Acquiring Haren and selling high on Valverde, I love it!!

First, the Valverde deal. I love it. You toss Valverde, who, while effective this year and 05, looked horrible in 06, for the remarkably consistant Qualls, who slots right into the 7th inning, get a reasonable prospect (4th in the Astros system according to BA) who held the PCL to a 4.15 ERA in Gutierrez, and a decent utility guy in Chris Burke, who looked pretty damn good in 06. I'd almost take Qualls for Valverde straight up, if only to lower my blood pressure. Gotta think this, if not a clear win for us, fits into JByrnes' ptiching strategy.

Second, the Callaspo deal. When you're able to keep Bonifacio and deal for Burke, 2B is not your problem, ODawg contract discussions notwithstanding. You flip a guy not in our short or long term plans for a guy in Buckner who can help in the bullpen today, or start at the back end of the rotation soonish. That's a win in my book.

Third, the Haren deal. We all love Haren, and rightfully so. Three years of ace-like quality at a huge discount? Seriously? Go us! But 6 prospects makes you wonder... However, notice the lack of any major league guys, the lack of Scherzer, Parker, or Bonifacio. I'm happy that the system wasn't fully gutted. Yeah, Cunningham and Carter look like studs, but they were virtually free to acquire and we're set long term at 1B and the OF. As for Eveland; Gutierrez, Buckner, and Petit make him redundant. Smith is a solid prospect, and I hope he doesn't blossom in Oakland, but I think I'll live with out him. The loss of CarGon and Anderson hurt, but Anderson is supposed to pale in comparison to Parker, and again, we don't need an outfielder in the short or long term. I call it a win, but time will tell; I actually regret losing Smith...

In all, this fits perfectly with JByrnes' operating MO. Gotta be excited to be a D-Back fan today...

The Valverde deal, I think that was a nice move and a good dump of a pitcher that's not a lock to be a top closer.

I think we lock Hudson up, or we're REALLY sold on Bonifacio; either way, I don't see Burke as a long term 2B option for us.

I'm not crazy about us giving Greg Smith AND Brett Anderson, but at the same time I'm not sure if they'd ever be impact pitchers.  Likewise, I'm not crazy about us giving up on Callaspo, but I'm hoping that the idea is that we go after Hudson, which I like.

I've stated my case against Haren and I still don't believe that he'll be as good here as he was in Oakland, but there's worse pitchers you can have on your team.  He's relatively cheap, which is rarely a bad thing.

I don't see any reason to bring Burke to Arizona.  Yes, he's a nice bench guy, but if it's between Burke and Callaspo, I'd rather have Callaspo.  Oh well.

So, in all, I think JB has done pretty well.  People that shouldn't have been traded (Parra, Parker, Scherzer, Upton, Young, Jackson) weren't and we've improved the team.

http://mlbfleecefactor.com/2007/12/15/the-2008-arizona-diamondbacks/

sorry!

But that's not all.  At that point Haren had had 26 starts and 24 of them were Quality Starts.  (Webb had "only" 17 QS out of his first 26.)  Haren's only 2 bad games came vs. the Bronx Bombers. His ERA against them: 6.97.  Against everybody else:  2.15.

So how come he went 2-5 down the stretch?  Quite simply, they wore him out.  On August 16 he threw 121 pitches. That came after 113 and 109 pitch outings.  It was too much.  He managed only one QS in his next 5 games, going 1-3 and 6.59.  Remarkably he came back after that to post 3 straight QS's and a 2.70 ERA to close out the season, although his record was only 1-2.  So outside of that one bad stretch he not only outpitched Webby but Jake Peavy as well!  As it was he tied Peavy with 28 QS.  Webb finished in a 5-way tie for 11th with 22.

The last time the D'backs had 2 aces heading their rotation was 2001.  Now if RJ is healthy...  

I'm a huge fan of both trades.  Particularly of the Valverde trade.  Qualls is really underrated, hurls in a hitters' park, and is under contract (only $400K this year) until 2011.  Beautiful.  I never liked Burke, but I think he was swapped for Callaspo since he's more flexible in the field.  He also has a bit more speed and HR potential.  Seems like a savvy organizational move.

The Haren deal is not quite the coup that the Valverde deal was, but still a solid trade.  I actually think it serves both teams well.  For us we get an excellent starter in Haren who will provide a very legitimate #2 starter.  His numbers are slightly inflated because he plays in the Colosseum, but of course he's also playing in the AL.  No question he's a solid #2.  We gave up a lot for him, but nobody who was untouchable, and that is the key.  I think Byrnes is being very savvy to do a quantity for quality deal at this juncture.  We've got the lineup slotted out for the next few years.  There's no reason to pack out the minor leagues.  Of course none of the prospects (Upton, Young, Scherzer, etc) are stone cold locks, but the organizational depth is a luxury that I believe has been utilized by Byrnes for immediate help.

The Dodgers and Rockies have to have to queasy this morning!

That would pretty much cover it, wouldn't it?  Players do, in general, turn out to be better or worse than projected.  Brilliant analysis.  Kidding aside, Nico is right.  These are the types of judges that are impossible to judge when this number of minor leaguers is involved.  In Anderson and Gonzalez they may have two very strong all-star level major leaguers.  If one of them pans out and the other is a good contributor, it's a good deal for them.

Seems to me that more teams are shifting to the quantity approach with the minor leaguers in these trades with the very top of each team's farm crop being untouchable.