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Hairston Trade Rebuttal

Dave Cameron, the highly respected co-founder of USSMariner.com, wrote a piece where he wonders (probably in jest) if the Padres’ trade of Hairston is an attempt to tank so they can be in the mix to draft über-prospect, Bryce Harper…

On a serious note, Cameron says,

Mr. Towers, but you play in the most pitcher friendly ballpark in baseball. You’ve picked up Chad Gaudin and Kevin Correia off the scrap heap and watched them turn into pretty useful arms in the expanse of Petco Park, after doing the same thing with Cha Seung Baek last year. Your ballpark is a veritable pitching factory, allowing you to take arms with some flaws and make them look all shiny and new.

Mr. Cameron, Correia is a nice arm and has pitched well for us, but at best he’s a forth or fifth starter on a championship caliber club, Gaudin – same thing. We’ve heard Peavy is on the block and Young has struggled this year (likely to injury but we don’t know with certainty what level Young will pitch at until he returns)… So to infer that the pitching is a team strength is not accurate.

Cameron goes to point out – accurately – that the Padres, “don’t have a major league offense.” He’s right, but Cameron completely ignores Towers’ assertion that, “…this is a move for us beyond this year.”

The Padres aren’t going to win the division this year and they likely will not contend for a division title until 2011 at the earliest (the last year Padres would have held Hairston’s rights). The Padres have several centerfielders in the system who are legitimate Major League prospects (Cedric Hunter, Luis Durango, Brad Chalk, and Blake Tekotte) not to mention Tony Gwynn Jr. or the recently drafted Donovan Tate and Everett Williams. Hairston was nice and his departure will cost this year’s club a win or two but this was not a bad trade and may benefit the Padres in the long term.

I’m not going to say that the Padres will get the better of this deal – we won’t know that for another 2 years-plus. However, given the current situation, I can completely understand the reasoning behind it.