Zack Greinke Trade Reaction

if you took Odorizzi and Jeffress and put them in the Rays system, where would they rank? in the 5-10 range (looking at the letter grades of the Rays’ prospects this year). Cain would be down in the 15-20 range.

I think it was a decent haul, but it’s misleading to just say “hey they got the Brewers’ best 2 prospects, what more can you ask for?”

when 12 months ago he was the next Elvis Andrus and a future All Star. Interesting how a .264 BABIP rookie year can warp reality.

but an elite defensive SS with offensive upside is much more valuable to the Royals than another corner OF prospect.

Fantasy Baseball is different than real life. In reality there are tons of considerations that go into a trade than in Fantasy. First, the Brewers only really get Greinke for a brief period of time while they have control over all four of those players for an extended period. Second, Escobar’s value is much greater in reality because he is an allegedly elite glove. Third, there is no limit or cap on the number of players teams can keep so a 4 for 1 trade is not a bad thing as such quantity sometimes is preferred over quality. Fourth, salaries impact MLB decisions while in most fantasy leagues there are no salaries so a player like Greinke costs the same as a player like Escobar to keep. So, in essence, your question is rather silly as it is silly to compare most, if not all, fantasy leagues to the MLB.

Which would seem to be significantly offset by the fact that you’re getting two years of a pitcher who’s one year removed from a Cy Young. I tend to think that a combination of the no trade claus eruling out suitors and Moore’s alleged insistence on filling certain positions is what determined things.

I agree that losing Betancourt was a win. Escobar seems like a clear upgrade based on glove alone.

but Toronto, and every other team, had ample time to analyze the situation and make a legit and final offer.

My opinion is that the Greinke to Toronto stuff was grossly overblown, and quite possibly driven by the Royals in an attempt to drive the price for Greinke up. This became obvious to me after we traded Marcum, yet stories about the Jays still trying to acquire Greinke kept popping up. Trading for Greinke is a playoff-push type move; why would Toronto trade a cheap productive starter and then trade for Greinke? It makes absolutely no sense as those are polarizing moves, if you are going to acquire Greinke you obviously keep Marcum and try to make a playoff push built around the best rotation in the AL.

The Brewers are obviously helped, but this isn’t Halladay or Santana we are talking about. It’s Greinke, who has had one great year, and several good ones. He’s very good, but he’s no Halladay (or Santana when healthy). And when you compare this trade to the players given up for Halladay or Santana, or Cliff Lee last year, then this deal looks better and better.

So you’d rather lump all of your apples into one arm/bat rather than get four B/C prospects, three of which are already MLB ready at premium and needed positions? I understand the idea, but this trade was very unique for kc. They have holes that desperately need filling if they are going to compete and not be in perpetual rebuilding mode

Really, the only time that you can land an elite player is when trading an elite player

You can also land an elite player by drafting him, which is precisely what the Royals have been trying to do. If you have a collection of prospects that you think include a number of potentially elite players, that reduces your need to acquire an elite prospect in return. Obviously you always want to trade for the best players possible but given the royals prospect picture it makes sense that they chose a lower risk package to supplement their current system.

When I’ve run surplus value calculations, I plug in 10 WAR over 2 years for Greinke.