The Arizona Diamondbacks made two big trades on Friday. Both involved high-profile pitchers.
Prospects for Haren
In the first, they sent a boatload of minor leaguers to Oakland for right-hander Dan Haren and change.
The linked article provides detailed information on the prospects involved. Suffice to say, they aren’t scrubs. Arizona has a very deep farm system and some terrific young talent at the big-league level. When you’re in that position, you can go out and get a guy like Haren.
Outfielder Carlos Gonzalez is the centerpiece of the package headed to the A’s. First baseman Chris Carter, acquired a couple weeks ago from …read more

The Baltimore Orioles have traded shortstop Miguel Tejada to the Houston Astros for outfielder Luke Scott, pitchers Matt Albers, Troy Patton and Dennis Sarfate, and third baseman Michael Costanzo.
Headed to Houston
Tejada is coming off a .296/.357/.442 campaign, which is low by his standards but still pretty darned good. The downside is that he turns 32 in May and, thanks to that whole consecutive-games streak thing, has a lot of wear-and-tear on his 5′10″, 170-lb frame. Also, the Astros have an otherworldly defender at short in Adam Everett, so if Tejada moves to third base, how will that affect his value? …read more

I’m a little late getting this out there, but the folks at Hardball Times (myself included) have weighed in on some more recent moves, including the Andruw Jones and Eric Gagne signings. And yeah, I know that Miguel Tejada has been traded; I’m still thinking about it, should have something later this afternoon…

I couldn’t find any good videos for your viewing pleasure this week, so here are a couple photos I snapped during Wednesday night’s Padres-Orioles game at Petco Park in San Diego. The O’s should do whatever they can to keep Nick Markakis in Baltimore as long as possible. Dude has serious game.