I've been watching the board here the past couple weeks and finally decided to put in my two cents regarding trading Upton and Young. Count me in the group that would like to see both traded for something approaching fair value. I doubt that will happen though. If we trade either, we'll probably end up with prospects that are a year or two away from contributing at the major league level.

Since this time of year is like a summer version of hot stove, it allows us fans to live in a dream world for a few weeks anyhow. The most recent rumor I heard was Justin to Texas for Nelson Cruz straight up. The old "change of scenery" excuse being cited as being beneficial for both players. Whatever. I have Cruz on a fantasy team and unfortunately, he's a "can't cut" player otherwise I'd have waived him long ago. He's a strikeout king, an occasional RBI machine and seems to not have a sense of urgency (probably because that team can pick him up when he fails). Aside from a couple monster games, he's been a detriment to my fantasy team most of the year. He does play a better RF than Justin defensively by a long shot. Gee, sounds pretty much like the player we already have. I hope we don't go down this path.

If trades are made, it'll probably be prospects. Here are two I'd love to see in a D-Back uni in a yr or two. Billy Hamilton and Oscar Taveras. Hamilton is with the Reds in AA and Taveras is with the Cardinals in AA as well. I had the good luck of being able to see these two play in low A Midwest League last year for a couple games when I was visiting back there. Taveras led the league with a .386 avg and his team, the QC River Bandits, to the Midwest League championship, which they won. He has a huge arm from RF but is inaccurate and projects better as a 1B.

Hamilton is a base-stealing fool and is going to destroy Vince Coleman's minor league record of 145. Already has 109 for year. He stole over 100 bases last year too. Huge disruptive force when he gets on base much like Coleman, Brock, Ricky, etc. Both these kids are big-time.

Bottom line in my opinion is if we must trade Chris or Justin, we need to extract high value prospects like these two kids in return. If we can't, then we keep them. I, too, believe that Justin will make it big one day but it just doesn't appear it will happen here for whatever reason.

Here's a couple stat links for Hamilton & Taveras along with a story link for Hamilton. Read them and drool. Cheers....

For Oscar Taveras:

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=OF&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=570805

For Billy Hamilton:

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=SS&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=571740

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/reds-farmhand-billy-hamilton-might-be-the-fastest-player-ever--has-104-stolen-bases-this-year.html