Going into the 2007 major league baseball season, Delmon Young was the top rated prospect by many experts. At that time he was probably as unmovable a player as the Devil Rays had on their roster. People were projecting a possible 30 HR and 30 SB campaign from Young in his rookie season. One year later, he was dealt for a starting pitcher with plenty of upside, but someone who was not rated on the same level as Young. In his rookie season Young spent most of his at bats batting in the 5 hole in the lineup and ended up with a very productive 93 runs batted in. He showed considerably less power than experts predicted, ending up with only 13 homeruns. His stolen base total only reached 10, however his spot in the lineup likely played a large part in that low of a total. As with most young players, he did not come into the league with big league power. Only a select few will enter the league already having developed big league power. He hit plenty of extra base hits, just not very many long balls. As the kid gets more playing time he will develop, and the comparisons to Vladimir Guerrero may end up being true.

Garza was a very good prospect in his own right, but was no where near as hyped as Delmon Young. Garza completed a quality rookie year this season by going 5-7 and carrying a 3.69 ERA. He is projected as a #1-2 starting pitcher, and definitely showed signs of that potential during this past season. Problem is, being a young starter, he followed the common trend and also showed signs of being overrated. Bottom line, he was all over the place. Like Young, Garza will need time to mature.

So, who won this trade? At first glance you have to say the Twins got the better end of this deal; however, if you look deeper, you will see that the Rays are the team that ends up with the advantage. The complete deal was Delmon Young, Brendan Harris, and Jason Pridie for Matt Garza, Jason Bartlett, and Eduardo Morlan. I’ll tackle the big names first. In this case Garza/Young is pretty much a pick your poison type of deal. If you need pitching and you are rich in outfielders than Garza is the logical choice. If you have an abundance of pitching and you need an outfielder than Young is the logical choice. I’d say Young has the most future upside as he could end up being a perennial All-Star and MVP candidate. Garza will likely be a great pitcher for years, but whether or not he’ll be a Cy Young caliber starter is questionable. Brandon Harris is a quality utility player but really shouldn’t be a starter for any team. Pridie is someone who was selected in the rule 5 draft before; however, he was not good enough to make the team out of spring training and was returned to the Rays, at this point he is nothing too special. He had a very solid year between Double and Triple-A, but I don’t see him as a major league starter. Jason Bartlett plays a quality shortstop and has capable offensive abilities. He will fill their temporary whole at shortstop very nicely, and may even push Reid Brignac for competition when Brignac proves to be ready to join the major league ball club. Morlan is rated as one of the best relief pitching prospects in all of baseball, which could really be the Rays’ only real area of need in a few years.

Minnesota lost Torii Hunter earlier in this off-season, and have replaced him with Young. For next season it might be a down grade in production, however over the long haul (lets just say over the 5 years that Hunter signed with LAA), I’d bet that Young puts up considerably better overall numbers than Hunter. That, in my opinion, was a nice upgrade for them. One slight problem is that Young may be forced to play out of position in center field. However with the Johan Santana trade on the horizon, it’s likely that they will get their future CF in that deal. Harris will give Nick Punto a run for his money as the solid UTIL player who is starting for this team and wouldn’t for most other teams around the league. This will provide some healthy competition to hopefully fuel their fires.

The Rays are going to look very strong in a few years. They will have a monster pitching staff if they can keep them all together in Kazmir, James, Garza, Price, McGee, Davis, Niemann, Hellickson. That could turn into a very formidable pitching rotation in the near future. Not to mention a good looking young lineup of C-Navarro, 1B-Pena, 2B-Iwamura, 3B-Longoria, SS-Brignac (Barlett for now), LF-Crawford, CF-Upton, RF-Baldelli, DH-Gomes. This team will be a team to look out for around 2010, and if the Sox or Yanks switch gears and trade their prospects for veterans the Rays may find themselves even closer to being a playoff team than anybody ever imagined.

- The Lastings Milledge drama in New York is now over. The Mets decided to end his tenure with the club by shipping him to the Nationals for seemingly a bag of used baseballs. Brian Schneider and Ryan Church will be headed to New York in a deal that gives the Mets a third catcher and a below average right fielder. Sure Schneider is one of the better catchers in the league when it come to calling the game from behind the plate. There is no doubt that this should help the team. Church is coming off of his career year. He is at his peak, this is as good as he will get. Sure Milledge hasn’t proven he can do that yet, but come on, they dealt a guy who was at one time a top 10 prospect in baseball, for a 3rd catcher and a 4th outfielder. The reasons the Mets were not high on Milledge are just plain lame in reality. So what if the guy took part in creating a hip hop CD which contained offensive language; Grow up, this is 2007. The Mets gave away the best player in the deal, plain and simple. Bad game calling was not the reason the Mets fell flat on their face at the end of last season.

- Orioles ask Angels for Brandon Wood and Jered Weaver in return for Miguel Tejada. Are they kidding? If this were 5 years ago, maybe. Who wants to give up a top 20 prospect in baseball along with a proven middle of the rotation starter (weaver) for an aging SS, whose numbers have declined for a few years, is owed 13 Million per year for two years, and is going to have to move to 3B this year. I don’t see the Orioles making any deals (Bedard included) if this is the type of thing they are going to ask for. I know everybody has been asking for a lot, but that is for Miguel Cabrera, Johan Santana, Dan Haren, etc. You know….Good players.

A few predictions from the winter meetings:

- Johan Santana ends up with the Yankees. This may not happen during the winter meetings, but this is where he will end up. The likely deal is Hughes, Melky Cabrera (still not sure why the whole world thinks this guy is so great), and I’m going to put in Alan Horne or Austin Jackson. The Yanks have said previously that they will not include either of them, in this deal, but ultimately I don’t think either of them are worth enough to hold the Yanks back from getting Johan.

- Erik Bedard ends up in a Mets uniform. My guess is that the Mets will end up letting go of Carlos Gomez in some type of deal to land the starting pitcher they desperately need. Gomez and either Humber or Pelfrey would likely do the trick.

- Dan Haren moves to the Dodgers. Not sure what type of offer would need to be made here, this is just kind of a gut feeling. I think the Dodgers want an arm and I think Haren is the guy they get. I think they would end up having to part with possibly Elbert along with one of their hitting prospects. Either Kemp, LaRoche, or Loney. LaRoche is the most likely to go, as the Dodgers don’t seem to have faith in him, and there have been rumors of Eric Chavez being dealt opening a hole for LaRoche. My gut says if it’s LaRoche and Elbert they would need to add in another prospect, maybe a guy like Broxton or Meloan.