This is an idea I have been kicking around since last season.  I know that most trade ideas surround players whose performances failed to met expectations, so most of the trade recommendations around here center around Jason Kendall, Bobby Keilty, Esteban Loiza, etc...  Feeding this fire are salaries that not are justified by performance.  But gains in the stock market are not made by selling low, they are made by reaosnable analysis of value, and recognizing overvalued commodities and selling them while their value is at its peak, and using the profit to purchase undervalued commodities.  

We should trade Huston Street.  

He is one of the young darlings of baseball.  He suprised everyone last year by seizing the reigns of responsibilty and performing admirably.  The baseball world has his name.  He represented the country in the wold cup of baseball.  He is seen as one of the rising stars.  

His low era was not suported by his peripherals as being repeatable, though he looks to be solid in the future.  A .200 BAA?  That seems very low.  A result, no doubt, of our defense and likley a little luck.  I still contend that his strange delivery gives him an early advantage that will fade when batters get more used to it. He averages almost 3 walks per nine.  That indicates a control problem that will catch up to him.  Not that he will ever be, oh, billy Koch, but I see him settling in at a repeatable 3.2 era, which is low, but not irreplaceable.  

He is a career closer.  His workoad was high at UT, but not that of a starter.  He has only thrown about 280 innings since he was 18.  The ligaments in his shoulders, and the mucles in his arm are not built through inning after inning of long work.  My guess is that too many high stress innings will erode his abilty to pitch effectively over time.  Not that he will ever be bad, but I think he will likley tire a bit.  Career starters who convert retain thier elite closer abilities longer than minor league releivers.  

He is cheap, and could net us quite a return.  

We have his replacement already.  MoneyBall brought attention to Billy Beane's penchant for pitching the closer in the 8th inning, racking up saves for the second best reliever, driving up the market, and selling off that 9th innign reliever.  Duke is our closer.  He can pitch multiple innings.  He can induce groundballs, and he can strike out batters.  He is not affected by the pressure. He too is cheap.  And sure, his back is a problem, but so was Keith Folke's and we offered him 32 million dollars to stay.  If his back falls apart, we have Kiko Colero in place.  I suspect Billy is already doing this.  I have noticed that Huston plays a lot of games where it might be useful to rest him, when we have a 2-3 run lead.  It seems we are aggresively racking up saves for the guy, even when proper usage patterns might incline a manager to sit him.  Now, maybe Beane and Macha are really playing out LaRussas justification for the closer, and maybe they both have street in thier roto leaugues, but I wonder if someone is no driving up his off season price.  If we were the Yankees, sure, hold on to him, and buy a great hitter also, but we are not, and we have to give to get.  

In short, use this a point of discussion, but not only do I think it might be a good idea, I think that management is already considering it.  

What do you think?