The Diamondbacks will send closer Jose Valverde to the Astros in exchange for infielder Chris Burke and reliever Chad Qualls, according to MLB.com.

That explains the decision to dump Alberto Callaspo. It's shocking that the Diamondbacks would give up Valverde for this little return. 2007 was probably the closer's career year and he was about to get a lot more expensive, but the they're taking quite a downgrade in going to Qualls and Burke is no sure thing as the second baseman of the future. Tony Pena becomes the favorite for saves in Arizona, with Brandon Lyon and Qualls acting as setup men.

Very nice trade by Ed Wade. Now if he can add a starter or 3....

the astros bullpen threw my 2 favorite pitches ever

nice move indeed by the stros. prooves they wanna win now

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He killed the Cubs in that playoff series.
Now he'll kill us 18 times a season.

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The CSFMB: One big Crab Bucket.

I don't get why they traded him. With the starting rotation they have now with Haren, he would have lots of saves, assuming they score some runs.

the d-backs are stocked with arms, and valverde's their marquee guy. his trade value could be no higher at the moment, but that's relative when you're talking about a reliever, so while the return doesn't shock me it is a little disturbing. getting a high-risk/high-reward guy like samuel gervacio in place of chad qualls would have been a better move (unless the scouting dept. knows something about him that i don't, which is very likely), especially since they could have asked for a better position player to package in that deal. kind of a bust for both sides. houston gets one year of papa grande, and arizona gets two mediocre players in return. had this deal been floated closer to june, i think the return would have been higher for arizona.