Let's reevaluate

So we've got a day to think about the death of the LaRoche trade. We've got a ton of people that have now weighed in on it (Dejan, Ed Eagle, Perrotto are the local guys) and we've got a few versions of what may have happened:

• Littlefield stalled on Gonzo for LaRoche, Schuerholtz moved in another direction.
• Schuerholtz asked for some time to look at Gonzo's medical records, then moved in a different direction.
• Schuerholtz asked for Maholm instead of Gonzo, DL balked, Schuerholtz went in a different direction.

Strangely enough, I'm not sure DL deserves direct blame for this trade falling through. My best guess as to what happened is that Littlefield got played like a fiddle. Schuerholtz wanted Soriano and pushed the Gonzalez deal to the forefront to force the Mariners to act and give up Soriano for far less than he's worth (Raphael Soriano for Horacio Ramirez is an absolute heist). The paperwork to prove Gonzo is healthy should've taken about 10 minutes to go through, he had tendinitis, he got it checked out by a doctor, the doctor's checked him and found no ligament damage, and he was throwing off of a mound by the end of the season. A quick check of the report the doctors filed on his arm in August should've been enough to clear that. Instead, Schuerholtz used it to buy time, then sweep the rug out from under DL's feet. The truth is that DL probably did stall a bit and we know he's got a reputation for being incredibly hard to deal with. It's likely that the Braves never indicated that his stalling was a problem and they never told him there was a window for the deal beyond the end of the meetings today. That would explain why he's so upset today. Not because the Braves lied to him, but because the Braves used him to catalyze the deal they really wanted to make without ever letting him know they were negotiating elsewhere.

I'm not sure Littlefield could see that he was getting absolutely played this time around because Gonzo for LaRoche is a deal that makes sense for both teams. That's why it's not directly his fault. The fault lies in the fact that this happens to him all the time. Burnitz and co. used DL to milk a better contract from the Cubs two years ago, Bill Mueller did it last year, and now Schuerholtz is doing it this year. As they say, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, I'm a f*cking moron." OK, maybe only I say that. Still, his reputation as a tough dealer makes it easy for teams to pretend they're seriously negotiating with him over the period of a couple of days while they're using that perception to work out a better deal for themselves. The question is how well Littlefield can bounce back. Gonzo is an incredibly valuable commodity on this market to other teams that DL can easily deal. Can he work out another deal? I kind of doubt it, but I suppose we'll see.