On second thought...

Think about this possible trade:

Team A gives up a 24-year old outfielder who has 20+ homer power, but hasn't yet proven he can hit consistently against big league pitching.

Team B gives up a 25-year old starting pitcher who has high-90's heat with a power breaking ball and won 14 games in the toughest division in the baseball the year before.

Wouldn't this trade be a no-brainer win for Team A?

If you haven't noticed by now, the above hypothetical is the Matt Joyce for Edwin Jackson trade that Dave Dombrowski and the Tigers pulled off this winter. My first reaction to this trade was to mourn the loss of Joyce (and the arrival of Carlos Guillen to leftfield), but I don't think I ever put the acquisition of Jackson into proper perspective. In terms of raw stuff, Jackson at this best is on the level of 'Stang, and the Tigers only gave up an unproven fourth outfielder to get him. Don't get me wrong, young left-handed hitters with Joyce's raw power aren't exactly a dime-a-dozen, but they are certainly easier to find than 25 year-old pitchers with high-90's heat (as I type this, Jackson just hit 97 on the radar gun) and a big league breaking ball who have been successful on the major league level. The real thing that changed my perspective on this trade was the move to acquire Josh Anderson, giving the Tigers another young lefty to play the outfield, albeit with a vastly different skill set, and bringing the E-Jax deal full circle.

The more I see of Jackson, the more I love his makeup almost as much as I love his stuff. He has been excellent so far in his first season as a Tiger, and it doesn't exactly hurt Double D's reputation when Joyce gets off to a 1-10 start in Tampa, although his one hit was a home run. What do you think it would take to get him back in a Tiger uniform....