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| Chris Sampson | Chuck James |
| 7 - 7, 4.29 | 8 - 8, 3.55 |
So, the Braves trade Jarrod Saltalmacchia and four minor leaguers for Teixeira and a lefty reliever.
The Astros trade Morgan Ensberg for cash.
The Red Sox trade a lefty and two minor leaguers for Eric Gagne.
The Astros trade Dan Wheeler straight up for Ty Wigginton.
This is not my area of expertise, this arcane combination of etiquette and obscure major league law that determines what trade rumor becomes trade fact. I'm much better about raking my databases for useful numbers.
But if it had been decided that Wheeler and Ensberg had to go, couldn't we have received a little more in return than just Ty Wigginton? The question becomes even more puzzling when you realize that both departing players had actually been good lately.
After all, Ensberg's OPS since the break was over 1.000, and Wheeler's ERA since then was under 1.50.
When Wheeler left, I was certain that there was going to be another foot dropped. What I didn't realize was that foot was gonna be the DFAing of Ensberg. Once the team had announced that, it guaranteed that it wouldn't receive anything of value in return for Morgan.
Mark Loretta, a professional hitter who has seen his value to the Astros drained by his misalignment at short, remains on the team despite the undeniable fact that he would have had value to a contender.
Brad Lidge, who could have brought in a bounty probably superior to what Gagne brought, remains an Astro.
Again, this is not my area of expertise.
But couldn't all this have been handled better?