Huzzah! Trades!
Trades are awesome. All other roster moves pale in comparison to the blockbuster trade. Free agents acquisitions are just free markets models. One is bidding against all. When drafting, order and availability limits your choices. All that limits your ability to trade is needs and the relative intelligence of the person with whom you’re trading . Trades! Trades are dyadic. There is a winner, and a loser. There is a sense of push-and-pull, mutual respect coupled with the lingering hope that you ripped someone off. Trades are the impetus of discussion. Should the player have been drafted higher? Should he be paid that much? These questions pale in comparison to “who got the better of the deal?” A lopsided trade can change the course not just of one team, but two teams. The stakes are high. The after-effects of trades can linger for ages. Players and GMs can be defined by the trades they’ve been a part of. A seemingly benign part of a trade can skew large in the long run. This is why trades are so much fun to suggest, and dissect. Today, we do the latter. Oh, and I’ll give you my dunk-a-roos for your snack pack.
Braves get 1B Mark Teixeira and LHP Ron Mahay
Rangers get C/1B Jarrod Saltalamacchia, SS Elvis Andrus, two additional prospects.
Pending physicals, this is one of those prototypical prospects for veterans trade. The contending team unloads a promising, but ill-fitting prospect (Saltalamacchia) in order to get a veteran who’s been wasting away on a team that won’t contend during his contract (Teixeira). The trade makes sense both teams. The Rangers get a little younger to maybe buy some time to actually field a competitive team around Saltalamacchia. Teixeira keeps the Braves right in the NL East race. I’m not too happy about Teixeira leaving Texas, I just thought there was something sublime about that, but the Rangers get another awesome name in return. Saltalamacchia. Awesome.
Ah, now this trade appears to be the same deal as above, prospects for a vet, but this trade will likely have more disastrous consequences. Firstly, we are assuming that with Danny Ainge and Kevin McHale involved it is more likely than not that this trade won’t work out at all, for anyone. But, call me crazy, this seems like an upgrade for both teams. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett could very well win the East, where a pretty good duo has no real equal. The Pistons are run down; Shaq is old and D-Wade is reckless; and the LeBrons still don’t have any help. Now, out West, the Timberwolves are nowhere near competing. So why not take a flier and hope that Jefferson, Green and Telfair all reach their potential during the downswing of the Suns, Mavs and Spurs teams. Now, it is pretty unlikely that the former Celtics will form a nucleus capable of winning anything, but Garnett and no one was just a waste of Garnett. The Timberwolves were screwed either way, why not be screwed with a faint glimmer of hope on the horizon, that will slowly torture fans of Minnesota.
Tony Taylor trades Michael Vick’s friendship for a potentially more lenient sentencing.
A good trade for everyone who isn’t Michael Vick.
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