The Severed Cortex

As a reference point, here is the last lopsided trade that raised a giant stinkin debate …

In 2006:
WP sends Manny Ramirez and Roy Halladay to STLB
For
Nick Swisher, Chan Ho Park and $15

End result? STLB fails to make it out of the 1st round of playoffs and WP wins the championship the next year. (Nick Swisher was not a keeper for WP in 2007.)
Part of the argument on this trade was allowing STLB to spend themselves $44 in the hole because we thought he could not be competitive for 2007. He finished second in the division, won money, and made the playoffs.

2008:
TT send Jacoby Ellsbury and $5 to AA
For
Alex Rodriguez and Vladimir Guerrero

Here are the facts of the trade gathered from both parties.
AA solicited the trade to TT. TT did not accept the trade immediately. Instead he waited until the next day, talked it over with a friend of his, then decided to pull the trigger.

I think we all can agree that Vladimir Guerrero is not the same Vlad we’ve all known. At best, he’s a high 3rd or low 2nd OF on most teams despite his name recognition. It’s possible that he’s worth less than that because he may be very injured.
The question then becomes what is the value of Jacoby Ellsbury long term compared to ARod this year … and clearly we all have differing opinions. AA is quite adamant that Ellsbury is the next Carlos Beltran. I think that Ellsbury’s 300 AB’s show that at best he might be as good as Johnny Damon in his prime. Might. But our differing opinions are what makes this game exciting. It’s all a gamble … like stocks. We pick our stocks, hope we bought value, then get excited when the value rises. … or shut our pie holes when the bottom drops out. For every Jon Papelbon, there is an Anthony Reyes.

Do I like this trade? No, I do not. But, the trade was clearly not collusion and I’m not going to get in the business of saving an owner from doing his best impersonation of Chuck LaMar or Allard Baird.
The problem with this trade is the same problem with all the other trades of big name players … they are made in a vacuum. Almost any one of us would have given AA a better deal for ARod had he been shopped to us. It is your prerogative to make trades in a vacuum if you want, but I think time and time again it’s been shown that shopping players results in better trades. Shop your fucking marquee players.

As witnessed in 2006, the end result of this trade may turn out to be far different than anything we could have imagined. As far as I’m concerned, the trade stands. I will be posting a poll for the teams to vote against it, however. TT and AA should not vote in this poll. If 6 of the 10 remaining teams feel strongly about seeing the trade denied, we will retract the trade. This is your chance to speak. You have until Sunday night 8:00 pm Central time to get this done because both these teams need time to react if it is retracted.