Aubrey Huff to the Astros

[speedy27]

The Devil Rays traded Aubrey Huff to the Astros for RHP Mitch Talbot and SS Ben Zobrist.
Tampa Bay reportedly pays a big chunk of Huff's remaining salary for this season, receiving two good-but-not-great prospects in return. Houston surprisingly optioned Jason Lane to Triple-A to clear room on the roster for Huff, who has been hitting quite well of late after a very slow start. Huff becomes a free agent this offseason and will suddenly have tons of value in NL-only leagues. Jul. 12 - 11:30 am et

looks like a good pickup, especially since we didn't have to give up too much to get him!

[NitroHonda]

This pick up sort of has me reserving judgement. Now, we can't argue the cost. We got him cheap, dirt cheap. We definitely can use his bat but my problem is giving up Ensberg. Another poster from the site that I post on keeps rebutting that Ensberg still has 19 homers and 44 RBIs. I just happen to personally think that Ensberg could become another Richard Hidalgo. Now am I ready to give up on him? No.

This is where the Huff trade causes problems. Now we can put Huff at 1b but how do you pull Lamb and what he's been doing this season. Lamb has a tendency to drop off with more playing time but we haven't seen that just yet this season. Lamb has earned his spot at 1b. .333 average? Nah, let's keep him in the lineup defensive miscues or not, we desperately need the offense. Then can Huff go back into our outfield? No way. Burke, Wilson, and Berkman with Taveras on the bench. There's no room. Ensberg is the odd man out and that's just a shame. Now if we're able to dangle Ensberg as trade bait which I think is what's going to happen then again being on the DL doesn't exactly boost his value. Lane is also trade material but his age will keep him down tremenously. I just don't see us getting a lot for Jason Lane.

Was the trade for Aubrey Huff the best thing for the Astros? I don't know. Was there a better option? Defintely. I strongly feel that we could have gone out there and picked up a better hitting SS. Adam Everett has good trade value potentional. There are teams out there that need the best defensive playing SS rather than a hitting SS. It's a trade off that could have been made to work. I'll say this, I'm happy to have Aubrey Huff regardless of how I think taking him possibly is hurting the team in the long run. If I'm correct then it looks like that acquiring Huff didn't come as cheap as we all thought it would be with the loss of value in Lane and Ensberg. Hey, I'll be buying an Aubrey Huff jersey when I go to the game on the 25th.