The More Things Change

…you know the rest of the phrase.  Anyway, Surprise!  Ed Wade and Jim Bowden made separate but silly trades.  Jim Bowden sent away a very nice, young, back of the bullpen reliever for Emilio Bonifacio who, um, dreams of being Luis Castillo?  Oh, did I mention that he’s under team control for less than $5 million in ‘09 and ‘10?  It made some sense for Rauch to be on the block before this trade, because teams semi-regularly overpay for relievers this time of year, and a good-to-great closer is a luxury that a team as far off the playoff chase as the Nationals are doesn’t have much use for.  If you can get back an All-Star caliber starting pitcher or everyday player for a guy like Rauch, you do it, but a below average regular?  Bowden seems to have jumped at the the first deal that came to him.  Good on the D’backs to pick up yet another underrated reliever for a Quad-A second baseman.  He keeps getting mentioned as the potential replacement for Orlando Hudson had O Dog bolted in free agency, but the Diamondbacks can do better than that, even internally.

Ed Wade’s illusion of grandeur continues unabated in Houston!  He sends 25 year old Chris Reineke, one of the ‘Stros top 10 prospects (faint praise, but still), for the 31 year old shell of Randy Wolf.  Wolf isn’t awful, but Petco has masked some of his slip towards mediocrity.  Yeah, this deal makes very, very little sense to me, especially given that Ed Wade wants to re-sign Wolf, based on his comments.  Huh?  I don’t even think I would want to offer him arbitration, even if he was a Type B free agent, which seems likely, let alone give him a multi-year extension.  Heck, the only good reason a team as D-U-N done as the Astros should trade for a guy like Wolf is if the potential draft picks gained if/when the player signs elsewhere rather than accepting arbitration outweighs what you trade away.  In this case, it’s probably a toss up, but if Wade wants to re-sign Wolf, well, that tells you all you need to know about his refusal to accept the reality that the Astros are about as far from contention in the short and medium term as any NL team save probably Bowden’s Nats.

The Wyatt Watch marches on!!