goodbye Saundo..

Okay Tony, I get this one.

Dan Haren was traded to the Angels today for Saunders, RafRodriguez, Pat Corbin and Tyler Skaggs.

Haren is an obvious upgrade with a large and excellent body of work. While he's having a down year, he's also proven to have ace-abilities and be quite durable.

I get that Tony, but it still hurts.

Most baseball talking heads and fans have been blasting the D'backs on this deal. I won't say that the Angels didn't do well here - it's an obvious win on the Halos' side - but they didn't give up nothing.

RafRod is completely replaceable (though the awful D'backs 'pen could certainly use him), but it's the inclusion of the two young lefties. In a farm system that's thin-but-on-the-rise, Corbin and Skaggs were two legit prospects having great years. Skaggs is the one that particularly hurts, given the hype/projectability. The other concern is that Tony's already raided two of the top 5 picks from last year's awesome draft that was supposed to be the next wave of homegrown talent. In addition to the fact that he just shipped out Smith, another up-and-coming LHP, I hope that Tony doesn't become too fast-and-easy with the prospects on the farm.

(Oh, and don't skewer me for complaining over prospects. I know the difference between unproven prospects and established MLB players. But I also know that a healthy farm system begets a healthy major league organization. I only worry that carelessness today will hurt ten times more in the future.)

But what hurts the most is probably losing Saundo.

Okay, I understand that Haren is an upgrade. But that doesn't change the fact that Saunders was genuinely a favorite. I loved his cool demenor on the mound, I loved the class on and off the field, I loved the boyish joy he showed (after the Greinke game), I loved his personality (his garish golf clothes at spring training!), I loved his toughness (pitching through kidney stones is crazy), and I loved his underdog roots. Statheads could say all they wanted about him being average, but I loved all the little things he did - including finding a way to win.

I hope Joe knows that he has a lot of friends here. I hope that being a D'back will give him more time at home with his daughter. I hope that the NL West will give him the stats to go with everything else. And I wish him the best. I'll be watching the box scores.