RIP to the big three

[FiddySicks]

the A's might face Muelder 2 or 3 times in a World Series

so what your saying is that the A's will never face mulder

[KennyRock]

I think I'll chime in on this trade...

To me, this was a bad trade for the A's. Like my friend told me (he's a cubs fan, but he was born that way so you can't really hate him for it) if you're Billy Beane talking trading one of the big three to St. Louis, you don't talk to them unless the first words out of Walt Jocketty's mouth is "Ankiel." Danny Haren's a great pitcher and all, and I could be completely wrong. But I don't think he's ace material. You traded for a guy that's been floating between AAA and the Majors for the last 2 or 3 years, for a team that is by no means, a great pitching team. He's a typical young right-handed pitcher. Decent power, decent breaking ball. In Ankiel, the risk is there, but his stuff is outstanding. Mid 90's fastball, curve compared seriously to Kolfax's, and he's left-handed.

The other guys, Calero, is a good 1-2 inning pitcher. But those are also a dime a dozen. And then Barton is a good prospect, but he was in A ball last year. Who knows how he'll turn out.

At least for both teams, they traded outside of the league. The cardinals would potentially have to face these guys at most 10 times ever, and the A's might face Muelder 2 or 3 times in a World Series, or inter-league play.

The four sports usually have "golden rules" with trades. In football, if a trade goes down with five players going for one, the trade mostly benefits the team that got the five. In basketball, the trade usually benefits the team that got one. In hockey, it's a little more balanced, but the team that got five is usually better off.

Baseball would also follow the plural, if you didn't have team after team(i.e. Yankees(pitching), Astros(pitching or offense), Cardinals(pitching), Braves(offense), Twins(offense) in the 04' playoffs that were one or two key elements away from going deep into October.

In this scenario, both trades makes a lot of sense for the A's. They hadn't made it anywhere WITH the Big Three, and missed the playoffs entirely in 2004. You're going to tell me that just by adding Jason Kendall, they were gonna win the World Series in 2005? No way. Rich Harden is considered, by Mulder himself, nonetheless, to have more talent that Zito, Mulder or Hudson have. Joe Blanton steps into the ace-in-training. Do I still have to see something on the field from Dan Haren and Dan Meyers? Yes. But the A's got two middle relievers that they could feasibly depend on, and relief help was short for the A's in 2004. They also got another outfielder in Thomas, giving them four outfielders to compete for two jobs(Kotsay's already a lock for centerfield) come spring training. Whenever you have four guys competing for two positions, you're gonna get the best you can in those two positions. Finally, yes, they got a prospect. Yet another prospect in Bartonm who goes into a ridiculously good farm system - one that the A's can use at their leisure to get probably all but the elite franchise players on any roster. Maybe the A's don't make the Playoffs in 05' with how good the Angels and Mariners got in the offseason - but they have a formula for success in 06', and that's not something they definitely had with the Big Three.