OK, after 2500+ comments on the Sanchez-Alderson trade, it is clear that feelings are running high on this trade. But it is 2500+ comments, so it is hard to summarize quite where everyone is with it. Thus a poll. Yes, the poll forces you into a choice between two things; that's the point. Just pick the one that is closer to your view, even if only a little. I think I have done a fair job of distilling the two basic sides. (I have omitted the "middle" position of "I favor the trade, but wish it could have been more cheaply"-- nope, no alternative scenarios allowed. This is your sense of the trade as actually made.)

The sides are generally this:

• Generally favor. Sure, Alderson was special, but There Is No Such Thing As A Pitching Prospect (TINSTAAPP), which has been absolute dogma on here for years, along with the warning that people tend to overvalue their own prospects. Look, you have to give up something good to get something good. This season has provided an unexpected but realistic chance at the postseason that can't be taken lightly.
• Generally oppose. Alderson is more important to our future plans than Freddy Sanchez; Sanchez is better than the mess we have at 2b, but we need so much more than that, so this is kind of a pointless trade. Our chances at the postseason are technically realistic, sure, but our chances of winning the World Series with an offense that has 5 holes in it and Winnie-the-Pooh batting cleanup are very small, so losing a blue chip like Alderson is not worth it. (Again, I'm leaving out the 'would have loved to get Sanchez for Velez and Aurilia and a Cha Cha Bowl' alternative copout-- this isn't "What If Lee Had Won At Gettysburg.")
  
  

In 2007, McC Night was the night Barry hit homerun #756. In 2008, a young dancer named Goofus McPenisbutter cha-cha'd his way into television mock history. And this year, we saw Tim Lincecum's career-high 15 K's and honored the woman who, with her husband, saved the already sold Giants from moving to St. Petersburg.

Thanks to Goofus for two things: one is organizing all this again; the other is for not dancing.

Thanks to Grant for founding this community; thanks to the early leaders who shaped this community into one that values intelligence, humor, analysis, humor, wit, knowledge, humor, and a cool kind of mutual respect and regard that makes it different from other webzsites. And thanks to all of you who contribute any of the above to this community.

It really IS a community. It was great seeing so many of you at Zeke's. I wish that we all could watch a game on some giant TV's (televisions or transvestites, either way) and have a Live Verbal Gameday Thread(tm). That would be funny.

Kitspool took some great pictures. They are, or soon will be, below.   EDIT from WalrusMan: Kitspool's pictures can be found here.