Dan Haren and Connor Robertson to ARI, Carlos Gonzalez, Brett Anderson, Greg Smith, Dana Eveland, and 2 others to OAK

[Brawndo the Thirst Mutilat]

Haren & Connor Robertson for 6 prospects including Carlos Gonzalez, Brett Anderson, and Greg Smith:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/14/SPQTTUU9P.DTL

Looks like the beginning of full-blown rebuilding in Oakland. Might be time to make serious inquiries on Eric Chavez.

[TooLiveBrew]

Yeah, no kidding, BTTM. What a pickup for Arizona, but they gave up what looks to be a lot. Haren is a fantastic pitcher.

[SoCalBrewfan]

In a third deal (Callaspo / Buckner is the other one):

 

In addition, the D-backs sent closer Jose Valverde to the Astros in exchange for infielder Chris Burke and right-handers Chad Qualls and Juan Gutierrez.

[trwi7]

They gave up Eveland to Oakland as well. Aaron Cunningham and Chris Carter were the other two prospects.

[SoCalBrewfan]

The six prospects going to the As, and their rankings in the recent BA list for Arizona, are OF Carlos Gonzalez (#1), LHP Brett Anderson (#3), OF Aaron Cunningham (#7), 1B Chris Carter (#8, recently acquired from Chicago WS), plus Greg Smith and Dana Eveland (remember him?).

 

Lots of swag for the As who are clearly tearing down...nice to see some talent flowing to the NL for a change, but it of course makes Arizona that much more formidable in the short term.

[BuckyTuba]

Interesting to see Eveland head to Oakland. I think he could flourish there.

[brewtank34]

Tejada and Valverde are some nice pick-ups for the 'stros. I like what they're doing. These two transactions just made the NL Central a very difficult division.

[crewcrazy]

Wow...kudos to Billy Beane for holding out until he got that package. And the Yankees thought Melky Cabrera and Phil Hughes would've gotten them Haren...heh. It's a nice short-term move for the Diamondbacks, but they emptied out their farm system for him. I get the feeling that a lot of those young players Oakland got are going to get the chance to play in the majors this year, so it's not like it's a horrible short-term trade for the A's, either.

 

You kind of have to pick Arizona to win close to 100 games with the amount of young talent they have and that rotation, don't you? They lost Livan Hernandez but replaced him with Haren, their bullpen is still one of the deepest in the league, and guys like Drew, Reynolds, Young, Upton, etc. are going to keep getting better.

[brettac1]

I'm glad for Heavy D that he gets to go to Oakland. Hopefully he gets a chance.

[Oldcity]

You have to think that Chavez and Blanton will be on the move, and maybe Street.

[endaround]

Giving up Qualls to get Valverde is lateral at best

[dadofandrew]

Nice to see a pair of moves now (BAL & OAK) that worried only about talent and not winning 65 games next year.

[Ennder]

Interesting to see Eveland head to Oakland. I think he could flourish there.

 

He certainly could use a pitchers park to hide his poor skills.

 

Tejada and Valverde are some nice pick-ups for the 'stros. I like what they're doing. These two transactions just made the NL Central a very difficult division.

 

I'll be shocked if they come close to .500, no pitching, still only a marginal lineup. You forgot Matsui too if you want to paint a full picture of their offseason.

[sbrylski]

That is a hell of a package the A's got there. Not only very good players, but like infinity of them.

[danzig6767]

Arizona had to give up a lot. Most high quality starting pitchers that are available for a trade are guys entering the last year of their contract. Haren is signed for three years at a team friendly rate. Santana is a better pitcher, but whoever trades for him has to fork over 120-140 million while Haren will only make 16 million the next three years.

 

Good trade for both teams, if of course a few of the guys Beane got pan out.

[Brian the Automator]

The A's got a package of _relatively_ low-ceiling players here. As others have mentioned, this smacks of all-out fire-sale. With the Angels seemingly in position to run away the division no matter how healthy the A's could have been, the time is perfect to rebuild.

[yoshii8]

If Randy Johnson gets healthy and has a decent season, the D-backs are going to have an amazing pitching staff. Webb, Haren, Johnson and Davis are very solid. They have a nice bullpen and lineup also. I think this makes them the favorite in the NL West for sure. I think this is going to make the Dodgers try harder to acquire Bedard or Santana, or possibly even Sheets.

 

Nice pickup from the A's. I wonder if they are going to have a total firesale now. I wouldn't mind Chavez, Blanton or Swisher if they are.

[GAME05]

"Tejada and Valverde are some nice pick-ups for the 'stros. I like what they're doing"

 

i don't really know. Valverde seems very anxious to become a FA and doesn't seem to want to sign a contract past arby, and Tejada is on the downside of his career. And suddenly what sort of youth do the Astros have in their system anymore? i guess i just see the Astros as more then a couple good players away from winning the division. of course these two make them a pretty decent club, but i don't think i'm ready to say that they're suddenly more talented then the Brewers or the Cubs.

[Brian the Automator]

i don't really know. Valverde seems very anxious to become a FA and doesn't seem to want to sign a contract past arby, and Tejada is on the downside of his career. And suddenly what sort of youth do the Astros have in their system anymore? i guess i just see the Astros as more then a couple good players away from winning the division. of course these two make them a pretty decent club, but i don't think i'm ready to say that they're suddenly more talented then the Brewers or the Cubs.

I don't think you're truly embracing the whole "scorched earth" plan that the Astros are going for.

 

[GenoSeligPrieb]

The Oakland plan? Not so brilliant right now.

 

Sure, Beane is trading for nuggets and all, doing things "the right way." But Haren's salary wasn't handcuffing the A's, and with Harden doing a better Ben Sheets impersonation that Ben himself on the DL every year, their rotation is now arguably the worst in the AL. And that starting lineup? Daric Barton? Kurt Suzuki? Even The Great Jack Cust was named in the Mitchell report. Feh!

[sbrylski]

The Oakland plan? Not so brilliant right now.

 

Sure, Beane is trading for nuggets and all, doing things "the right way." But Haren's salary wasn't handcuffing the A's, and with Harden doing a better Ben Sheets impersonation that Ben himself on the DL every year, their rotation is now arguably the worst in the AL. And that starting lineup? Daric Barton? Kurt Suzuki? Even The Great Jack Cust was named in the Mitchell report. Feh!

 

Geno, are you blind!? How can anyone deny the Oakland A's success over the past decade!? We've had this discussion before, and it just blows my mind how you continue to say this.

 

87, 91, 102, 103, 96, 91, 88, 93 wins from 1999 to 2006, playoffs in bold. I'll give you the no championships, but the playoffs are such a crapshoot that getting there as often as possible is the best bet to win. If you don't consider this a success on a smaller payroll (which we have, quit pretending like we don't or could spend if we wanted to), I have no idea what you are thinking.

 

If you have eight seasons like the A's had, I think you've earned a peroid of re-tooling, which ALL teams have to do at some point regardless of payroll, spending habits, or philospophy.

 

[Ennder]

I dont' know the prospects well enough to comment but I do know that the A's had no real shot at contending before Haren's final season and minorleagueball.com puts a few of those prospects into the top 10 list for the A's. When you get 2-4 prospects put into your top 10 for 1 player it is usually at least an ok deal.

[GenoSeligPrieb]

"Geno, are you blind!? How can anyone deny the Oakland A's success over the past decade!? We've had this discussion before, and it just blows my mind how you continue to say this."

 

OK, a little out of character for you, Sam, but I AM entitled to my opinion, ain't I?

 

I outlined my line of thought on this matter before, and to keep it brief, I thought the A's started out (those 90-100 win seasons) with a great business model, at first.

 

But since then, Billy Beane has squandered his chance at greatness. They never won a pennant in all his years, which suggests his teams were overmatched by better teams from Detroit, Boston, New York, Anaheim...once they were the default AL West champs.

 

So, instead of building on some great pesonnel his scouting director drafted for him, and retooling for a better chance next year, Billy Beane took the overconfident Kenny Williams tack by playing fanstasy baseball as GM of a real team, because he had too much confidence in his own abilities to rebuild whenever he wanted to. Trade away dependable star pitchers for nuggets, allow stars to walk for compensatory draft choices....again and again in a perpetual cycle. Only Beane's luck has inevitably run out, and now his hitting and pitching have fallen into disrepair.

 

Sure, those 90-100 winm seasons were awesome. But they were earned by Hudson, Giambi, Mulder, Tejada, Zito.... Now they're all gone, and the A's will stink in '08, and probably for a while after that, too.

 

I stand by what I typed, even though I apparently was blind when I typed it. I'd still hate to have a Beane/Williams type GM like that in Milwaukee.

[sbrylski]

What makes Beane's decline different from the Braves decline, or the Cardinals decline? ALL managing strategies eventually result in re-tooling periods.

 

Calling one team's decade of success "luck" and implying that others are not, simply because you disagree with the managerial strategy, seems to me like blatantly ignoring the facts and distorting your conclusion to support your own opinion. It was the Braves dominance that was partially/mostly luck, IMO. They had three of the greatest pitcher of all time fall into their laps at the same time...

 

Sure, those 90-100 winm seasons were awesome. But they were earned by Hudson, Giambi, Mulder, Tejada, Zito....

 

Comparing the 2000 roster to 2003, 8 starting players (of positional and rotation) were different. Comparing 2003 to 2006, 10 players were different. And I'm sure within those periods there was even more change.

 

Comparing 2000 (first playoff appearance) to 2006 (most recent appearance), every spot on the 25 man roster was different except for Eric Chavez.

 

To attribute the Athletic's success throughout the period to just a few players doesn't hold water to me. Sounds more like excellent management to keep payroll manageable while keeping the team extremely competitive.

 

 

(And also, I had [blunt][/blunt] tags around that first post, but took them out before I posted, FWIW.)

[danzig6767]

So, instead of building on some great pesonnel his scouting director drafted for him, and retooling for a better chance next year, Billy Beane took the overconfident Kenny Williams tack by playing fanstasy baseball as GM of a real team, because he had too much confidence in his own abilities to rebuild whenever he wanted to. Trade away dependable star pitchers for nuggets, allow stars to walk for compensatory draft choices....again and again in a perpetual cycle. Only Beane's luck has inevitably run out, and now his hitting and pitching have fallen into disrepair.

I'd assume that Beane would have liked to have the payroll to be able to keep some of those guys he had to trade and also be able to add to those good teams in free agency. Beane very well could be a type that enjoys the challenge of building winners on a small market franchise, but i doubt that he was thrilled to be forced to trade some of those proven guys the A's developed. If your owner gives you a set payroll amount that's lower than the other contenders, tough choices need to be made once the better players are about to reach free agency.

 

I'm sure we'll find that out here in a few years once all our young kids start using up their service time. Some will likely be traded in the same fashion guys like Tejada and Mulder were traded.