Al. Gonzalez+ to Braves for Y Escobar, Jo Jo Reyes

[A Fleshner Fantasy]

when i saw the thread title i thought WTF is San Diego smoking

I was thinking Adrian Gonzalez as well, and then I checked the calendar to make sure that it wasn't April 1st.

[StlSluggers]

Fixed!

[raiders_umpire]

The Braves must have really grown tired of his attitude, as they had just recently said he was still the best defensive SS in the NL.

[socceryank]

So what does this do to the value of each, especially Gonzalez? What type of park is Atlanta: pitcher's, hitter's or neutral?

The ironic thing is I elected to wait on SS this year while drafting, and took a flyer on Yunel. I quickly dropped him and picked up Gonzalez and have been loving the ride so far. This trade has me worried from a fantasy perspective.

[Maris09]

Some breakdown notes:

Yunel Escobar-Alex Gonzalez Trade Reactions
By Ben Nicholson-Smith [July 14 at 2:35pm CST]
The Braves sent Yunel Escobar north for a veteran who happens to lead MLB shortstops in home runs (Alex Gonzalez). It's a win-now move for Atlanta, though they also acquire a pair of intriguing prospects in the process. Meanwhile, the Blue Jays acquire a cheap, young shortstop who can play great defense and has a career OBP of .368. So does that make today's trade a win-win? Here's what the baseball writers are saying:



Danny Knobler of CBS Sports says Escobar was "not an Atlanta Braves type of player." Gonzalez is having a strong season and should fit in, so Knobler says he is an Atlanta Braves type of player, even if he's not a long-term solution at short.
Mychael Urban of CSN Bay Area believes the Giants could have used Escobar (Twitter link). I wonder how many Tigers fans are thinking the same thing about their team.
The Blue Jays took a risk and acquired Escobar now, because top players are rarely available when they're playing at their best, Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos explained to MLB.com's Jordan Bastian (Twitter links).
Earlier in the season, an Atlanta Brave told Andy Martino of the New York Daily News that Braves manager Bobby Cox hates Yunel Escobar because of perceived lack of hustle.
Joe Pawlikowski of FanGraphs says the deal "doesn’t seem nearly as bad for the Braves as it did at first glance," though the Blue Jays still won.
R.J. Anderson of FanGraphs believes the trade "has to be looked upon as a pretty worthwhile risk for the Jays."
Bryan Smith of FanGraphs says Jo-Jo Reyes doesn't mean much to the Braves, since they have so much pitching depth. Smith also suggests Tyler Pastornicky had considerable appeal for the Braves, since he runs and has raised his walk rate.

[mweir145]

Great deal, I never imagined that AA could fetch this kind of return for Gonzalez when they signed him last offseason (or even after this power burst in the 1st half). Escobar is under control for 3 more years, is the better offensive player going forward (it will be nice to have another guy that actually takes a walk) and he's, of course, one of the better defenders at SS in baseball.

It's tough lose Collins and Pastornicky, guys that I've watched develop for years, but we probably aren't looking at high-ceiling guys there anyway. Collins remains a very intriguing prospect, though.

Reyes is still only 25 and putting up decent-to-good peripherals in AAA, so he's not a lost cause either.

[Neato Torpedo]

Fixed!

Just change the title to "A. Gonzalez traded, Jays receive J. Reyes+"

No one will be confused then.

[mweir145]

After reading a bit about him, it sounds to me like Escobar is the "Alex Rios of shorstops."

After the events of the last year, I prefer taking chances on players like that instead of giving them up.

[Havok1517]

I for sure think the Blue Jays got the better end of this deal. Escobar has battled injuries for much of the season but he has much more upside and has looked very good prior to the AS break. A great trade for Toronto! I would of loved the Reds to trade Cabrera for Escobar in a similar deal in a second. I think this obviously has to do with player makeup rather than talent.

[buffalobillsrul2002]

Blue Jays definitely won. Braves might've won too. They've wanted to get rid of Yunel for a while now; they're probably relatively happy to just have unloaded him. But i feel like Gonzalez was a poor choice; they could have made a move for prospects and then dealt those guys (or others) for a different SS. Or played All-Star Omar Infante at SS for the rest of the season (or until they found someone better to take over). Just my thought though...