Mariners - Acquired Langerhans

Seattle Mariners - Acquired OF Ryan Langerhans from the Washington Nationals for UT Mike Morse. I both love and hate challenge trades. Without the imbalances in position, contract, or short and long-term goals, I get the benefit of generally being able to declare a winner. This is more fun to write than a wishy-washy entry about how both teams did OK and got what they needed. The downside, of course, is that there aren't a lot of outs if I'm wrong. In this case, I give the win to the Mariners. Morse is a useful player, but he's no great shakes defensively and the Nats really need some better gloves. This is what makes the trading of Langerhans so puzzling as he is an extremely accomplished defensive player at the corners and did everything he could the last 1.5 years to erase the memory of a horrific 2007 campaign. Some analysts in favor of this trade have suggested that Langerhans can replace Chavez's performance. They're wrong; Langerhans is probably better than Chavez. ...