[Fansy the Famous Bard]

Howell had off-field problems and it was clear he wouldn't succeed as a starter. Gathright was still very favorably viewed in the industry. I worked at SN at the time. Entire baseball team there (which I was part of) loved the deal.

Howell's off-field issues was what forced the trade... He was still a young pitching prospect that had value. Gathright had a youtube video, that was it.

Because MacDougal wasn't that good to begin with and had arm issues. Meh.

MacDougal had a 3.33 ERA for the Royals the year before being traded. With less hits than innings, and more strikeouts than innings. He had a very productive year... then posted a 1.8 ERA for the Sox the season we traded him. He had value at the time. You're downplaying this one for whatever reason. You cannot say "at the time" in one breath, then look at this one and not say that. It's being hypocritical in your arguments.

The Royals gave up Elmer Dessens in this deal. Meh.

But you still ended up with Odalis Perez and his contract. why? It was bad at the time.

THe Royals traded a bullpen guy for a guy coming off back to back near 1000 OPS seasons in Shealy. Good move at the time.

They traded two pitchers with lots of upside and MLB experience while relatively young (not to mention both went on to be pretty darned good pitchers). Shealy had 100 AB's in the majors (@ Coors field no less), and was a 27 year old "Prospect". His .990 consecutive OPS seasons was @ Colorado Springs (i think you could post that there. )where he was an older AAAA player (ala Clint Robinson). It was fluffed by the Royals organization, but no one was tripping over themselves to call it a great deal outside of them.

Betancourt was bad, but still better than TPJ, and the Royals wouldn't have done better on the open market. Also, the Royals gave up nothing in this deal. So, meh

Cant disagree more. Anything was better than Betancourt. ANYTHING... And anything comes cheaper.

Callaspo, meanwhile, has regressed significantly at the plate while growing more expensive. Good deal.

Again, you're speaking out of both sides of the mouth when you say that and then this in the same post:

Hindsight doesn't change the realities of the moment when it happened.

It was a poor deal at the time, because he was well liked here in KC and productive... however his off-field issues kind of forced DM's hand.

Aviles is not good. And this deal was liked at the time

Not sure if serious. Aviles was one of the best players on the Royals at the time. He was our starting SS and had put up 2 fantastic years as a Royal. I agree, trade him while he's hot because it was obvious those 2 seasons were the exception.. but it's what we traded him FOR. He fell off the cliff for the BoSox but he had tons of value at the time. again let me refer you to your own quote:

Doesn't change the fact it was a good move at the time. Hindsight doesn't change the realities of the moment when it happened.