Bauer is no longer an elite prospect

Really? I know about the workout thing and issues with the front office, but I think what he did as a 21 year old in the upper minors has only increased his status in my book.

walt surprises me with this deal

Thanks Harv ... I try to keep a little mystery in every relationship.

Ohhh, Jocketty.

Also, what is Lars Anderson doing in this trade? They have Goldschmidt at 1B, Kubel in LF and Upton (until he's traded for Grant Green) in RF.

Upton (until he's traded for Grant Green)

Huzzah!

Geez, that Rapada line is basically the Platonic form of a LOOGY, right there. Another current guy is Wesley Wright.

Javier Lopez.
Rzepczynski and Boone Logan seem to get used as LOOGY's by their current teams.

Really not following this from Arizona's point of view. I mean Gregorius is prospectish a little. If he could somehow slap his way to a .255/.305/.370 in Arizona with a good glove that would be something. But although Bauer has any number of concerns that would downgrade him from an elite prospect, the starting point is still "elite prospect" that you're downgrading from. Does Tony Sipp really close the gap from there? Christ, you traded Breslow to get Albers and Podsednik (whom you promptly released), couldn't you have just kept Breslow and not needed Sipp? I won't even bother bringing up the below average AAA first baseman they got in the deal.

Just don't make a whole lot of sense, unless they really think Gregorius is just going to go nuclear.

I hear Gregorious was acquired mainly for clubhouse reasons. They expect he'll be a good chemistry guy and help erase the bitterness left by last year's shortstop, Tom Taciturn.

If I had the authority to award Primeys, I would give one to #56.

Just don't make a whole lot of sense, unless they really think Gregorius is just going to go nuclear.

Towers is comparing him to Jeter. I kid you not.

Towers had Stephen Drew. He trades Drew for nothing. He replaces Drew by trading Bauer, Young, Shaw and Albers for Gregorius and Pennington? Why not just keep Drew?

Because the owner went public and called Drew out for prolonging his rehab because he thought Drew didn't want to play. Directly called his character into question, even used that word. So that bridge was burned. There is no way Drew would have resigned with Arizona after that.

And I know some of you won't like this statement, but it's times like this I really miss Levski. He would have something both scathing and funny to say.

Primey for 56. Tom Taciturn was a cancer in the clubhouse!

Levski

Haven't heard that same in a long time.

I liked #56 as well - it took me a second, but I LOLed.

The Pennington trade and this one almost make it seem like Towers is, well, on crack. I really don't understand how Bauer's star could have fallen so fast.

You know, I can squint and defend the Myers-Shields trade as I think Shields is better than he gets credit for and Myers isn't the slam dunk he's made out to be. I wouldn't have done it, but I can squint and see it. This trade, from the D-Backs perspective, is just so stupid. Just baffling. I only wish the A's had been in on this.

Towers seems like a good GM, but I don't get this trade. Bauer was a bit of a letdown in his MLB stint, but he's still only 21, and it's not like the D-Backs are in flat-out "win-now" mode. And Lars Anderson plays 1B where he's blocked by Goldschmidt.

I really wanted Stubbs to be great, and after he had a 105 OPS+ with good defense and baserunning in '10 I thought 2/3 of the outfield was set for a decade, but he's regressed terribly since then.

Honestly, they talk about Choo being a 1 year rental but if Hamilton's ready Stubbs probably would have been non-tendered after this year. Add in the fact that Gregorious might never hit enough to be an everyday player and that McDonald could contract malaria and still be a better bench IF than the Reds had this year and I really like this trade.

The Orioles should offer JJ Hardy for Goldschmidt and Upton.

Bauer just put up a 2.85 ERA in the PCL with a ton of strikeouts. He looks like a pretty damn good prospect.

Really? I know about the workout thing and issues with the front office, but I think what he did as a 21 year old in the upper minors has only increased his status in my book.

Concur, almost 11 K/9 and a low 2's ERA across AA/AAA should help your status.

He had 16 ugly innings in the bigs, but, it's 16 IP.

Edit: just to add, this trade is so lopsided the commissioner should veto it (that is if there was a real commissioner).

Does the name "Gregorius" strike anyone else as being really sinister? "Gregarious" means nice, but changing that one vowel sound makes the word kind of sneakily evil. Sounds like the name of one of the neighbors in Rosemary's Baby or something.

He should use an Enigma song for his entrance music.

#56 may be one of my favorite posts around here in ages. More than even the joke, I just love the name Tom Taciturn. Sounds almost like he could be a real player from the '30s.

Choo would only play CF for a year, presumably, before Billy Hamilton is ready.

The DBacks trading Bauer for Gregorious is baffling. AND they tossed in Shaw, who I think is at least useful, and received Lars Andersen, who I think is not.

He should use an Enigma song for his entrance music.

Nah, have the song "Notorius" over-dubbed with "Gre-, Gre-, Gre-, Gregorius, dah dah dah dah dah"

this seems like a killer deal for the reds from my limited perspective

I love this deal for the Reds. It's basically a straight up swap of Stubbs for Choo with the money evened out for 2013. Even if the Reds centerfielders end up being 30 runs worse than Stubbs would have been out there, it's still should be a net positive for them. Stubbs was completely and horribly lost last year at the plate. Plus, we won't have to listen to the Brennaman's ##### about the strikeouts (this seemed to encompass about 25% of a typical Reds tv broadcast), so, even those will be more enjoyable.

I think the general rule of a threeway is that one person always ends up terribly disappointed.

Also, what is Lars Anderson doing in this trade? They have Goldschmidt at 1B, Kubel in LF and Upton (until he's traded for Grant Green) in RF.

Because Reno needs a 1B. Lars is not a MLB player.

With #75, we have two primey worthy posts... I like #73 also.

I'm not sure Anderson is even blocked by Goldschmidt, in that even if the DBacks had no one to play first base it's not like Anderson looks like any kind of solution to that problem. The guy has a .770 OPS in 1500 AAA PAs (Ryan Lavarnway had a .893 on the same clubs). If Anderson is your team's best first baseman, then your real best first baseman is Brad Eldred or Mauro Gomez or Dan Johnson or a similar other vet minor league slugger you can find.

I think the general rule of a threeway is that one person always ends up terribly disappointed.

I guess that is the nice way of putting it. I had always heard someone always ends up getting ####ed over.

And I know some of you won't like this statement, but it's times like this I really miss Levski. He would have something both scathing and funny to say.

Ha. Thanks, shoewiz. Unfortunately, I have neither. When you approach the baseball world with the soft bigotry of the low expectation that Kevin Towers is basically incompetent, you are never unpleasantly surprised. The vast majority of his transactions in Arizona have confirmed to me that he is a fire-breathing, myopic and impulsive hack, whose idea for team building seems to revolve around (1) overpaying mutiple random right handers in the bullpen, (2) collecting a gaggle of some glove, no bat, futility infielders, and (3) dumping minor leaguers who weren't/aren't his prospects to satisfy fetishes (1) and (2). Luckily for him, the two main owners in Arizona (Kendrick and Hall) are even more ignorant about baseball, yet think that they are the smartest people to ever walk south of the Grand Canyon.

Basically the tragedy with the Dbacks began the day Kendrick and Hall decided to go with Towers instead of Jerry Dipoto as their GM. Dipoto had done some great work in his short amount of time as the interim GM, and I believe he had a long term plan in place, to build around the young pitchers he had in place. Dipoto was a big Jarrod Parker fan, and he also was the biggest Trevor Bauer supporter in the organization. Once Dipoto went to Anaheim, it was all Towers, all the time, in Arizona, and the results have been sadly predictable. The Parker and Cook for Cahill trade was a disaster, and the Bauer for Gregorius dump was as predictable as a sunrise. All the Towers comments on the trade and on Gregorius would be ridiculously funny if they weren't actually scary, because he truly believes in the stuff he's saying.

Luckily, over the last couple of years I've managed to sufficiently detach myself from baseball in general, and the Dbacks in particular, so I was able to read the news of yesterday's disaster with a healty dose of morbid curiosity and a modicum of heart-felt pity for the few remaining intelligent Dbacks fans, like shoewizard. Those few smart fans should have known to jump ship a long time ago, when Towers came on board, so they should have very little reason to complain too much today. In their honor, in light of yesterday's pathetically awful trade, I dedicate this Gregorius chant. "Pious Lord Jesus, give them rest."

In case you guys want to look into the intellectual abyss ruling the Dbacks these days, have a stroll along these Twitter timelines

@Dbacks
@SteveGilbertMLB
@JackMagruder

The Dbacks organization is a train-wreck that reminds me of the sad days when they began dismantling the 2001 Championship team.

So, are you a Mets fan now instead?

So, are you a Mets fan now instead?

He's going to jump off a runaway train onto the Hindenburg?

I've slowly adopted the A's, actually, not to the point where I live and breathe A's baseball, but I wish them well and hope to see them succeed. They have so many former Dbacks players that I like, it almost feels like they are they team I must follow after all. If only they had held out for Bauer when they traded Pennington...

When Jeter was Gregorius' age, he hit .314 with an .800 OPS for the Yankees. Gregorius hit .265 with a .717 OPS split between AA and AAA. Having trouble seeing the comp there.

BTW, as much as Didi Gregorius is a great name, if he went by his middle name 'Julius Gregorius' that might be a top 10 name in baseball history.

Were the Mets all that attached to Reuben Tejada? He has to be more valuable than some random shortstop I've only vaguely heard of and who is apparently the same age and had about the same OPS except in AA. I'd trade Tejada for Bauer in a heartbeat.

I might not, actually. But how about Jose Iglesias? I mean, if Arizona wanted a glove-only SS...

When Jeter was Gregorius' age, he hit .314 with an .800 OPS for the Yankees. Gregorius hit .265 with a .717 OPS split between AA and AAA. Having trouble seeing the comp there.

You don't justify your trade to your bosses by telling them that you acquired a younger version of Pokey Reese.

In all fairness, probably a reasonable comp/upside for Gregorius, assuming his glove is for real, is Alcides Escobar.

I have a really hard time getting excited about trading Trevor Bauer for a guy who one day may be Alcides Escobar.

Also, apparently Gregorius's stock really jumped in the AFL this fall, where he slashed .284/.332/.392 over 20 games (74 AB). Lots of scouts fell in love with his tools, and my guess is that whoever is distributing drugs in the Dbacks front office developed a big mancrush on him. Plus, Towers had to dump Bauer somehow, seeing how Bauer's presence in the organization was apparently chafing him for some reason. In the end, the Indians and Reds benefitted tremendously, so bully for them.

BTW, as much as Didi Gregorius is a great name, if he went by his middle name 'Julius Gregorius' that might be a top 10 name in baseball history.

He might get mixed up on which calendar to use.

And I know some of you won't like this statement, but it's times like this I really miss Levski

Why wouldn't anyone like this statement? I've always thought he was pretty knowledgeable.

Maybe it's just the name, but Gregorius reminds me of Gregorio Petit.

I think only Mets fans might regret the return of the prodigal Levski!

levski, i understand your pain - as a fan of orgs that, for the most, have historically been bad and - more importantly for the purposes of this comment - run their affairs in a way that's very different from how the model of how i like to see things done. (mind you, i'm a braves fan, so it ain't all bad.) things'll get better. eventually. probably.
dipoto does seem like a pretty big loss - i was (and am) impressed by him.

All I know is the Arizona front office sure showed Bauer. Next time he'll know to listen when they say something!

Thank you, IGoHK.

Shooty, I have no beef with Mets fan. They have been handed a raw deal, with broke and incompetent ownership and still a fairly barren system. But their GM is smart and I think the Mets will be OK sooner than most people think, especially given some of the higher upside pitching prospects they have. I don't get the haggling with Dickey over a few pennies but that will get sorted soon.

Der K, I think the decision to go with Towers really came down to Kendrick and Hall wanting to have a GM who would actually let them play with the big kids in the executive office. Personally, I believe that Josh Byrnes treated them like the ridiculous baseball n00bs they are, which was OK when Jeff Moorad was on board but backfired once Jeff Moorad left and the Dbacks struggled.

Picking Dipoto as the GM would have required baseball balls and brains that I don't believe Kendrick and Hall actually possess. I was hoping that Dipoto could work with, or at least coexist with, Towers, but that wasn't going to work. I believe Dipoto clashed with Towers and Gibson over management of prospects, most notably Bauer. You can draw your own conclusions on those clashes.

Shooty, I have no beef with Mets fan. They have been handed a raw deal, with broke and incompetent ownership and still a fairly barren system. But their GM is smart and I think the Mets will be OK sooner than most people think, especially given some of the higher upside pitching prospects they have. I don't get the haggling with Dickey over a few pennies but that will get sorted soon.

I was just joking. You knew how to hit those sore spots in Mets threads back in the day, though!

Dave Cameron really hates Trevor Bauer for reasons I don't quite understand. I get the feeling he spoke to someone in the D-Backs org that convinced him Bauer is an asshat and not that good anyway. He needs to work on his command, but his walk rate isn't that ugly for a young pitcher. As for being an asshat...the D-Backs sure tar a lot of their own players with that brush. It is kind of weird.

Dave Cameron really hates Trevor Bauer for reasons I don't quite understand. I get the feeling he spoke to someone in the D-Backs org that convinced him Bauer is an asshat and not that good anyway. He needs to work on his command, but his walk rate isn't that ugly for a young pitcher. As for being an asshat...the D-Backs sure tar a lot of their own players with that brush. It is kind of weird.

The next guy who fails at pitching b/c he's an ass**** will be the first.

The next guy who fails at pitching b/c he's an ass**** will be the first.

Plus, we're only getting the team's side of the story on Bauer's alleged asshattery. Again, the D-Backs seem to have a low treshhold for what they consider a bad attitude.

Regardless of whether Bauer is an asshat with poor command, he was a Top 10 prospect last winter. You don't trade him for the 6th best prospect in the Reds organization.