An odd firestorm has broken out over the trade that sent now-closer
Brad Ziegler to Boston. As Jon Heyman of
TodaysKnuckleBall.com points out,
a few teams are charging that they offered Arizona better prospect packages for Ziegler than the Red Sox (who sent
Jose Almonte and
Luis Alejandro Basabe westward). There are even anonymous charges that Arizona honcho
Tony LaRussa engineered the 'sweetheart' deal with his old White Sox buddy
Dave Dombrowski. This has resulted in an angry response from Diamiondbacks GM
Dave Stewart, who stated,
"Tony would not compromise the organization by settling for a player who doesn’t make sense. You’re talking about the integrity of the man. And I’m the GM, so you’re talking about the integrity of two men." The D-Backs insist that Boston's two prospects are legit and other teams did not offer anything better for Ziegler. An interesting sidelight to this controversy is the theory (mostly on the Internet) that Arizona mistook Basabe (a second baseman) for his
twin brother is the Sox organization
Luis Alexander Basabe, a switch-hitting outfielder, who might actually be better than his twin. Gotta love it!
