Answer me this. What Major League Baseball franchise trades a young player that came up with the system and put together a Rookie of the Year like season? Apparently, the San Diego Padres do. They shipped out their stud 2nd baseman Josh Barfield today for a pair of Cleveland Indians prospects. Having watched Barfield throughout the 2006 season, I have to say the Indians got a hell of a player. This is a guy that’s going to have a solid batting average and play great defense. Padres fans criticized management before last season for trading Mark Loretta. Josh Barfield made them quickly forget all about Loretta. Chris Kline over at Baseball America broke down today’s deal.

“In Barfield, the Tribe fills a major hole on the right side of the infield that would have been platooned by Hector Luna and Joe Inglett. Barfield provides better defense and more pop than both of those part-time players, hitting .280/.318/.423 with 13 homers.

A fourth-round pick in 2001, Barfield steadily climbed through the Padres’ system and made his major league debut in 2006. The 24-year-old had problems hitting righthanders throughout his minor league career–hitting just .196 against them–but seemed to solve righties in his rookie season, hitting them at a .266 clip.”

The Padres received infielder Kevin Kouzmanoff and reliever Andrew Brown in the deal. Kouzmanoff’s best position is 3rd base but the Padres just resigned Russell Branyan and are even considering acquiring Japanese import Akinori Iwamura. Besides, Kouzmanoff is unproven. The Padres shouldn’t be the ones trading one of their young players that actually panned out.

As far as the Indians go, they filled a major need by acquiring a great young talent that isn’t commanding much salary right now. Now the Indians need to solidify that pitching if they hope to live up to their hype from last season. Making a run at Barry Zito or Jason Schmidt would make lots of sense here. With the Twins due to decline without Francisco Liriano and Brad Radke, now is a good chance for the Indians to make their push.

While the Padres dismantled what could have been one of the NL’s best double play duos in Khalil Greene and Barfield, the Indians just improved theirs by acquiring Barfield to play next to Johonny Peralta. What the hell must Bud Black be thinking? He’s welcomed to San Diego by watching his 2nd baseman, fresh off a great rookie campaign, traded.