Cruz is a big power hitter who's in the prime of his career.  He's doing a pretty good number on the PCL this year (it's a hitters' league, but Nashville is also one of the most extreme pitchers' parks in baseball, which balances the effect), and can even run a bit.  He might only have 3-4 good years in him since he's already 27, but that's not too bad for a short- or mid-term cheap solution in an outfield corner.

Overall, a very good trade from the Rangers' perspective.  They got a top slugger and another good-though-unproven one for some stuff they didn't need.

I'm not entirely sure why the Brewers would do this.  I thought Cordero had completely sucked this year, but his peripherals are all pretty good, so the high ERA appears to be largely bad luck.  Still, he's 31 and just a RP.  He'll help fix the bullpen issues for the next couple years, perhaps helping a push for contention next year, but I'm not thrilled about him being the best player acquired for an elite slugger.

Mench is pretty good but nothing too special for a corner OF.  Hopefully this means that Hart will be allowed to play in one of the corners full-time now, with Mench as Jenkins-injury/Hart-sucking insurance.  Dumping Jenkins somewhere and playing Mench full-time would be lovely as well.

I like the Nix acquisition the best, which says something...  He's just 25 and was at one point in the recent past a super prospect, though he was rushed pretty badly.  He's a good guy to take a flier on, since I believe he's a real CF defensively (an improvement over the Gross/Clark combo in that department), and if he can rediscover some part of his stroke he could be a medium-term fix in center.

As a Brewers fan, though, I was really hoping for more young elite talent, particularly on the pitching side (maybe the Hughes rumors got my hopes up too far).  Instead they got some spare parts and patches for areas of weakness, which is good, but I guess I'm not sure that the core they have will be enough to make them a dominant force.  Lee was the one big chip that they could use to get something to really put them over the top for the 2007-2010 contention years, and they didn't use him to get that.  Not a terrible trade, but I'm not thrilled with it either.

Not sure if I really like the trade from the Rangers side either.

i guess in cordero and nix they didn't give up much of value, although cordero could always "find" himself... maybe he'll even be the brewers closer with turnbow imploding recently. cruz i really like, if only because the A's gave him away for keith freaking ginter and all he's done since then is rake. i don't think his future is in center field, though (and didn't texas send their CF to the all-star game anyway?).

from the milwaukee perspective, i guess nix gives them an alternative (and possible platoon partner) to brady clark, but he's hitting just 269/323/430 in AAA and he's not young any more. i guess dave krynzel also has had a pretty terrible year, so maybe they needed to do something like this. still, i sort of feel like the brewers gave up the two best players in this trade, but not by so much that it matters one way or the other.

all in all this trade makes me feel empty inside.

I hope so, but I don't see a Soriano trade happening until the 31st, since Bowden will hold off until he sees some top prospects thrown his way.

While I could have seen the Brewers getting more for Carlos Lee, perhaps they were finding that teams were not willing to part with more.

Also, this does still allow the Brewers to attempt to contend THIS YEAR, while not subjecting themselves to the loss of Lee after the season.  Overall, I like this from the Brewers even though I was hoping for Lee to be traded to the Twins.

For the Rangers, it all depends on how Lee does and if they can resign him.