Not what I expected
The Diamondbacks just shifted Dan Haren… to the Angels. What? What a weird move.
First off, the Diamondbacks didn’t get sufficient value in return. Joe Saunders, two scrubs, and a player to be named later? Remember when you guys got Dan Haren in the first place? Remember how you traded six players for him, some of whom were actually good? You should have been looking for something like that. Maybe at least one player who’s actually good. But, no; you got Joe Saunders, who sucks on ice. You got Rafael Rodriguez, who seems to be pretty average and has pitched 32 innings in the majors. You got Patrick Corbin, who has never pitched at the major league level. And what else? Oh, right; you got a player so integral to the deal that nobody’s even decided who it is yet. And you gave up one of the best active pitchers. Face it, guys: you just got taken to the cleaners. If you’d waited until right up against the non-waiver deadline and the Yankees had slipped into second place? You could have had like seven prospects, a pile of cash, and your choice of George Steinbrenner’s mummified organs.
Meanwhile, I don’t get this trade from the Angels’ perspective either. You guys really think Dan Haren is the difference between you and the Rangers? I think you need more than one starting pitcher, however awesome. Specifically, I think you need a shortstop, you need an outfielder who can actually play defense, and holy dick do you guys need a third baseman.
There are still opportunities out there. We’re not done trying to improve our club.
That’s Angels GM Tony Reagins explaining to you that, even though the Halos have like literally no prospects of any value anywhere in the organisation, they’re still going to try to patch up some of the leaks in the ship. It’s really starting to look like that plan of replacing Vlad Guerrero (OPS+ 132) with Hideki Matsui (OPS+ 97), replacing all your outfielders with older, less-mobile versions of themselves, and replacing Chone Figgins with ??? maybe wasn’t such a good idea after all.
