What Kind of World Am I Living In?

A few weeks, a rumor was floating around that had the Mets shipping 3B David Wright to the Angels for OF Peter Bourjos. At the time and still today, I was and am appalled.

Wright is the face of the New York franchise. Since being plunked in the dome by Matt Cain, he hasn't been the same player, but he is still a productive middle-of-the-order bat that has the unfortunate task of playing for a weak team in a hitter's nightmare ballpark. In the past, I have advocated for him to be traded, but not for this little of a return.

Bourjos is a defensive-minded outfielder whose offensive value comes from putting the ball on the ground and hoping to beat throws to first. He has very little power and has not shown an ability to get on base consistently at the Major League level (granted, not a huge sample size with only 750 plate appearances but his minor league numbers won't blow you away either).

Is PB the soon-to-be face of the franchise in New York or bottom of the order hitter in Washington's lineup?

Even more troubling for me was FanGraph's Dave Cameron - a baseball mind that I respect - thought the Angels were the team that shouldn't make this deal. This seems like a classic case of saberists overvaluing defense. Defense is nice, but offense wins championships. Just ask the 2010 Mariners how well building an all-defensive team worked out for them.

Today in his weekly Sunday Baseball Notes column, Nick Cafardo mentions a rumor that has the Nationals trading John Lannan to the Angels for Bourjos saying:

Lannan, 27, is a terrific option as an end-of-the rotation starter now that Washington has signed Edwin Jackson. There is a lot of speculation that the Nationals will deal him to the Angels for center fielder Peter Bourjos, with Mike Trout on the way to play that position in Anaheim.

Using the transitive corollary, this would mean John Lannan and David Wright have the same trade value!?!?

What. Kind. Of. World. Am. I. Living. In.

Full disclosure: I played high school baseball with John Lannan. He was a great kid then and I have nothing against. Conversely, I have always rooted for him to have as much success as possible, and I hope he wins four Cy Young Awards.

But this trade stuff is full on crazy talk even if they are just rumors.