This was a fascinating, fascinating article on how a trade comes together, with background information from both Ed Wade and Frank Wren.
↵I liked a lot of the little things about the issue, like both guys texting for most of their conversations and that Wren couldn't respond right away because he was driving. GM's, they're just like us!
↵Two things made me crazy, though, all those months after the Bourn trade made me furious. First, I thought it interesting that the Braves would have moved Randall Delgado and Mike Minor in a deal for Hunter Pence. Would two big league ready rotation starters have been a better get than Jarred Cosart and Jonathan Singleton? Both of those guys could be impact rotation additions, while Cosart and Singleton and even Domingo Santana are a ways off from proving impactful.
↵It's more of a philosophical question, but my gut tells me that Delgado and Minor would provide more return in the short term and maybe prove better bets to actually stick in the majors.
↵The thing that frustrated me to no end is that Wade shut down a trade offer for Bourn after basically not getting any other offers. Or, at least, that's how the article leaves it when he turns down another GM from even making an offer. Add to that the sense from the time Bourn was traded that the Astros could have gotten a better deal and I'm just flummoxed. We can go on for a while talking about possible GMs who were offering on Bourn, but I'm pretty sure another deal would have been better than Jordan Schafer and the rest of the Braves package.
↵Ugh. Now I am mad about that dumb trade again. I don't care if Paul Clemens is a comer.
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