This doesn't particularly make the deal much worse; viewed in the context of an offseason where we dealt a solid righty multi-inning reliever supposedly because he cost too much and to acquire a center fielder. Now we turn around and trade another cheap middle reliever (ostensibly Villareal's replacement) for a more expensive and injury prone center fielder. In my book that's two steps backward and none forward. I'd much rather be paying Villareal $2.6 million over the next two years AND have Devine in my pen and Richmond at Myrtle Beach then have Kotsay in my trainer's room and Anderson playing regularly over Blanco.

And I'm willing to give Frank Wren the benefit of the doubt. The Renteria deal was pure genius in my mind, but trading Villareal for basically nothing and now getting Kotsay when you have a better option absolutely destroying winter ball? C'mon.

Every time Devine took the ball, i had to either change the channel or grab the maalox.  This kid has to leave, to try something else, to do something different  - b/c he is tainted.  So, we barely lost anything, one little prospect, and the long ball gift giver, for the chance to not stress out for the first half of our season.

I think Wren's doing a damn good job, and i'm more optimistic this year than i have been in three.

Let's say Kotsay plays slightly beyond the level of A-Rod last season and racks up a surreal 100 VORP.  That would mean that if Joey Devine's average value over his six years under team control would only have to be roughly equivalent to Ryan Madson's 2007 in order to eclipse that!  If you want to be more realistic (and still optimistic) let's say he's Eric Byrnes circa 2007, Devine would just need to average a VORP of about 7 (Kerry Wood did that in five games, 250 pitchers were more valuable, etc.) I'm not even including any possible impact that Jamie Richmond might have (minimal in my opinion).  

We significantly overpaid for an injured prone, declining CF, period.  

I don't think it will put us in the World series, so why make it.

Don't seriously say that would be rushing his development. Few prospects spend three years at the top two minor league levels.

And no one's saying he'll be a stud or that he has much of a future with the Braves. But if he could put up a realistic .275/.350/.375 and play average defense, that would be equivalent to Mark Kotsay's contribution to the team this year and without dumping two young pitchers and spending $2,000,000.

Josh Anderson? Another guy who's played three seasons at the Double-A and Triple-A levels. Another guy who's posted solid numbers. Another go who could go out there and hit #8 and post below average production for 140 games and do it for $2,000,000 and two pitchers cheaper.

Seriously folks, major league experience doesn't equal jack if 1. they aren't healthy and 2. they aren't productive anymore. Kotsay has a poor track record health wise and doesn't even have much of an upside anymore as anything but a below average hitter in center field. I don't want to even think about if he's not healthy. That's two million down the drain and we're right back where we started.

So what that Blanco is not rated all that high. Maybe he could be a Charles Thomas for a year. Who knows? And plus I read on a site that said some scouts said that Blanco is the BEST outfielder defensively that they have ever seen. And then a quote from Eddie Perez said "you never saw Andruw Jones"? So Blanco right there will be better than Kotsay.

Do we actually need ANOTHER injury proned player on this team? We already have Hampton and Chipper(yes I know Chipper was healthy last year but you never know about him). We will be lucky to get 100 games out of Kotsay. I really believe that Blanco will be just as good as Kotsay at least for one year.

"This deal fits the needs for both teams. A healthy Kotsay would be a big upgrade over Anderson and a nice one-year bridge to center-field prospect Jordan Schafer, and he didn't cost the Braves a top prospect. From the A's standpoint, they weren't going to win this year or re-sign Kotsay afterward, so picking up a couple of arms for him makes sense."