Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle was recently named Rumor Royalty for the A’s. She answered a few questions for MLBTR for the series.
MLBTR: Some have called Billy Beane’s return on Dan Haren "quantity over quality." Do you agree? What is your opinion on the Haren haul?
Slusser: My understanding is that the A’s felt that Arizona might be the best match all along for Haren and that they received pretty much exactly what they asked for, so clearly these are prospects the A’s valued highly, Carlos Gonzalez and Brett Anderson in particular. Maybe there’s some belief the A’s should have gotten one of the Diamondbacks’ young big-leaguers, but that was never on the table. I’m not sure they would have done better elsewhere, and they got some quality and certainly quantity – which isn’t a bad thing. Mark Ellis was a throw-in in the Damon deal, essentially; no one really noticed him at the time. He turned out to be the most valuable piece, long-term.
