Favorable reviews on Cahill swap

Blogosphere reviews of the Jarrod Parker-Trevor Cahill were generally favorable for the Diamondbacks. The consensus: Parker a higher-upside, higher-risk play by the Athletics, who seem to be in yet another rebuilding mode; Cahill a good get for a Diamondbacks team given the current window of opportunity in the NL West. For those comparing the deal and situation to the Dan Haren deal with Oakland several years ago, when the D-backs gave up Carlos Gonzalez and Brett Anderson in an attempt to capitalize on that "window of opportunity," there are a couple of key differences. 1 -- There's no Carlos Gonzalez changing hands in this deal. 2 -- If there's one thing the D-backs have in surplus, it's up-and-coming young pitchers with high ceilings. The hope is that they didn't deal the wrong one in Parker. Parker ranked only fourth on the Diamondbacks' Top 10 Prospects list by John Sickels of minorleagueball.com -- behind right-handers Trevor Bauer and Archie Bradley and lefty Tyler Skaggs. But Sickels says he moved him right to the top of the Athletics' Top 10. While there are those who wonder if the D-backs might have failed to learn a lesson from h the Dan Haren package several years ago that cost them Carlos Gonzalez and Brett Anderson Fangraphs.com also offers up a rather favorable take on the deal; and Jim McLennan of arizonasnakepit.com does a thorough job of comparing Cahill to other recent major leaguers of similar age and experience level. Finally, a couple of stats to ponder. Cahill has a 2.85 ERA and 1.05 WHIP in 12 interleague starts against National League opponents, with 7.4 strikeouts per nine innings (courtesy of ESPN's Buster Olney); but Cahill's ERA was at least 1.5 runs higher on the road than at Oakland's pitcher-friendly ballpark. -- Dave Lumia