September 25, 2012; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Braves right fielder Jason Heyward (22) celebrates with left fielder Martin Prado (14) after scoring in the sixth inning against the Miami Marlins at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports

Prado, a 2010 National League All-Star and a two-time top-20 finisher for the National League MVP, was acquired by the Diamondbacks along with pitcher Randall Delgado and three other prospects. Prado is one heck of a baseball player in his own right and if you want to know what the Braves lost when they decided to include Prado in the deal, listen to their fans who were despondent that they lost the underrated and well-liked utility man.

Prado has played multiple positions throughout his career. The 28-year-old has played every infield position except pitcher and catcher and both corner outfield positions. This versatility is highly sought after by all clubs as he can continue to be on the field while giving other player’s much needed days off by playing so many different positions.

He is a career .295 hitter and this past season he hit .301 in 156 games for the Braves. He hit 10 home runs, drove in 70 runs and stole 17 bases. He is a fantastic contact hitter that strikes out at a clip of less than 11% for his career. His Runs Above Replacement rating last season was a 51, very good for any player in the big leagues and his Wins Above Replacement last season was a 5.4, higher than that of the player we traded him for, Justin Upton (2.1). Many scouts and experts felt that he was the toughest out in the Braves lineup last season and NL East executives were happy to see him go

His best season was 2010, when he made the National League All-Star team and finished 9th in the MVP voting. That season he hit .307 with 15 home runs and 66 RBI’s. He hit 40 doubles and scored 100 runs during that season for Atlanta.

He is also an excellent fielder. In 2012, Prado played five different positions with the Braves an in all of them he posted a fielding percentage over .980. He played the most games in left field last season (119) and his fielding percentage was a .984. His overall fielding percentage last season was .984 and for his seven-year career it checks in just a little lower, at .981. This is a very solid  fielding percentage and one of the reasons why Prado’s addition will help the D’backs in their vision to build a better baseball team.

According to a number of media reports, Prado was loved by his teammates and many feel that while Upton is a more talented player than Prado, the Braves will feel the loss of Prado in the locker room more than anywhere else. He was seen as a team leader and a guy who led by example. His hustle, his desire and his ability to bring those around him together were some of the comments that scouts had when discussing what Atlanta was losing by trading Prado. While Prado still has to prove himself to his new teammates during the spring, I feel that he will fit in just fine and he is everything that GM Kevin Towers and Manager Kirk Gibson want in a player.

You may be upset that Justin Upton is gone and that is understandable because of what he did for the franchise during his years in Arizona. But, you will most likely begin to understand why the D’backs acquired Prado. He is the type of player that gains a fan following quickly because of how he plays the game.

If you are looking for some statistical evidence to back up the trade, Prado does have an edge in a number of statistical categories throughout the two players careers. Prado has a higher career batting average (.295-.278), a higher career fielding percentage (.981-.967) and last year,  a higher Wins Above Replacement rating (5.4-2.1) than Upton did.

Overall, D’backs fans should be happy that we got at least one good major league baseball player back for Upton, something we would not have donw if we made the trade with Seattle. Give it time , allow your emotions to subside and allow Prado to prove himself to you as a fan. You will come to appreciate him like so many did in Atlanta.

Feb 24, 2012; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks executive vice president and general manager Kevin Towers during spring training at Salt River Fields. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

Like most fans, I have been somewhat perplexed by Towers desire to trade Upton. I just didn’t think the potential that he possessed was worth giving up on at this point in his young career. Giving up a 25-year-old veteran who had shown flashes of brilliance in his career is a thing many GM’s would be afraid to do, but Towers did not hesitate once his mind was made up to jettison the talented, but mercurial outfielder. He just had to wait for what he thought was the best deal he could get for the right fielder. When the Seattle deal fell apart, he maintained that he would not get held for ransom in a deal for Upton and in getting a solid veteran in Martin Prado and a talented young pitcher in Randall Delgado, both pieces could help the D’backs this season.

What gets lost in most of the criticism surrounding Towers, is that he has been at this gig for a long, long time. Towers enters 2012 with 15 years of experience as a Major League general manager to join the Oakland Athletics’ Billy Beane and the San Francisco Giants’ Brian Sabean as the fourth longest-tenured active GM in Major League Baseball. With 1,207 wins as a General Manager, Towers is one of eight current GMs to post at least 1,200 victories during their career.

Feb 24, 2012; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; Arizona Diamondbacks executive vice president and general manager Kevin Towers (right) and manager Kirk Gibson during spring training at Salt River Fields. Mandatory Credit: Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

He served as the San Diego Padres General Manager from 1995-2009. During his time as Padres GM, the Padres won division titles in 1996 and ’98, and 2005 and ’06. They missed winning the wild card in 2007 after losing a 13-inning tiebreaker game at Colorado.

He has a vision for the franchise moving forward and it involves a gritty and gutty franchise shaped in the image of his manager, Kirk Gibson. It also involves putting together a lineup that will make more contact and avoid striking out in large numbers. Finally, like all Towers teams of the past, he has put together a very good bullpen and decent starting pitching staff that will have to carry an Arizona team that will be more about manufacturing runs than playing for the long ball.

While he may have lost some leverage during the time Upton was on the market, you can understand what Towers is trying trying to do with this latest trade if you look back on some of his comments when he was first hired as Diamondbacks GM.

“Personally, I like contact hitters. I like guys that have good pitch recognition. Strikeouts are part of the game, but if you have four or five or six guys in your lineup, it’s hard to sustain any sort of rally,” Towers said in 2010.

If you look at the four big pieces, Towers has moved during his reign as D’backs general manager (Stephen Drew, Chris Young, Chris Johnson and Justin Upton), he is eliminating guys who are consistently posting high strikeout numbers. All four of those players posted strikeout rates of over 19% as D’backs players over the last two seasons. The D’backs already have four players, including the newly acquired Cody Ross, who are inclined to strike out quite a bit. First baseman Paul Goldschmidt, catcher Miguel Montero and outfielder Jason Kubel all strike out over 20% of the time, so the elimination of Drew, Young/Upton and Johnson will drop three guys out of the lineup (with the Ross addition) that strike out way too much for Towers liking.

Sep 09, 2012; Flushing, NY,USA; Atlanta Braves left fielder Martin Prado (14) flies out to left during the third inning against the New York Mets at Citi Field. Mandatory Credit: Anthony Gruppuso-USA TODAY Sports

The players replacing those that are now gone, are contact hitters with very low strikeout rates. Prado is an excellent contact hitter and his strikeout rate is near 11% for his career. That is up near the very top of the National League as Prado is regarded by some to be among the best contact hitters in baseball. Adam Eaton, who will get the chance to win the center field position is in the same mold as Prado, striking out less than 15% of the time for his career. At shortstop, Willie Bloomquist, Cliff Pennington and Didi Gregorius all strike out less than 20% of the time with Bloomquist having the lowest percentage of the three (15.8%).

Towers has pulled off big trades before with success. Remember, this is a man who once commented that he’s a “sludge merchant,” able to move unproductive players with big contracts for more productive players. He built contenders in the mid-1990s by acquiring slugger Greg Vaughn and pitchers Kevin Brown and Sterling Hitchcock. He also twice acquired Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson.

In one of his biggest trades, Towers acquired All-Star right-hander Chris Young and All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez in a six-player deal with Texas in January 2006. That seemed to turn out pretty well for the Padres during their run of success in the late 90′s

Towers has been placed in situations and has had to make do with tight player payrolls, which the D’backs have to contend with. In July 2009, he saved the Padres $56 million by trading ace Jake Peavy to the Chicago White Sox for four pitchers. Upton’s salary is $9.75 million for 2013 and and sky rockets after that to $14.25 million in 2014 and $14.5 million in 2015.  Johnson’s salary is $2.875 million this season and he is a free agent after the completion of this season. Prado’s salary last season was $4.75 million and he is arbitration eligible going into 2013. The D’backs have said the would like to sign him to a long-term extension. Delgado made $480,000 last season and his also arbitration eligible.

You also should remember that in his first season at the helm of the Diamondbacks baseball operations, the team won 94 games and the National League West Division title just one season after finishing in last place with 97 losses. As a result of the 29-game turn around, Towers finished third in The Sporting News Major League Baseball Executive of the Year voting.

Let’s not jump to too fast a conclusion with this trade as it may turn out that Kevin Towers vision for this team is just what the team needed to win games in the difficult National League West division. GM’s are paid the big bucks to take risks and gambles and not many would have traded Upton. His confidence in doing so leads me to believe that he knows exactly what he is doing and the D’backs are going to be better off for it in the long run.

Image: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

But I also can’t just ignore the potential franchise-changing deal the D’backs just pulled off when they sent Upton to Atlanta. So how about we take a look at the pieces the Diamonbacks got in return.

The biggest piece is of course Martin Prado. I strangely found myself disparaging Prado right after the deal was announced. I say strangely because I’ve long been a Prado supporter. I thought he was underrated for quite some time with the Braves. However, he’s not good enough to be the centerpiece of a deal involving Upton. That is why I found myself citing Prado’s flaws instead of his strengths on Twitter.

Prado has always been a good OBP and doubles hitter. He is versatile on defense allowing his team to use him in several different aspects – he played every single infield position (minus pitcher and catcher) plus left field in 2012 alone for the Braves. He’s a good piece for a contending team.

Much of his versatility will be lost in Arizona, though. With a crowded outfield, and Aaron Hill and Paul Goldschmidt entrenched at second and first respectively, Prado will undoubtedly be penciled into third base for the entire season. If that’s the case, he will lose much of the value that he had with the Braves.

Prado has hit double-digit home runs in each of the past four seasons but has never eclipsed more than 15 and has never had above a .464 Slugging.

Long story short, I like Prado. I think he’s a good player that can provide a boost to the third-base position. He’s just not quite the type of player that many made him out to be after the deal went down.

Now for the other players in the deal. The D’backs received starting pitcher Randall Delgado, pitching prospect Zeke Spruill and infield prospects Nick Ahmed and Brandon Drury.

Delgado is the lone player out of those four to have seen any time in the big leagues so far in his career

Delgado has thrown 127.2 innings over the last two seasons for the Braves. In that stint, he has a 3.95 ERA and a 1.363 WHIP. His main problem has been control. He’s walking just under four batters per nine innings while only striking out 6.6 per nine. Those numbers don’t usually translate to a ton of success. For Delgado to become a top of the rotation guy, he has to either cut down on the walks or come closer to the 9 K/9 number he had in the minors. Most likely, he’s a number four or five guy in a rotation with an above four ERA.

Spruill was a second-round pick in 2008 for the Braves and spent all of 2012 in Double-A Mississippi. He had a 3.67 ERA there and a 1.262 WHIP. Spruill’s upside is limited by his low k-rate – he only struck out 106 batters in 161 innings pitched. Spruill was ranked as the Braves ninth-best prospect on Dec. 10.

Ahmed was a second-round pick by the Braves in 2011 so he only has a year and a half of minor league ball under his belt. He spent all of 2012 in high-A Lynchburg in the Carolina League. He played 128 games at shortstop and served as a DH in two more.

Ahmed, like the other shortstop prospect the D’backs acquired this offseason Didi Gregorius, is a glove-first prospect. He tallied a .269/.337/.391 slash mark with Lynchburg in 2012 but was named the best defensive infielder in the Braves’ system by Baseball America. Ahmed will most likely start 2013 with high-A Visalia Rawhide.

Finally, Drury is sort of a throw in to the deal. He was drafter in the 13th round of the 2010 draft and spent all of 2010 and 2011 in rookie ball. He moved up to Single-A Rome in the South Atlantic League. He played all over the place in 2012, seeing the bulk of his games at first and third but appeared in two games at second and another at short. He’s referred to as a third-base prospect, though. He struggled at the plate in 2012, though. He hit .229 with an awful .270 OBP and an even worse .333 slugging percentage. For a guy that projects at a corner infield spot, he better hit better than that quickly.