Kevin Towers of the Padres is looking like the new Billy Beane of the NL. First he trades Adam Eaton to Texas for Adrian Gonzalez and Chris Young, then he trades Josh Barfield to Cleveland for another hitting prospect in Kevin Kouzmanoff, then signs Greg Maddux, David Wells and Marcus Giles, and now he trades for disgruntled catcher Michael Barrett!
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2910079
Now Barrett may be a better fantasy catcher than real life catcher, but he still has hit 48 homers and batted .290 over the past 3 seasons, including .307 last year. He is also the hero who punched out Pierzynski. The Padres gave up their backup catcher and a minor league outfielder who was a first round compensation pick last year. That's not that expensive! The Fathers will now boast the best hitting catching duo in the league with Josh Bard and Barrett. If we could have traded Yorvit Torrealba (backup catcher at the time) and Brad Hennessey (late first round pick in 2001) to get Pierzynski we might have had a World Series title by now.
Padres win the West