Of course they will act like this doesn’t matter, and, from all accounts, they really didn’t want to commit the prospects to make a Greinke trade happen, which is in keeping with Cashman’s philosophy re: building from within. But this offseason has been a disaster for them, and soon the fans will get restless. Lee is in Philly. Pettitte is dragging his heals. Greinke went to Milwaukee. Pavano is a no-go. Webb and other reclamation projects are probably not appealing. Garza won’t be any cheaper than Greinke, and probably won’t be traded in division. Hernandez is not available. So how are they going to improve?

People will probably rush to trash this trade. With names like Montero and Drabek and Perez thrown around all offseason, returning a bunch of relative unknowns from Milwaukee probably isn’t that exciting. And, really, I still don’t see an impact player in the bunch. But I am trying to avoid a knee-jerk reaction, and these players are beginning to look better. At the very least they all look like ML-caliber players, and that is quite good.

Still not certain how I will eventually feel. Starting to feel better though.

Wouldn’t call Escobar a very good player, not yet. He is a solid defender, but his bat looks too much TPJ right now. Still young, obviously, but his minor league offense was almost completely driven by batting average and stolen bases, two things that are hard to predict (I think). But even without the offense, if he continues to dazzle with the glove, he will be a solid contributor.

The pitchers, not certain. Jeffers is intriguing, mostly because his fastball is so darn fast. But his control is terrible, just atrocious. Probably a bullpen guy is what most people think. We’ll see. Also, he needs to stay away from the drugs.

Odirrizi though, he has shown strong numbers at every level. Could be quite the get. So young still, and I would like to see him above A ball before getting too excited. But, really, he looks like a solid rotation prospect, maybe better than that. Plus he is a righty, which just feels nice to have with all the lefties in the minors.

Not normally one to trash talk about media guys, but this is pretty far afield; Crasnick doesn’t even bother to quote anyone, he just asserts it as truth.

Not certain what to think about our side. So far I don’t see an impact player among the four. But maybe that is okay.