Trade Review - Angry and S. Napalm

Napalm receives:
3B Adrian Beltre, TEX
C JP Arencebia, TOR
SP Felix Doubront, BOS

Angry receives:
OF Carl Crawford LAD
SP Brett Anderson OAK

This is a good example of a first real trade for the league (Valverde for a pick barely counts) as it shows two owners coming to terms with the value they have based on in-season results. Clearly, Beltre is the best piece here as he has continued to rake ever since leaving Seattle. You have to wonder if he didn't spend that time out west if we'd be talking about a hall of famer some day. Could still, I suppose. Anyhow, Kyle obviously thought him expendable given Seager's nice start. However, I question his faith in Michael Young, whose eligibility at all infield spots outside of SS is nice, but other than his OBP, he's essentially worthless. Now he's a full time starter. In terms of overall value, I would've rather seen Kyle keep Beltre at 3B and Seager at 2B and then start Morales/Laroche/Craig/AGon at 1B and AGon/Craig in the OF with Cespedes and McCutchen -- rather than go out and add Crawford. But I also see his roster has Cutch with 7 steals, Rosario with 3 and not much else. I think it's clear Crawford is back to being his old productive self and was obviously a great pick for Mike that eventually yielded him great value. Meanwhile, Doubront and Arencebia are good at two things and, essentially, two things only: Ks and HRs, the sexiest of all stats. The problem is owning them comes at the detriment of your rates. But as long as there's other pieces that can hedge that issue a bit, they can be very effective players. Not a bad shot to take for Mike, who is remarkably sitting high in the standings despite having as many as six players DL/NA'd.

While Beltre was a great add, Mike obviously came to terms quickly with the reality of Brett Anderson. It's unfortunate. I like him a lot too but the guy has basically never been healthy. He was tantilizingly good at the end of last year, so much so that Mike gave up 19 rounds to acquire Anderson in the offseason and keep him over a variety of other options. Obviously he did not enough value there. Still, its a nice shot for Kyle whose got a deep staff of rater controllers and is difficult to matchup against in Ks and QSs.

Can't choose a winner here until we get some resolution on Anderson, but as of now I'd rather have Beltre than Crawford. Not crazy about the rest of the parts here, but they will ultimately decide who won this one.