That being said, I'm very underwhelmed by Danks, Masset, and Rasner's numbers. How about just one time trading for pitcher that isn't a project? That doesn't have to magicallly find his control? The Sox had that in McCarthy. Screw his numbers out of the bullpen last year. He was already a plus starter in the AL. Not many pitchers pull off the transition from AAA to the bigs nearly as well. In my book, McCarthy wasn't nearly the question mark that Danks is.  

I wouldn't be against trading McCarthy, but only for more than this.

I know people will laud KW's stockpiling of young arms, but I think it's not a good strategy. There's a good chance that, like the famed 2001 pitching heavy draft, that none of Floyd, Gonzalez, Sisco, Masset, Rassner, or Danks ever makes an impact in the major leagues. Every move so far has weakened the Sox in 2007 and none of pitchers they gotten are in the Hughes/Pelfrey/Sanchez echelon. Look at Danks 2007 ZIPS projection. It's not good.  

Bringing up Cashman is spot on -- he pulled off a better haul for gimpy, gripey, pricey Gary Sheffield.

Anyway, I don't think KW is a bad GM. But this was a bad trade. I'm people will say I'm overvaluing McCarthy, but the Sox just traded arguably their most valuable player for a prospect who might turn out to be as good as McCarthy and a middle relief prospect. I'm unimpressed.

we know you don't like the trade. let's stick a little closer to the ground, though. when danks posts a 6+ ERA during his only season for the sox and BMac goes on to, well, whatever accolades one gets for being a slightly above average league starter, then we can start ranking this trade so low.

at least hitlesswonder prefaces his rather amusing assertion that BMac is/was our "most valuable player" with "arguably."

But I just disagree with the arguments.  I don't think they hold any water.

You argued that Danks' stats don't impress you much, however, As Keith has noted many, many times: Danks' stats are more impressive when you consider he was playing in hitters' leagues and that he was pitching against players much, much older than he was.

Control can be learned and improved, but as a 20 year old in AAA, in a tough league, he struck out over a batter an inning.  That's pretty impressive.  Is Danks the second coming?  No, but he's a very good prospect, easily the best in the Rangers entire organization.  He's left handed to boot, and has no major league service time.  

That's good value right there.  Then, there is Massett.  Massett possesses great stuff out of the bullpen and will help the Sox, either out of the front of the pen, or as trade bait.

The other players aren't really worth discussing at this point, maybe they will amount to something, but at this point they are all afterthoughts and long shots.

As for McCarthy himself, I think you're giving him too much credit.  He dominated the minors and pitched well for a stretch in 2005 when the Sox really needed it.  But it was a small sample size, no more meaningful than Scott Podsednik's World Series heroics.  He hasn't proved over the course of a 30-35 start season that he can be a good pitcher.  He stunk out of the Bullpen last year, and I don't buy the "well he's a starter".  Pitchers are pitchers are pitchers.  If anything, he should have pitched better out of the pen, as he wasn't facing guys more than once a game and presumably was pitching almost fully rested most of the time.

Don't get me wrong, he's a good player, I'd peg him for an ERA+ of around 110 to 125 for the next 10 years, barring unforeseen injury.

This move makes the Sox worse in 2007, but only slightly so, and if they can parlay Danks or Massett into outfield help the trade will end up helping in 2007.

But if they keep Massett and Danks I think the Sox win this trade as soon as 2008 and possibly every year down the road.  Danks has no service time and is a lefty, if he blossoms into a good pitcher he'll have even more value than BMAC.

KW saw a chance to make a pure talent for talent swap, he thought he was getting more talent than he was giving up, even if it didn't immediately fill a need on the MLB roster.  It's silly to say the trade didn't fill any needs, because the Sox needed young arms desperately, thanks to some wheeling and dealing this offseason that need has been eliminated.  

I don't buy the argument that he could have gotten more for Brandon and that is was prudent to hold out for more, possibly even waiting until mid-season.  Quite a bit could go wrong with that thinking, including an injury that would render him useless as a trading piece, or maybe even poor performance that would lower his value.

His value was high this offseason, possibly not as high as it will be a few months down the road, but KW deemed that a risk (think of the logic behind "pot odds" in poker) that wasn't worth taking.

I like the trade; I think I've articulated why.  I can see the other POV however.