Some posters are always grumpy, some are always positive, some are nervous nellies. The ones that are of interest to me are those with an opinion that is backed up by some facts and logic. That sometimes are positive on a deal and sometimes negative depending on some criteria they take the trouble to explain to the rest of us.
I've withheld my opinion thus far because I'm still on the fence a little - not that Gattis shouldn't have been dealt, but because I'm more interested in hearing what Texas might've been offering. To this point, no luck so...
I am happy to see that more and more posters seem to be warming to the rebuilding process now that things are more clear. While Hart wasn't as hamstrung as he was with Jason and Justin given Gattis' contract situation, he was still somewhat at a disadvantage - Gattis' value was obviously highest to AL teams (cutting the suitors in half), and perhaps more importantly, he really didn't want to enter the season with him in LF. If he actually played him out there everyday the chances were pretty good that his value would've declined quickly. Teams would get to see him play defense out there even more - increasing the chances that he then became viewed as strictly a DH, OR he gets hurt trying to chase balls down and almost completely loses his value.
Since I'm the resident optimist (outside of thethe of course), I will say that I'm thrilled with the return because I believe in our pitching gurus and think they're going to find that key to Foltyniewicz' control that Houston hasn't. If only that happens, we "won the deal". If he throws strikes, he's a #1 - no question. I've heard Garrett Richards comps tossed around, and I think they're pretty good - Richards struggled with his control for a good while before the light finally came on, then you see what happened last season before he got hurt.
I'm not personally as high on Ruiz as MLB Pipeline is, but think there's little doubt that he's better than Kubitza and Peterson so he's easily better than any 3B we had or now have in the system IF he sticks at 3B. There are already questions about his defense. I'm not AS worried about his power since you eventually expect some of those 37 2Bs to carry over the fences. TP and our developmental guys need to hound him about defense every day after they get their hands on him because if he can't cut it at 3B we probably won't have anywhere for him to play (he certainly can't slide across the diamond any time soon).
Thurman's likely back-end of a rotation fodder, but our front office made a living including guys like him in trades to get pieces we need for the big club for a long time - can't ever have enough of them. Much like we used to do (and Tampa Bay did in more recent years), you ALWAYS try to get that extra arm thrown in - you never know what you might get.
The only thing that has kept me from dancing around the room since I heard about the deal is that this is the only deal Hart's made so far where I actually would've preferred a hitter as the throw-in over the arm. I'd have loved to get Derek Fisher or Brett Phillips instead of Thurman. The reason I wanted to hear what Texas was offering is that even though they supposedly wouldn't include Alex Gonzalez, I also might've rather had Nomar Mazara, Jake Thompson, and Ryan Rua over what we ultimately received given the pitching depth we've already accumulated and the fact that we could've then used both of our 1st round picks this June on high-ceiling arms.
