 amateur draft out of Washington College, looks like a potential future All-Star with solidly above average defense, a potent bat, and good leadership qualities.
While Jamil Morales is an already established big league reliever, his track record is pretty pedestrian and he is thought to be quite injury prone, particularly susceptible in the past few years to back issues.
And although Jesse Wilder could become an acceptable back-of-the-rotation starter at the WPK level, he is unlikely to develop anything more than an adequate third pitch and is likely to be prone to be susceptible to the long ball and wandering control challenges.
This looks like an astute trade by the Detroit front office.