on our team after the trade:

-  I think it was smart to jump when NH did, instead of waiting until the last minute as Littlefield always did.  Waiting until the last second usually means that you have fewer teams bidding, thus reducing your leverage.

-  It is cyclical, but it sounds like the most valued commodity in baseball right now is a cheap, controlled high end prospect on the cusp of arriving in the bigs but with no MLB experience.  Those are always valuable, but other than the most elite prospects (Price, Weiters, LaPorta, Bruce until 2 months ago) they should not be considered more valuable than affordable productive major leaguers in their prime.  Thus, an innovative GM may be wise to exploit this over valuing.  There is a fine line between innovation and insanity (and I'm not suggesting that we do this), but what kind of a high-A prospect haul (the guys who will the studs of double-A next year) could we get for Cutch?

-  Although I, too, expected a second high ceiling prospect in return for what we gave up, it is encouraging that we sold high on players that were generally thought to have uninspiring value on April 1.  If we'd traded Bay and didn't get a couple of high ceiling guys back, I'd be irate.  I am not a Bay believer and think that we should trade him if we can get fair value.  That said, his track record clearly distinguishes him from Nady helps put the return for this trade in perspective.

-  Finally, does anybody know how to prounced "Tabata"?  I heard that it is pronounced TAB-A-TA, instead of the more traditional TUH-BOT-A.

Good day.

Here’s my conspiracy theory on the deal with the Yankees. The Pirates could have dealt Nady elsewhere, but they knew Boras wanted him in New York for future financial reasons. So they agree to send him there (maybe for a little less?) and Boras agrees to make the Alvarez negotiations go a little easier.
Unethical, you say? Yeah, we’d never expect to see an agent be anything less that completely honest and above board.
Unlikely, I know. But impossible? If the trade helps us sign Alvarez for $1M less and put that on Grossman, it looks like an even better deal.

Jason Davis contract purchased from Indy. Luis Munoz DFA’d. Guess that means the Yankees pitchers all go on Indy’s roster, at least for today. Suspect this is a very short term move for long relief…or he’s just up for a day or two…as I believe the Yankees pitchers have up to 72 hours to report.

http://presspass.mlb.com/pp_viewer.asp?d=41281

Talk about the money. Good trades don’t happen in isolation, they affect future deals as well. The dominoes are lined up, NH and FC: Knock ‘em down, boys.

And speaking of money, for those of you who hate the deal and REALLY want X back, the Pirates can get in line and bid on him again in two years. When his numbers have fallen off a cliff. How do you think that negotiation will go?

Phil Coke and George Kontos both said their labrums were fine.

http://www.trentonian.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19874379&BRD=1697&PAG=461&dept_id=178120&rfi=6

Later in the day, Baseball Prospectus’ Will Carroll claimed Coke was the pitcher with labrum damage. Coke became even more confused when he learned that Carroll’s report claimed that he failed a physical.
“When did I do that?” Coke asked. “Do we have a date? I haven’t had a physical since spring training. I’m a New York Yankee, I’m coming out of the bullpen, I’m not hurt.”