The Cost for Pitching

I think I'm still in shock at the price in prospects that Arizona paid for Dan Haren. Of course that assumes that I'm not also still in shock at what Detroit gave up for Miguel Cabrera and the D-Train. If there is sanity in the silver lining, then these trades might reinforce the notion that the Braves gave up what the market called for and did not overpay when they acquired Mark Teixeira and Ron Mahay. To this day there is a part of me that still thinks we might have given up too much to get the switch-hitting first baseman, but at least these other trades suggest that the cost for the game's top pitchers and hitters is a king's ransom of top prospects.

Just last week I suggested that a trade for one of the top starters rumored to be available would take a whole lot away from our system. With the eventual haul in the Haren trade we can see that the cost was even greater than expected. From Gammons' article I posited that it would take our first, third, and fifth best prospects to begin the trade talks. As it turns out, the cost ended up being Arizona's first, third, seventh, and eighth top prospects (as they are ranked by Baseball America), plus two more bullpen/fringe starter arms. I won't even begin to equate that with what the Braves would likely have had to give up, you can check out our top prospects for yourself and pick which five we would have likely had to send to Oakland.

Like I said, I'm in shock! Arizona got a great pitcher in Haren, but gave up a ton of talent - almost too many good young players for just one guy (I don't consider Conner Robertson anything more than a player thrown in on Oakland's side to make the trade "look" more balanced). This run of trades of young starters we are likely to see continue, reminds me of the last time baseball had a run on young arms. It was the winter of 2004 and Oakland was once again unloading its staff aces. The price we paid back then for Tim Hudson was our top pitching prospect, Dan Meyer, an erratic young hard throwing bullpen arm in Juan Cruz, and the fan favorite Charles Thomas. Really, that was all! What a steal that trade turned out to be. Of course, Meyer got injured and has never been the same, Cruz was shipped out a year later to Arizona after posting a 7.44 ERA in Oakland, and Chucky-T was never really given a chance by the A's, appearing in only 30 games (46 at-bats) and batting .109.

This was a trade in which we gave up only one real prospect, and this was only three years ago. The A's made out a bit better when they traded Mark Mulder two days later in December of 2004, acquiring reliever Kiko Calero, a guy who is now one of their top infield prospects in Daric Barton, and a right-handed starter named Dan Haren. The Cardinals, who acquired Mulder, didn't make out as well, as Mulder declined rapidly after injuries and fatigue caused him to miss the last year and a half.

The third member of the three headed monster in Oakland was Barry Zito. I think we all know that he has fallen flat since signing a ridiculous contract with the Giants last year.

As it turns out we seemed to have gotten the best pitcher out of the group in Oakland that was Hudson, Mulder, and Zito, and we got him without having to give up too much in the way of prospects in return. But it seems the days of hoodwinking a GM with the likes of a Charles Thomas are over. And getting away with sending just one top prospect in return for an established player is a distant memory.

What the Braves have done this year by signing Tom Glavine is to buy time until the young pitching in our system - guys like Hanson, Rohrbough, Locke, and company - are ready for the majors. They also have two interim arms in Jo-Jo Reyes and Jair Jurrjens (the killer J's) who might develop into solid major league rotation regulars. That's two good waves of pitching which should replenish the Atlanta rotation from within, not to mention the anomalies like Charlie Morton who may come along in between those two groups and become contributors. This is what we're going to have to rely on - building from within - as it seems the price for pitching on the trade market might be more than we can afford.