That said, your point about the relative dominance of Seaver versus guys like Zachary and Henderson is a good one. And indeed, finding an elite talent like Seaver is far, far harder than mid-level players. That said, Seaver wasn’t pitching at the same level when he was in Cincinnati, so your analogy, to me, seems a little off.

Moreover, even if the Mets may have executed the arrangement of their players inefficiently post-trade is not an indictment of the trade itself.

Sparky Anderson, when asked why he didn’t go out to the mound more often when Seaver was pitching–”What the hell am I going to tell Tom Seaver that he don’t already know?”

Doug Flynn–Not much of a player, but a great guy. Always had time to talk to fans and had a good sense of humor. He was the backup to Morgan and Rose; thought Morgan was the bomb, that Joe was always teaching him things, but that Rose barely acknowledged his existence.

As a Diamondbacks fan, I was actually a little jealous when Jeffrey Loria imposed a media blackout on his front office. I would love to see the my team do the same thing, especially when it comes to talking about struggling players. Mr. Kendrick, Mr. Towers, we get it. You’re frustrated with the team’s uneven performance and you want to make changes. But when you let your frustration get the best of you while you’re talking to the media, you weaken your position and make those changes very difficult.

Please, gentlemen, a little less you talk, a little more you think. We’ll all be happier with the results.

Towers: “Hey Justin, Jack Zduriencik up in Seattle is interested in you. How about you waive your NTC and we’ll trade you to the Mariners?”
Upton: “How about ‘No’.”
Towers: “Ok, then Jack and I will work out a deal, announce it to the press, you’ll veto it, and come out looking like a head case. That will reduce your trade value and lessen the return when I trade you to one of the 25 teams that is not on your NTC list. Ok?”
Upton: “Well, if that’s really what you want to do, KT, I guess I can’t stop you.”

This wasn’t quite as interesting.

I also completely agree with the poster above who mentioned what a good guy Doug Flynn is. He was one who would actually talk to us kids in addition to signing autographs rather than acting like we were a bother.

/metarant over.

But even if it were, arguing that two pitchers with a combined WAR of X are as valuable as one pitcher with a WAR of X is the functional equivalent of saying that a two <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-generation_jet_fighter"second generation fighters are equal to one fourth generation fighter. Not so: I’ll take one ace over two half aces in war or in baseball.

“Are the Diamondbacks gonna get sprinkled in any Justin Upton deal?”

Nah. Too many religious overtones.