Obviously we are very early in the Luhnow era. He was brought in here primarily to beef of the farm system and he hasn't had any significant opportunities to do that yet. He's only made two significant trades so far and the clock hasn't even started on those yet. So, let me go with what I do know. Luhnow seems to have a keener understanding of his own players' value than either Ed Wade or Tim Purpura. Of course, that is like saying you are the valedictorian at summer school. In particular, he took three players when their value was highest and spun them into four young players that can either help now or down the road. Mark Melancon was an okay closer, but he profiled as more of a setup man/middle reliever. Those are a dime a dozen. He parlayed that into a starting shortstop and potential member of the rotation. Now, whether Lowrie or Weiland work out is anyone's best guess and you can haggle over whether they themselves are good players, but the fact is that he recognized that Melancon was not going to be anymore valuable.
Fastforward to yesterday's deal and I come away very impressed. If his second player is rated as highly as the first then he got two of the Royals top twenty prospects (regarded as the deepest system in baseball by some) in exchange for two players that might be slightly above replacement level. Humberto Quintero has 2.2 career wins above replacement and has never had as many as 1.0 in any season. In four big league seasons, Bourgeois had 1.6 WAR (1.2 last season). The likelihood of him producing more than one win at any point in the future is pretty slim. Both are solid role players that would help any team, but they are hardly the kind of players that would bring in any significant return. Yet, there was Luhnow pounding on the Royals desperation for a catcher. Picking up Landon Powell last week aides in that ability. So, if the PTBNL is a top twenty prospect in their system, he will have gotten a significantly better package for two players that should not be regulars anywhere than Wade got for Jeff Keppinger last season. Funny, but the Keppinger trade looks like a fleecing when compared to the package Kenny Williams got for Carlos Quentin and the player he got for Sergio Santos (plus the Melancon deal was also better than that). So, will these trades work out? Who knows, but at least we got a guy that recognizes the value of his own players and when they are at their peak.
