Diamondbacks get busy

First they send 6 prospects to the A's for Haren

and then

They send Valverde to the Astros

Andrew's take>>This makes the Diamondbacks very, very scary. Without giving up anyone that would have been on their team except for maybe Cunningham and Callapso, the Diamonbacks have acquired a close to elite level pitcher giving them a one two punch that rivals the Padres and far out classes any pitcher in our organization. Combine this with a returning Randy Johnson (who can still deal, striking out 72 in 56 innings last year), and the Snakes have a vicious top of the rotation. The losses of Callapso and Cunningham are offset with the acquisition of Chris Burke and Chad Qualls. Qualls isn't as good as Valverde, but Valverde has been extremely volatile over the years and having him as the closer is sort of a scary thought. Burke can play many positions, and should fill the utility role that Callapso would have taken. Maybe in a different organization, Burke can live up to the talent he showed before he got blocked by Craig Biggio.

The big piece to this trade is Brett Anderson, Oakland needs him to be a success in order for this to be a somewhat fair deal. He has the upside to be quite good, striking out over a batter an inning at high A this year, but is way to far away from the bigs to be projectable. Carlos Gonzalez was Arizona's top prospect, and spent some time in AAA at age 21 this year. However, while he doesn't strikeout frequently enough to raise immediate read flags, he also doesn't walk too much either. He'll need to improve his plate discipline to become a useful major leaguer, but it's entirely possible he'll be helping Oakland at the end of this year.

Arizona already had pretty much all of the prospects it needed. Every major player in this trade except Anderson, who was years away, is blocked by a better young player at the big league level. Arizona leveraged the advantages of their farm system to give themselves one of the top arms in the game without giving up anyone that would help the team before 2010. A great deal for them, and one that brings them right back in line with us. The next two years is Arizona's time to shine while their college drafted players reach their peaks. After that, the sheer amount of upside our younger players have would eventually flatten them. This signing fits right into this plan.