The Sox acquired Tony Pena the right handed reliever in exchange for highly touted infield prospect Brandon Allen. Pena is the franchise leader in hold for the D-Backs with a total of 63. His current ERA is 4.24 allowing 16 ER in 34 IP. It appears either Poreda or Gobble will be sent down to make room. My guess is the Gobbler.
As for Allen he was hitting .282 in double and triple A with 8 HR's and 43 RBI in 63 games. He is expected to be placed in the Triple-A affiliate of the Diamondbacks.
This trade seems a little odd to me. From what I've gathered on Pena he has good enough stuff to get hitters out, and can be a great addition to the Sox pen, but he been struggling lately and according to D-Backs.com he has been unable to get lefties out on a consistent basis. I am 100% on the bandwagon to do what we need to do to make this team better now, but I'm not sure moving a good prospect for risky reliever was a good move. We have had much success with random relievers before (see Thornton, Dotel, Linebrink), but the deal as a whole, including the timing, seems a little off.
My only positive out of this deal is that maybe it is parter of a bigger deal. The whole Roy Halladay story blew up today and while it would seem that if the Sox were in the running there that people like Allen would be needed. But maybe this is setting up a replacement someone like a Dotel or a Linebrink as part of a bigger deal. If I had to guess I don't think the Sox will win the Halladay sweepstakes, but I wouldn't count Kenny Williams out on anything. And he might just be using this Halladay stuff to work a blockbuster under the table without anyone picking up on it.
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