Knight pick Vernon Wells, add Lackey, Paulino, & Burke

While it may not be nearly enough to catch the Clabberbones, the Harlan Knights made a few moves to help solidify their roster at Tuesday night's All-Star Party at Terry Milt's house.
The first move occurred when GM Derek Harlan selected Vernon Wells with the 2nd pick of the AL midseason draft. "We felt going in that he (Wells) and Liriano were the top 2 guys available," said Harlan. "We had decided that whichever one was there at number 2 was the guy we were going to take. Wells is the total package and should help out our outfield tremendously."
The Knights then traded Felix Hernandez to the Double Down in exchange for the 11th pick. With that pick the team acquired John Lackey. "Man, we really liked Lackey. He's a guy that's still getting better and has had a good second half the past few years. We look for him to really help our staff," said Harlan.
Filling a need at catcher, the Knights sent Cesar Izturis to the Reunion for Ronnie Paulino. "We had originally hoped to talk with Scott (Quinn, VFR owner/GM) about Piazza, but after dealing him we figured we'd need to go in another direction. Turns out Scott has catchers growing on a tree in his back yard and we were able to swing a deal that should help both clubs," stated Harlan.
The last trade of the night saw the Knights dealing Ramon E. Martinez and Marlon Byrd to the Red Barons in exchange for Chris Burke. "Burke is a guy we like because he should get some ABs for Houston in the 2nd half, provided they don't go and trade for a guy like Aubrey Huff," said Harlan. "Oh, they did already? Well, that sucks for us now doesn't it."
The MLB season resumes Thursday.