Jed Lowrie Trade Tree: Part 2

Also known as: Billy Beane makes a ton of trades.

Remember the Mike Morse/John Jaso three-way trade from a few weeks ago? I had a trade tree all drawn up but didn’t take the time to write anything or post it. Here’s the Athletics part of it:

Pretty sweet, huh? Fits on one page and is easily legible at a regular zoom. Plus it’s nearly symmetrical so it’s got a nice aesthetic quality too.

Apparently Billy Beane hates all of those fine qualities and only cares about trying to make his team better. What other reason could he have for including Brad Peacock in the Jed Lowrie deal, which linked it to the Dan Haren deal through Chris Carter, which linked it to basically every other trade he’s made since he became GM. (click to embiggen)

Start with 14 draft picks, make 23 trades that cycle through 47 players and you end up with 13-15 players still in the organization. My favorite part is the direct path from Mark Mulder to Dan Haren to Brett Anderson. Other teams dream of getting back an ace when they trade an ace. Billy Beane does it.

Jed Lowrie Trade Tree

Houston made a surprising trade last night, flipping Jed Lowrie (and Fernando Rodriguez) to Oakland for Brad Peacock, Chris Carter and Max Stassi. This continues the Astros’ trend of adding useful pieces to their rebuilding franchise.

When Houston decided to not extend the contract of aging franchise star Lance Berkman, they traded him to the Yankees for Jimmy Paredes and Mark Melancon. After a good season of relief they moved Melancon to the Red Sox for Kyle Weiland and Jed Lowrie. And now after one productive but injury filled season Lowrie is gone too. That’s a great series of deals, continually adding both big league players and minor leaguers that might add more value. (Click to embiggen)

The trade tree for the Oakland side of this deal will have to wait a few days because it ended up containing Mark Mulder, Rich Harden, and the recent John Jaso trade among others and is a total mess can be seen right here.