D'Backs Get Dan Haren, Trade Jose Valverde - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

In case you forgot, it's still the hot stove season in Major League Baseball. Just because we as fans spent all day yesterday thinking about the Mitchell Report doesn't mean that the wheeling and dealing that's so typical to this time of year just stopped. The Arizona Diamondbacks certainly didn't as they announced two huge trades this afternoon. The headliner is their acquisition of Dan Haren from Oakland for six prospects (Brett Anderson, Greg Smith, Dana Eveland, Carlos Gonzalez, Aaron Cunningham, and the recently acquired Chris Carter). They also shipped closer Jose Valverde off to Houston for Chris Burke and Chad Qualls.

If you want some snap analysis, any time you pick up someone of Haren's quality, it's hard to call it a bad deal. Haren and Brandon Webb will give the Diamondbacks one of the best 1-2 punches in the NL and reestablish them as the favorites in the NL West, especially if their young lineup progresses. I don't like the Valverde trade nearly as much: Burke is mostly a utility guy (he's not better than Stephen Drew or Orlando Hudson) and Qualls is a bad set-up guy. How that's worth Valverde is beyond me.

On the flip side, most of the six guys going to Oakland are pretty young and unfamiliar to me, but I'm going to operate on the assumption that Billy Beane wasn't going to give Haren away. Carter is a very promising young hitter and all three of the young arms (Eveland, Anderson, Smith) have promising minor league numbers. As for the Astros, Valverde for Qualls and Burke is a decent pickup, but they're going to need a rotation if they're going to have any leads for him to hold.