For the past couple of weeks, I have been arguing with a friend of mine about the feasibility of this trade proposal. I insist it is equally beneficial, whereas he argues that it would never happen because each club will put too much value on what they are giving up (the Dodgers will give up too many young players under team control; the Pirates will put too much value on the face of a franchise and a young starter with ace-potential). I would propose the following: Jason Bay and Ian Snell for James Loney (I know, redundant with Pearce and LaRoche, but he is younger and has more upside than both), Andre Ethier (a young, cost controlled lefty-bat), Chin-Lung Hu, Scott Elbert or James McDonald, and Hong-Chi Kuo.  

      Admittedly, the Bucks don't receive a ton of prospects with soaring ceilings (although, Baseball Prospectus is high on Hu and McDonald, and Loney, Ethier and Kuo will have had 2+ years of production time in the majors to gain some insight on their projectability) but there are probably enough young, team-controlled assets that blend in age-wise with the up-coming crop of Pirates prospects (Walker, McClouth) that likely make this trade worthwhile. Furthermore, Adam LaRoche becomes another trade trip to add more pitching.

  Is this anything close to equal value?