Salt for the Wounds

I probably shouldn't do this when the Nats current pitching staff is so tender, but last night was ex-Nat starter night in MLB. How did they fare?

Hector Carrasco struggled in a 5-2 loss to the Tigers, going only 5.0 innings, but giving up 5 earned runs on 7 hits, with only 3 Ks.

Tomo Ohka outpitched Tim Hudson in a 4-2 win over the Braves, 7.0 innings, 2 earned runs, 3 Ks, no walks.

Claudio Vargas had the best night, 7.0 innings of shutout ball in a 7-0 win over the Padres, giving up only 4 hits, no walks, with 4 Ks.

I'll stop there. Conclusions and rants are left as an exercise for the reader.

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SNV here. I'll pick up where DM left off. The history of trading off quality major leaguers didn't start with Jim Bowden, it started with Omar Minaya. Minaya made a concerted effort to run the Expo franchise into the ground.

Begin at the beginning:

Traded Lee Stevens, Brandon Phillips, Cliff Lee, and Grady Sizemore to the Cleveland Indians. Received Bartolo Colon and Tim Drew.

Ouch. A half season of Colon (Colon was later traded for Rocky Biddle, El Duque - who never pitched, and Jeff Liefer) for a #2 starter, an All-Star centerfielder, and a useful second baseman. This one really hurts.

Another bad one:

Traded Michael Barrett to the Oakland Athletics. Received a player to be named later. The Oakland Athletics sent Bret Price (minors) (December 19, 2003) to the Montreal Expos to complete the trade.

Ouch. Michael Barrett is going to be an All-Star catcher this year.

Another bad one:

Traded Chris Young and Josh McKinley (minors) to the Texas Rangers. Received Einar Diaz and Justin Echols (minors).

On the other hand, Minaya did make several good trades. He got Livan Hernandez when San Francisco dumped his salary. He got Ryan Church from the Indians for nothing. He picked John Patterson up from Arizona for Randy Choate (part of the Vazquez/Johnson deal). It's hard to give him too hard a time, but his ledger is still negative:

Positives	Negatives
John Patterson	Cliff Lee
Livan Hernandez	Grady Sizemore
Ryan Church	Michael Barrett
Majewski	Chris Young
Luis Ayala	Brandon Phillips

All in all, I'd probably take the guys on the right - two #3 type starters, an All-Star centerfielder, an All-Star catcher, and an interesting second baseman vs. a #2 starter, a #3 starter, a platooning corner outfielder, and two setup/middle relief guys.

Who would be the All-ex-Expo team?