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Z is one of the greatest talent scouts I've ever seen. Not all of his deals have worked, but while he's drafting awesome talent (and signing IFAs to develop into monster talents) he's also making trades for underappreciated talents from other orgs. As G noted, the Mariners' huge influx of MLB ready talents right now is coming in about equal parts home grown goodies and trade rewards.
The Putz deal turned into Gutierrez, Vargas, Carp (!), Ryan, 1/3 of the haul from Lee (because Carrera was a part of the out pile for Lee to Philly)...
The Lee deal has netted Beavan (stoploss), Smoak, Lueke and (via Lawson) another interesting arm.
The Washburn deal gave us Robles (and Washburn imploded...never to be seen again...the instant he left)
The Betancourt deal got us Cortes
The Bedard deal got us Chiang and Robinson
The Fister deal got us Wells, Furbush (who I still think is going to be a LOOGY...and a good one at that), Ruffin and Martinez
We are as deep as we are...as fast as we've gotten there because he scouts well before a draft AND before a trade AND before an international free agent signing in equal measure. He is the best rebuilding GM in baseball...bar NONE. The question is...can he get the veterans we need to turn into a dynasty?