http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/tyreke-evans-might-trading-block-offseason-155407553.html

I for one, think Tyreke Evans might be a good fit for the Bulls to be preened for the 2-guard spot after Rip retires (yeah, I'm already thinking about that). He's on a 5.25M rookie deal, but they're below the cap so that means they can take a lot of salary back, if they want it. I have no idea what would get him, but a quick guess would be something like Brewer and Mirotic and/or a 1st rounder or two.

I'm not all that familiar with his game, so here are some posts about the situation from a Kings perspective (on a related note, Sactown Royalty seems awesome):

http://www.sactownroyalty.com/2012/4/24/2971558/to-reke-or-not-to-reke-that-is-the-question-poll

http://www.sactownroyalty.com/2012/4/22/2968061/2013-formidable-kings-tyreke-must-stay

Here's a college scouting report, too:

http://www.nbadraft.net/players/tyreke-evans

And for good measure, a video of Rose breaking his ankles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtJ4puu_FTU

Tyrus Thomas is a pretty unique player in the league.  He came in as a shotblocker and garbage-man extraordinaire with tenacity, energy, rebounding effort and lots of intangibles.  He came in also as a 19 year old.  His comparisons that I've heard have been Shawn Kemp, Stromile Swift and a few others.  Out of curiousity, I looked on databasebasketball, the site that used to be basketball-reference.com.  Their number one career similarity comparison was a player who played one year in the ABA, then the rest in the NBA.

His name was Dan Roundfield, aka Dr. Rounds.  I've never heard of him, but maybe someone on BAB has.  He was 6'8" 205lbs, and played 11 seasons in both leagues, averaging 15ppg and 10rpg over his career.

He entered the league at about 22, and Tyrus is not yet 22, so obviously it's not a perfect comparison, though certainly preparation for the NBA can be more accelerated than it used to be.  But the more I think about it, the more I realize that we're really expecting a lot from Tyrus in such a short period of time.

In fact, Mr. Roundfield had a very similar rookie campaign to the one that Tyrus is in right now.  This makes me think that a player like Tyrus, while certainly his per-minute contributions are positive, might benefit from a gradual transition, but truthfully only depends on the minutes given.  Boylan is quite the dumbie, and Tyrus should be playing more, mostly because the success he is having on a limited basis seems to be consistent, even with more minutes.

Mr. Roundfield's career, when used as a comparison, bears this out quite nicely.  After a rookie campaign of:
     - 11.4mpg  5.1ppg 3.9rpg
Tyrus's rookie campaign:
     - 13.2mpg 5.2ppg 3.7rpg

Mr. Roundfield's first year EFF:
     - 6.27 in 11.4mpg (22.00 EFF/40mpg)
For reference, Tyrus's EFF last year:
     - 6.77 in 13.2mpg (20.30 EFF/40mpg)

Mr. Roundfield's minutes increased in the NBA next year to:
     - 27mpg 14ppg 8rpg

for the next several years, until he was 28 he maintained or improved EFF(not a per-minute measure) every year:
     - 19.02  19.90  21.25  21.26  22.84  23.20
minutes:
     - 20.7   30.7   31.7   32.0   33.8   36.5
for 40 minute averages of:
     - 36.75  25.92  26.82  26.58  27.02  25.42

His second year performance was quite remarkable(Consider that Jordan's highest EFF/40mpg was <37), but that might suggest that he was unscouted in the NBA, or played with better teammates, or another reason.  After that season, he was very consistent and pretty impressive.

Skill-wise, I'm unaware of the similarities, but the statistics seem to suggest that if Tyrus gets more minutes, and develops like Mr. Roundfield did(big IF), that he won't be a superstar(Though he was a 3-time All-Star), but will be a solid rebounder who can score a little.    In fact, Roundfield was pretty impressive to Moses Malone, and should be considered one of the better second round picks, considering his 3 AS appearances(Link to Wikipedia Article.

Excerpt:

"Roundfield earned a reputation as a strong rebounder and tenacious defender, and during his career he was named to five NBA All-Defensive teams and three All-Star teams."

Sounds good to me!

Pat on the back for Tyrus:
Tyrus has improved his skill-set and confidence(though Boylan has likely ruined the latter).  He took over a game or two, and developed a vastly improved jump shot over the offseason.  I think that next year, with a new coach and increased familiarity and security(starting job, too) with his frontcourt teammate, he will flourish.  

Given that the offseason has started without a Boston Massacre III, I started thinking ahead already.  From my perspective, the biggest upside is the frontcourt, and the biggest liability is the contracts of the frontcourt, though Kirk has been impressive lately, and Gordon could get a favorable sign-and-trade in the offseason.  If anyone has any info on the player I used as a comparison, I'd love to learn more about how they compare, skill-wise.

The most often cited complaint about the departed Scott Skiles was his rotation.  He played Duhon and Wallace too much, and the young'ns too infrequently.  By doing this, he was playing for here and now, trying to exploit the consistent talent he had at the expense of future talent.  Fans always hate this.

I'm no Boylan-supporter.  He's a better coach than I'd be, but worse than others.  Overall, not the worst coach in the league, but certainly not in the top 20.  When he took the job for the remainder of the season, he said that he would depend on the veterans to save the season from being a complete non-factor in the weakest East in recent memory.  He stuck to that.  Until everyone got injured.

Since then and even before everyone got injured, the paradigm had shifted.  Wallace was no longer the wily, experienced, athletic hustler-rebounder extraordinaire, he was a broke-down, overplayed black hole on offense.  I don't even blame Wallace.  He's being played like a 28 year old, but he's 32.  He would be more effective and have more energy if he had more rest.  In the past few games, some of this has emerged.  Joe Smith's rest is also becoming more of a priority.  The players that were supposed to be saving the season weren't significantly better than the young kids that got benched for them.  Noah started playing a little more.  Intermittent outages of Kirk and Ben became opportunities to see that a rebounding, defending guard is something we not only have, but might be useful.

In the past few games, the youth that has been considered an asset of potential has become a plain, right-now asset.  The fans rejoice, and Tyrus saves a game with heroics.  Never thought that the kid that got buried on the rotation would be so lauded by my man Sam, but he is.

Maybe this year is lost if we can't get out of the 7 or 8 seed, but the future looks bright.  Far from having too few players, we might just have too many that need playing time to develop.  I think, for one, that Boylan is realizing that even Noah's supremely messed up shooting form beats Wallace's airball jumpers.  Wallace might just not be so tired if we did that, too.  We didn't get suckered into long extensions for a team that doesn't look to be going anywhere, reminding me too much of the Pacers of a few years ago, re-uping Austin Croshere for huge money.  Maybe they're good, but the team just doesn't seem to center around them as much as that money says it should.

As a Bulls fan, I could not be happier.  Briefly glancing over the league, I am thankful for what I have to cheer for.  Far from trying out Reggie(Boston), figuring out whether our team will lose its best player for peanuts in the near future(Lakers, Wizards), putting this season's hopes on the resurgence of fat people knees and replacing Flash with Mr. Fake Triple-Double(Heat), we have a team that has been kept together with young talent, veteran leadership, and responsible finances.  Few teams have a better top to bottom organizational structure, from the owner to the standing room only seats.  Even fewer teams have the talent that is as good as likely to improve.

Tempering enthusiasm with ambiguity, I dare say that as Bulls fans, we are sitting very pretty as the season arrives.  If you look around the league, only a few teams strike me as good to cheer for in the near term(San Antonio, Phoenix, Dallas, Boston and Cleveland), but none of those teams are likely to improve soon.  Lebron needs a sidekick but they have no money, Phoenix and Dallas can't get over the hump that San Antonio has built and aren't getting any younger, Boston's time bomb is audible from the moon and San Antonio is probably on the decline from their pseudo-dynasty.

In my mind, Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah are the most important players for the contribution of an X Factor.  Every championship team may have superstars(the causal relationship is debatable), but more than that nearly all championship teams have moxy.  Not misplaced arrogance vis-a-viz Spreewell or Damon Jones(who actually thinks being better than Larry Hughes still means something), but the confidence in their play that oozes out of them.  This confidence is contagious, and I have seen this out of Ben Wallace in Detroit, and in his few dominant performances last year, but it is still rare.  In Tyrus, we saw what basketball fans often refer to as "flashes", times when a player's true potential, while being invisible to themselves, is apparent to everyone else.  Tyrus' enthusiasm at various points reminded me of exactly what's missing about this team: confidence.  This team is one of the best in the league(top 5 is no stretch), and doesn't play like they know it.  Joakim has confidence to go around, and Tyrus' youthful enthusiasm that characterized his college career took most nights off.  Most nights.  The other nights reminded us of the confidence that all great teams have.

The first game of last year demonstrated the character of our team more than any other game.  They showed themselves that they could compete with anybody that day.  Then they forgot again, losing the next game to Orlando by 15.  This team has been noted by scouts and writers as occasionally playing down to their competition.  I attribute this to not realizing that they are playing down, not realizing that they should beat the Nets, especially when the game means something.  Confidence might help avoid going down 0-3 by simply playing without passion.  The team needs moxy, and who better to give it than players that have nearly too much, Thomas and Noah.  Play the kids(when their ankles work again), and let's step on their throats, guys!

As evidence of tenacity and the Bulls' tradition of raw competitiveness, watch this video, paying special attention to #8.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvaEvX6xHZU&NR=1

GO BULLS!

In a not-so-surprising move by Yi's former Chinese basketball team, they are attempting to block his move to the Milwaukee Bucks, which was threatened before the draft by both the team and his agent team, as I recall.  They stressed private workouts only in Los Angeles, and said that he could only go to the Bulls and Golden State.

Yi, taken by Milwaukee with the sixth selection in the NBA draft last month, would "definitely not" play for Milwaukee, Tuesday's Beijing News quoted Guangdong Tigers chief, Chen Haitao, as saying.

They cite the depth chart as the cause for concern, but truthfully it's likely the minute Asian-American community that really ruffles their feathers.

Chen expressed concern that Yi would have trouble getting playing time with the Bucks, whose squad boasts Australian 7-footer Andrew Bogut and a number of other tall young players.

The only way this relates to the Bulls is as a possible second or third team involved with moving him to a different squad.  I would be curious to know how much they would stick to their Bay Area or Chicago choice, but at this point those may not be options anymore.  Our frontcourt has a lot of depth, but if we traded Noah and someone else(Sweetney?) for Yi, then that could work out for his team officials, though in my mind Tyrus or he can never play Center, and so he's a backup unless he unseats Tyrus, which at the moment seems difficult to do.

I don't know much about the team's rights, but this is straight out of the Eli Manning bag of tricks, and that worked out poorly for the guy, so I can't imagine that they want him just anywhere else, they probably have someplace in mind.

Poll

Yi for Noah and Sweetney??

43%

Just do it.

38 votes

56%

You must be crazy!

49 votes

87 votes | Poll has closed

[I combined the two Joe Smith diaries into one, Vangelis' is after the 'read more'.

I think it's time he (we) got over the #1 pick label, it was like 12 years ago. KC says 'classy veteran', heh. Not sure what to think right now in terms of rotatation and young-guy-burying. I'm just pleased it's a 2-year deal (David Aldridge reports 2yrs/$10m) which is excellently short. -Matt]

Offseason is now effectively over for the Bulls.  Though Billy King reportedly wanted to keep Joe Smith around, we signed him for likely the Mid-Level Exception.

Joe Smith, the former #1 Pick, is considered one of the bigger busts in NBA history.  He went to college in Maryland, and is generally known around the NBA as good guy, as I've heard.

Poll

How happy are you with the Bulls' offseason moves?

29%

Meh

81 votes

8%

A little dissapointed

24 votes

2%

Paxson is going down!!!!!!

6 votes

11%

Very Happy

33 votes

48%

Pretty Happy

134 votes

278 votes | Poll has closed

Continue reading this post »

I made a post of things that I wished would happen, and it's weird, but a few of those have come true in the past few weeks:

Specific ones:
*  Luol Deng has 35 pt game
He did almost that.  He hadhis best game ever maybe on 2/23/07, with the following line:
39min 13-22FG 6-6FT 11reb 2PF    32pts
I would say the 11 reb makes up for the 3 missing points.

*  Ben Gordon plays all 48 minutes
He played 47 last night.  47/53 minutes is pretty good, and his career high makes the missing minute, well, minute.

*  Wallace getting some energy and 20+ rebounds
He didn't get 20reb, but against Cleveland on 2/22, he had 19 and really helped us win the game with the following line that doesn't capture all he did:
44min 6-8FG 2-2FT 9OREB 19TREB 5AST 2STL 7BLK 14PTS
9 OREB?  That's ridiculous!  7 BLOCKS?  Also ridiculous.  I think he's getting more comfortable here.  If only he can understand that his knees do in fact work like hinge joints.

*  Knicks losing every damn game
Not working right now, they are around ~10th worst team in the league.

*  Tyrus to start for a while
With PJB out, this may happen.  He is actually earning his playing time.  My guess is that BW gave him a talking-to after his Dunk contest comments.

*  Thabo to not throw the ball away
Since my post, he's done the following:
.7TO in 88min, for rate of 2.2To/40min

*  Duhon ridin the pine, he's not the future of this team
He has been getting less since Kirk, Deng and Gordon have heated up, but he's playing alright, and will play less as they play more.

*  Bulls get 1-3 seed
They have to be the best team not to win a division to do this, and better than one of the division winners as well.  They are currently battling with Cleveland for this dubious distinction. Jury's still out, and thank G-d so is Dwayne Wade.

UPDATE: TO SATISFY THE HINRICH FANS OUT THERE:
* Kirk Hinrich gets a triple double or scores 40
We all want Kirk to look for his shot more, and look to handle the ball more generally, and he needs a breakout scoring game to remember what it was like to be a scorer first.

Poll

Will the Bulls get a 1-3 seed?

16%

No

7 votes

11%

I'd rather get the 4 seed and see Duhon ride the pine.

5 votes

71%

Yes

30 votes

42 votes | Poll has closed

I get the feeling that the Bulls are on the verge of something great.  I also have the feeling that they are on the verge of a monumental collapse.  I'll explain more.
(No talk of the personal pronouns, I know)

We are consistent only in our inconsistency.  If we could play as well as one of our better nights, we're a 55 win team easily.  On one of our bad nights, we're a 30 win team.  We don't have any player except Deng that gives conmsistent production, and we seem mentally defeated sometimes even before the tip-off.

Skiles is a great X's and O's coach.  I feel like he's a good teacher, albeit a bit impatient.  But he has a tough job.  He has more youngsters than any other +.500 team in the league, and has to therefore worry about this year just as much as next.  Even our veterans are working out their rookie contracts.  He seems quick to pull guys out, and appears to win games we just shouldn't win with our lineup.  Our players are collectively outperforming their individual talent, IMHO.  Our team is miring in mediocrity, only in the East that means over .500.  We need a clutch, consistent player and a post player, best if one player fits both.  Pau may be one, but hasn't proven to be a leader and an elite player yet.

PJ Brown is a huge bargaining chip, but only if we think that FA money is not going to help us.  It's obvious that trading PJ Brown is basically signing a player for their contract, and giving up the other stuff.  Would I rather have Pau than a rookie like Horford?  Yes.  Post players are hard to come by, and take a long time to develop.  I think that unless Pau can be gotten for a deal like Our pick/PJB/Tyrus, we shouldn't do it.  We might be able to get a PF this summer, through FA
or a trade.  We're not ready to compete yet with the tops in the league.  Forget the East, we can't beat the best teams in the West yet.

The Bulls are either having a tough time gelling, or we just don't have the pieces yet.  I think that until we get a post player who can score while being double-teamed, we're going to continue to be an also-ran in the East.

These next few weeks are crucial, here are some things that I want to see:

• 35 pt game from Deng
  
• Wallace getting some energy and 20+ rebounds
  
• Gordon playing 48min
  
• Knicks losing every damn game
  
• Tyrus to start for a while
  
• Thabo to not throw the ball away
  
• Duhon ridin the pine, he's not the future of this team
  
• Bulls get 1-3 seed

John Hollinger uses the oft-used "Swiss Mister" for Thabo Sefalosha in his most recent article, in which he also critiques our rookies, Tyrus and Thabo, and calls them projects, meaning they're not dissapointments, but need time to develop.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insider/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&id=2690890&lpo s=spotlight&lid=tab1pos1

The Projects

In a draft with several wait-'til-next-year types, these are the most prominent.

Tyrus Thomas, Bulls: Broke his nose opening night. Welcome to the NBA, kid.

Since then he's had trouble cracking the Bulls' rotation, mixing intriguing athleticism with several moments when his inexperience (just one year of college) has become apparent. A lack of offensive polish is the biggest shortcoming.

Thabo Sefolosha, Bulls: A future defensive ace, the Swiss Mister already has Chicago's brass beaming over his long-term future.

But for the immediate future, Sefolosha's offense pales in comparison to his defense, so he's not useful for more than spot duty on a team hoping to win the East.

Gotta read this.  Weird that the Tribune site lets this stuff on.  Click Here

To fill the character limit, I shall attempt to name the seven dwarfs: Doc, Sleepy, Sneezy, Bashful, Dopey, Happy, and Grumpy.

__________________________________ _________
________________

So there's been a lot of debate about who to play where.  Deng at the 2, Noce at the 2, Thabo at the 2, Tyrus at the 2.5, Ben Wallace at the 1, but why can't we all just play shooting guard at once, simply passing the ball around the perimeter until we have an open three?  If you think that this wouldn't work, click this link Click Here:
Hinrich
Gordon
Thabo
Deng
Noce

One word......... VeryNice!

Poll

So, what is right?

20%

As long as none of them wear headbands

3 votes

26%

Sweetney needs to eat Duhon

4 votes

6%

Duhon should be playing more

1 votes

33%

Deng can play all positions, not just shooting guard

5 votes

13%

Thabo needs a soft tha

2 votes

15 votes | Poll has closed

They're trying to predict who will be good breakout players in 2010. Interesting read.

Breakout Players of 2010
Click on the full post to read what they said.

Continue reading this post »

Harrington Looking For Dough in all the Wrong Places

I don't know whether it's a good idea really, but it seems that we could just end up with the two best big men of this free agent class, which isn't saying much, for less than we might have thought.  That is, if we want both, and not just Ben Wallace.  Here's the situation:

•  Harrington Wants out of Hotlanta with a New Deal, with Maximum Money.  Shocking.
  
•  Noone has any outright cap room to give him more than the MLE, for maybe 5-6 years, as a guess for length.
  
•  Therefore, he needs to settle for less than he wants, unless a sign-and-trade seems feasible.

Golden State and Denver are said to be interested.  I think both are near the cap, or over it.  This means that both would have to trade significant salary to complete a sign-and-trade, but both teams would not offer much more than an exception or some dumping, a-la K-Mart.  I don't know how feasible it all is, but PJ Brown is an expiring contract, and if Harrington is willing to accept 7mil/year (That is somewhat similar to the resigning of Noce, as I see it) or something in that range to play for a better team than GS, and not be in a logjam at Denver, then we could make a play at this.

Problems:
I don't know that he fits the team well, but I don't know his game well either.  He seems to be a good offensive post player, and has decent defense, so it seems from the little that I've seen.  Playing beside Big Ben would hide his liability, if it exists.  I have a number of concerns, and please respond with why it wouldn't work, or just might.  There's a big collective pool of knowledge here @ BAB:

• The only thing we would have to give up is something insignificant player-wise, and not part of the core.
  
• Cap Room would dwindle.  We would be near the cap next year to resign.
  
• Is he a back-to-the-basket type?  Do we need that?
  
• Can he defend?
  
• What's his work ethic like?
  
• Is the money workeable?

Lots of questions, but I think that 5/35mil and 2mil cap filler for PJ Brown would maybe just be what the low post needs, a scorer.  The depth chart would stand as:

Hinrich/Duhon/Sefolosha
Gordon/Sefolosha/Griffin
Deng/Nocioni/Thomas
Harrington/Noce/Thomas/Allen/Khyrapa
Wallace/Sweetney/Luke

Just having those players average what they averaged last year, the starters score 73.0 ppg.

The bench would, if the same, score 34.2, assuming TT and Thabo score never.  Harrington seems to help our scoring, and could become a 1st option on a team with very close options.

A Caveat:
I don't even know whether this would help or hurt the team, but I just threw it out there to give us something to do, and maybe Paxson is also looking at this as we are.  If Harrington is willing to settle for less money, he just might help us a lot.

Cap set at 53.135 Million.  This seems to fall right in with projections.  Here's the link to the full article:
Salary Cap Set

I wonder whether this means that we have more money than we thought.  It also means that we can make those deals for real, not just on paper.  The Krause era is officially over in a number of hours.

From 17 Rows up behind home plate.

Let's see:

Prior didn't throw too hard, hit about 92 on the gun a couple times and looked like it was easy for him every pitch.  

His offspeed pitch was really working, he struck out one guy on four straight offspeeds low and away, about 84-86 mph.  He seemed to have great command, and his fastball had great movement, coming in on left handers often and really had them guessing.  He rarely threw his curve but when he did, they looked silly.  He did especially well against the meat of their lineup, which has some good hitters at least batting-stat wise.  He did not look the slightest bit nervous, and only came out because they told him to.  He seemed to want to get the last out before he left.  My friend who's also a big cubs fan cracked up with me when we realized that the guy replacing him was jerome williams.

I believe his only run was unearned, and the pitches they hit were good contact on decent pitches.  He kept the ball really low all game, and seemed to get most outs on strikeouts or groundouts.  I only remember 2 flyouts, but there may have been more.  At the plate he even had a hit I think, but blew the chance for a grand slam the inning before he left, and struck out for the third out.

He seemed to really have control, and the crowd gave him a standing O when he left, even though he played for the visitors, though the Cub fans were not so sparse, we sat around a lot of them.  He raised it cap and looked fondly on the crowd, it was classy or him.

Overall, I came away impressed by his ease in pitching, the consistency of his delivery, as I couldn't even tell what pitches were right before they curved.  He has good command, and kept the ball low and pretty much unhittable.  He seemed to really like throwing the ball right by them.  He was warmer during the middle innings than the first couple, but he pitched almost the same, even without much effort.  I will try to send some pictures and movies(they're sideways, so I will flip them, or try to).  He looked good.

My friend had a great idea.  I know it's Felix Pee-ay.  But I think Felix's nickname should be "Pumpkin".  Felix "Pumpkin" Pie.  I love it.  He can't hit a curveball, and struck out on three identical ones low and away in a row.  It prompted me to say, "That's note one of the five tools!"  I wouldn't be happier with him in center field than pierre.  At least not the way that Pie is playing right now.  If you guys ask me specific questions, I'll try to check back and answer them, but I would like him to take Rusch's next start, and he looks strong and ready to make a difference.

I think I know the true cause of the confusion over who we should take.  It isn't that we don't have defined needs, the evaluation of our current talent, or anything else as much as, well, Paxson wants it that way.

Poll

Who's at the top of Pax's best overall player list? (Leave comments for how you know, because I have no clue how I could)

6%

Crybaby Morrison

2 votes

10%

Texas Tree

3 votes

0%

Rudy Gay

0 votes

30%

Louisiana Leaper

9 votes

20%

Hell if I know

6 votes

26%

My Boy Roy

8 votes

6%

That Italian Guy

2 votes

30 votes | Poll has closed

Continue reading this post »

A Bill Simmons ESPN story about how the NBA should bring back the player-coach says basically that our coach is one of the five best in the league.  I like the idea of a Hinrich or Deng led team in the future.

Continue reading this post »

Roger Clemens might be a viable option for the Cubs for one or two years.  He cannot play for the Astros for a portion of the season regardless of what he does, and seems to want to continue, especially after his stellar performance last year.

Continue reading this post »

Let's say that when Prior pitches, we have around a .667 winning chance(41-23, about that) for the game, compared to .400(Career record 12-18 for Bedard) chance to win.  That's a difference of .267.  Assuming 25 decisions, that comes out to a decision for 10-15 for Bedard and about 16-9 for Prior.  That's a difference of Prior winning six games that bedard lost.  Tejada would, by my estimation, win us around 10-15 that we would lose otherwise.  
Sure, six games doesn't seem like a lot(though that's the difference between 79-83 this year and 85-77, big difference), but the fact remains that pitching is not helpful to go deep in the playoffs, it's necessary and a prerequisite.  Fact is, like my dad always says, Good pitching stops good hitting.  I don't think that great hitters can hit the best pitchers on their better days.
I think that Prior should be sticking around for three reasons:

1.  I think the injury prone thing is a bunch of bull.  Last year he got hit on the arm, and he did not have much trouble that I know about at SC.  I don't think his motion is dangerous or maligned with problems that will reinjure his arm throughout his career.
   
2.  If he is healthy, he can throw complete games and go deep in innings without losing much of his edge, something that a lot of pitchers don't have the ability to do.  He eases the pressure on the bullpen by not coming out early very often, and allows the bullpen days off once in a while, helping them to help the team more, and stay off the DL.  He eases the pressure on the offense too.
   
3.  I think that Tejada has peaked in the last few years, but Prior has certainly not.  I guess maybe I'm just hopeful that he can stay healthy, and pessimistic that Tejada can keep this pace up(he was worse in every major offensive category last year, which may not be a fair comparison, because almost everybody was worse than his 2004 stats.), which I see slipping a little next year.  We're not going to win a championship with the current lineup, so in two or three years the trade could look dumb from our standpoint because by then Prior will be entering his prime, and Tejada could very well be on the decline.
   

Objections:

1.  Tejada is the epitome of durability (Average of almost 162 games/season since 1999).  But that may change with age, as it often does.
   
2.  Pitching is bigger risk and harder to find; consistently great pitchers are hard to find and consistently great hitters are not quite as hard.  For every Roger Clemens or Curt Shilling there are about 5 Albert Belles, Adrian Beltres, and Juan Cruz's(40 batters this year with 26+ HR, but only 23 pitchers with 15+ Wins.)