-- Jon Heyman, slamming sabermetrics and Yunel Escobar in one beautifully facepalm-inducing tweet.
I actually see this trade more like Heyman does than like a lot of my friends in the sabermetric community because I have always had this sense that Escobar is something less than the sum of his parts. But a few hours in, I think both the pro-Escobar and the anti-Escobar sides have overplayed their hands a bit. This kind of thing from Heyman -- and especially this overheated hit job by the AJC’s Mark Bradley (Really? His English is the issue?) -- seem a bit much. At the same time, a lot of the more sabermetrically-oriented analysis of the deal discounts the Braves’ distaste for Escobar a bit too much.
This is a trade that could really go either way. The Braves should be given some benefit of the doubt about their judgment here because they know the guy more than any of us ever will be able to. Likewise, those opposed to the trade from the Braves’ perspective are absolutely right to note that the Braves are selling low and could wind up really getting burned. In light of this currently-unresolvable ambiguity, everyone should probably tone it down a bit.