I mean, hindsight being hindsight and all, the results are just such a disaster. Its really hard to lose so much value in any deal. Heilman’s been better than Putz, Chavez much better than Reed, Smith even a bit better than Green, and for that, we gave away three useful prospects, including the guy who would have played first base this year, a guy who wasn’t yet 20 and could throw high 90s heat, and a guy who looks like a fourth outfielder in waiting. BP’s got Carps MLE EQA at .272, while Murphy is at .252. Blech.

The problem is there’s not enough content to fill out the full hour, so they pad it with announcers, trash talking, and stuff like a press conference. But that just slows the show’s pacing down and gets boring. Although it’s still less painful to watch than the Mets. With Johan gone, I’m not sure if there’s even a reason for me to watch another game this season.

Yes, I can see how you might think so, what with all of the other 1Bs we have on the roster. We went into the season with exactly 2 players who we knew could play first: Delgado and Tatis. Both well over 30, and one coming off a highly improbable half-season, and had had barely 300 ML ABs during the previous 5 years. The only major-league ready player in the minors we could call up to play first is Nick Evans, and we all know perfectly well you don’t think he’s good enough to be a starter. Right now, we’re playing Daniel (86 OPS+) Murphy at 1B. I’ll be the first to admit that he’s definitely not this bad a hitter, but there is no way that Murphy should be playing first for us on a regular basis. Carp wasn’t redundant at all, and as it turns out, we desperately needed him this season. Like I said in the other thread yesterday, he’d probably be our starting 1B right now if we hadn’t traded him.

As for the other guys, they weren’t exactly useless, either. Joe Smith’s FIP this season is 3.77, and that’s despite his GB% falling from 62.6 to 55.3. Heilman’s FIP is 4.47, and he’s managed to cut his BB rate back closer to his career numbers. I understand the idea behind clearing out the bullpen since it was chiefly responsible for our not making the playoffs last year, but both Smith and Heilman have pitched well enough this season that they would have been useful to us. And the prospects aren’t ‘redundant’, either. Cleto may be far, far away, but he’s 20 and throws in the mid-high 90’s. There just aren’t many pitchers like that. Carrera has managed to lower his K rate despite moving into a new league, although his BABIP is absurdly high.

except that he had this injury when we traded for him. We didn’t give up any star players, but we gave up a lot of depth this team needs. If Putz’s injury just happened during this season, then it was unlucky, but knowing of it and still making the trade is just idiotic.

And man, Endy’s catch! I was sad when I found out they traded Endy. Who didn’t love that guy?