Ascanio to Cubs; Ohman, Infante to Braves

by alexwithclass on Dec 4, 2007 12:25 PM EST

The Braves and Cubs just completed a deal, the Braves trading AA reliever Jose Ascanio for LOOGY Will Ohman and utility infielder Omar Infante. (http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7525322?CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=49)
Obviously, this is the opposite of a blockbuster; it's the sort of spare part swap that NL GMs just love. But was it worthwhile?

Ascanio looks like he could be a really nice reliever, and I don't think the Cubs gave up a ton. On the other hand, if used properly, Ohman could be useful as a situational lefty, and Infante is much better than Chris Woodward (and still only 25 years old) -- but what can he do that Brent Lillibridge can't? As a Braves fan, I'm concerned about two things: improving our bullpen, and figuring out who's playing center field. This deal doesn't do either one, though I've read speculation that Ohman might be flipped to the Pirates for Nate McLouth. In all events, this doesn't appear to be the last thing either team will do.

So what do you take away from this trade?

Poll

Who won this deal?

Cubs

21 votes

Both

11 votes

Neither

8 votes

Braves

19 votes

59 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

yawn

by t ball on Dec 4, 2007 12:19 PM EST reply actions

Yeah I must say...

I haven't liked the last few deals the Braves have pulled.

*I felt we could get more for Renteria. I like Gorkys but with the OF'ers we have I just felt we could have done better.

*The Tex deal (while a great player) was a lot to give up without an extension in the works. If we can get an extension, I like the deal but otherwise I'd rather seen us rebuild with Wren coming in than give that much up.

*I don't like trading starters for relievers (Davies/Dotel) especially position players. LaRoche/Gonzalez (when we knew Gonzo had health concerns) but Lillibridge really sealed the deal there. That is actually the deal I questioned the least after we knew everything about it.

*The Royce Ring deal was odd. 2 relievers for one, not sure who got the better of that yet. The biggest thing was we had just giving up McBride to get Ledezma so we really traded 3 RP for 1.

*I don't think we got much of anything for Langerhans who was eventually turned into Chris Snelling.

It's been a weird year from a FO that usually wins their deals. Some of these may turn out to be great moves but I had concerns from the start and still do have concerns for several of them.

by jfish26101 on Dec 4, 2007 12:26 PM EST reply actions

In the proud tradition of punknews.org...

I'm going to go make a sandwich.

(Although seriously, McLouth could be a nice stopgap in CF for Los Bravos, especially if all it takes to get him is Will Freakin' Ohman.)

"...and the only things I've found better than listening to Vin Scully are listening to Keith Jackson and uncut cocaine." (bleedjaxblue)

by drjayphd on Dec 4, 2007 12:29 PM EST reply actions

What coup for Atlanta!

Ohman's 55' curve ball is unhitable!

Send your top 50-100 prospects to slurveone@yahoo.com!!!

by slurve on Dec 4, 2007 12:29 PM EST reply actions

Braves

The Bravos appear to have picked up a fair amount of $$ in this swap, right? That's a little un-Braves like, especially when they're still trying to figure out how to free up money to extend Teixeira.

I don't think this is the last stop for both players, because of that. They could keep one (Ohman?), however.

by Yakker on Dec 4, 2007 1:10 PM EST reply actions

Nice move for the Braves

Seems like a salary dump for the Cubs. Ohman's had his ups and downs, but for the most part, he's a solid lefty specialist. Infante, bleh. Ascanio - not sold how real his development last year was for the long haul. Only time will tell, but the chances of him cracking our MLB roster seems slim, so he'll either be back at Iowa (or could be down in Tennessee depending on what arms are left standing after this offseason for us).

by toonsterwu on Dec 4, 2007 1:54 PM EST reply actions

I don't like it at all

some of y'all probably already seen my thoughts over at Mac's site, but:

I like the LaRoche deal.
I like the Renteria deal.
MacBride deal didn't make sense to me so must have something to do with personal issue or else they wanted to deal him while he still had some value, and took the best LHP reliever they could get back, then had to rework it all into getting Ring when they couldn't straighten Wilfred out. All in all, harmless deal to me, with the SD trade actually making lemonade.
Teixeira and Dotel deals were about making the move to try and go for it that year. They cut bait on Davies to make it happen, and gave up Salty and replacable parts to do it, with 2008 + a chance to sell him on staying longer. I'm okay with these deals. They're all pretty win-win.

But this Ascanio deal makes no sense to me. Ascanio looks like a nice reliever to me, and fine, Ohman had a down year in 07, but he seems like a replacable LOOGY to me, and Infante seems like an over-priced MI backup when Lillibridge/Prado would seem to be swell in that capacity. Braves block Lillibridge (who I'd like to see get 400 ABs floating between the middle to left side and the OF at times) while taking on $3 mil in salary? I think Ascanio is good enough and cheap enough that we should have either had him on the 25 man or used him and another piece to tempt the Nats out of Cordero if improving the bullpen was what we wanted and decided Ascanio is expendable enough to use for that. Don't like the return at all. Cubs have gotta be happy.

by nevin on Dec 4, 2007 2:10 PM EST reply actions