re: Oakland Athletics acquire SS Jed Lowrie from Houston Astros

That's way over the top from rosenthal. The pirates have been largely terrible for decades. Trading their good players for prospects and trading those prospects once they become goood players. The rays were useless their entire existence up until a few years ago.

The astros didn't choose to move to a tougher division during a rebuild. The commissioner forced it because he didn't want to put his precious brewers back into a tougher league even though their history is roooted in the AL. The astros are totally rebuilding the team through the farm. We won't be competing for a few more years so Lowrie doesn't fit into future plans.