Undone trade

It's a little old news by now, but in case you missed it in this diary, Ken Rosenthal reported that we were close to sending Tony Gwynn Jr. to the Rangers for Akinori Otsuka.  Then, of course, Bill Hall thought he was Superman, discovered he wasn't, and Doug Melvin decided we needed Gwynn after all.

My view here is colored by one simple fact: I really want Akinori Otsuka.  He might be the most reliable good reliever on the trade market this year, and if this rumor is any indication, he's affordable, too.  Sure, Gwynn is worth plenty, but with Hall locked up for several years, he's expendable for us.  

Not only would Otsuka fill one of the biggest (only, really) holes on this team right now, he'd be under the Brewers control for two years after that.  He probably isn't quite as good as Cordero, but that's comparing apples to oranges.  Cordero will be monstrously expensive on the free-agent market, and I don't want to be involved in that at all.  I'd feel a lot better about the 2008 squad if I knew we were headed to spring training with D-Bow and Otsuka competing for the closer's job.

I've added a poll to the front page to see what y'all think about this.