Baseball Prospectus – Prospectus Today: Notes from the Road

Excerpt from Joe Sheehan on the Cruz and Reitsma trades:

[M]ay have closed the gap between the Braves and the Phillies. The Braves added potentially 400 innings of above-average pitching to their staff–realistically closer to 300, as it’s unlikely we’ll see both Chris Reitsma and Juan Cruz in the rotation all year–but that’s a lot of talent to be handing Leo Mazzone this close to Opening Day.

One Reds fan I know was pretty ticked about his team’s swap of last year’s closer for Jung Bong and Bubba Nelson, but the deal makes sense beyond money concerns… [Y]ou could argue that Reitsma was only the Reds’ fourth-best right-handed reliever. Bong is of roughly the same quality, left-handed, and will be a lot less expensive over the next two years…

The deal between the Braves and Cubs was just a steal… [Cruz] could be either a high-leverage reliever or a very good mid-rotation starter this year, and is the best young strikeout pitcher the Braves have had since Kevin Millwood came up in 1998.

Hopefully that’s little enough of a quote to keep me from getting the dreaded BP Letter.