In July of 2004, Scott Kazmir was at the midway-point between being rated baseball's #12 prospect ('04), and baseball's #7 prospect ('05). Not counting deals involving players that have struck homeplate umpires with their bat, the only player with that kind of pedigree to be traded since Kazmir is Cameron Maybin, and he was traded for a 24 year old Miguel Cabrera.
Teams trying to deal a slugger or an ace pitcher still try to bring in a blue chip prospect or two, but more and more the very top prospects in the game are deemed untouchable. It's almost impossible to conceive of Matt Wieters or David Price getting traded, but the reality is that after Kazmir, Tommy Hanson's not getting traded either. Even for Jake Peavy. A very raw Michael Stanton wasn't getting traded last year for Manny Ramirez, with the playoffs on the line, and the Red Sox willing to pay Manny's salary. Madison Bumgarner, Jason Heyward, Travis Snider, Buster Posey - these guys are not getting traded.
The Rays played so well last year, and are so well set up for the future, that other teams are definitely going to try to follow their model. Teams have become so protective of their draft picks that this past off-season Major League Baseball was ready to make an arrangement with the player's union so that certain free agents wouldn't cost their new team draft picks. I don't think that was just a byproduct of the economy, I think as time goes by teams are going to horde their youthful commodities even more.
I guarantee you this: Brian Cashman was paying attention when the Kazmir deal happened. Johan Santana is a Yankee if not for Scott Kazmir. Maybe I should thank Rick Peterson. And Jim Duquette. And Fred and Jeff Wilpon. And Al Leiter.
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