Why do you seem so willing to dump Juan Encarnacion? If I were Josh Byrnes, and you presented me with the trades listed above, the only one I would consider is #3. Keep in mind that Josh Byrnes' two most notable tendencies are to try to buy low and sell high, and when the price is right, to trust veterans in the twilight of their careers. Regarding your proposals,

#1. Juan Encarnacion? Why would we want him? Finding outfielders that hit .270 isn't a difficult task. We've got enough young outfielders that if we were to trade Q, we could still get somebody from the minors to play RF well enough. The reason we were playing Q for so long this year wasn't desperation, it was that we wanted to get him major league experience. Braden Looper? Not interested. Starting pitchers with a 4.6 ERA are a dime a dozen. Since he was a decent closer, if we needed bullpen help, I'd think about it, but fortunately, our bullpen is (somewhat unexpectedly) possibly our strongest area. Looper just isn't Apocalyptic enough to join the Dbacks bullpen. (Read the site if you don't get the reference)

#2. Carlos Quentin for Anthony Reyes, straight up? I don't think so. Sure, Reyes was expected to do great things, and may still. However, I think you Cards ppl may have caught lightning in a bottle in game 1 of the WS, and the regular season game vs. the White Sox. Yes, he pitched well, and shut down the Tigers for awhile, but remember that the Tigers didn't have any major league scouting on him; he was an unknown commodity. Our rookie Micah Owings debuted with 5 innings of shutout 1 hit ball; we still love him, but he's now got a 4.92 ERA and is 5-5. Edgar Gonzalez was similarly impressive. Additionally, during that whole 2006 world series, (no offense) the Tigers should have won. The Cardinals got hot right when it mattered, and Detroit didn't. (Which is to their credit) By the way, I think LaRussa made a stupid decision in starting a rookie pitcher, in Reyes, in game 1. Of course, it paid off, but it was still dumb.

#3. This may be a stupid observation, but if you gave me the option of #1, #2, or #3, of course I'm going to move towards #3 before #2 because you're offering another player. In comparison, #3 looks enticing, only because #2 looks like such a lousy deal. However, after taking a step back, the Encarnacion argument from #1 still applies, as does the Anthony Reyes argument from #2. Encarnacion is a good player, and is better than Carlos Quentin right now, but we still believe Q could be pretty impressive down the road. Encarnacion still becomes redundant in our organization. And is Juan Encarnacion REALLY going to help us get to the postseason THIS YEAR? Probably not, making his acquisition irrelevant. The fact that Encarnacion is signed through '08 is a slight plus, though we believe that Justin Upton will be starting for us somewhere in the outfield by then. Next, Anthony Reyes... well, like I said,  I'm not sure whether or not we'll trust his performance so far. Especially since he's had his chance to prove himself this year, and his ERA is over 6. Then again, Byrnes doesn't mind trading for young pitchers; witness the Yusmeiro Petit deal.

In summation, I believe that neither I, nor Josh Byrnes, would go with any of those trade options.

Of course, you haven't heard the authoritative word on anything D'backs until Jim's posted.

However, in Baseball America's top 100 prospects, Reyes and Quentin both showed up in 2005 and 2006.  Quentin was around 20-25, Reyes 40-45.  So these guys weren't really that far off from each other, and many GMs value pitching much more than positional players.  I think you might be shocked that your GM might be more receptive towards the bottom 2, but you guys know your team and GM much better than I do.

The other thing of course, is to see how fans value their own players and prospects.  I've proposed similar types of trades on three of these blogs now, and of course there's my own view of all the Cardinals fans on Viva El Birdos.  All the trades/countertrades I've now seen seem very lopsided, such as trade #1 here, proposed by a VEB poster(I pretty much figured that if Quentin were as good as he seems to be, that'd be a no-brainer "hell no")

Oh, the last comment isn't meant to be derogatory towards any of you.  As I said, it applies equally to the fans of the other 2 sites and to the fans of my very own Cardinals, too.  Just pointing out something I found to be interesting :)

Thanks for the input.

But, generally, I'm not inclined to trade Quentin yet. I still think he has a huge amount of potential, and it's unlikely his trade value would be decreased by hanging on to him for another season. I think the players we should be looking at trading are those who are performing above and beyond their perceived level, rather than those who are disappointing. "Buy low, sell high" is the mantra, and looking at the deals Arizona has made since Josh B has arrived makes it seem likely it's one shared by the organization. [See the arrival and departure of Johnny Estrada, for example] Eric Byrnes and Orlando Hudson are the players we should be shopping around, just as soon as we finish dropping out of the NL West race. Which, on current form, will be in about three days. :-(

For the starting pitching, though, the FO would probably take anyone upright, breathing, and nourishment if they can go 6 or 7 innings a game.