Kenny's thinking:
"I'd rather take a [young] guy with a high ceiling than take a guy who I had to overpay to make it look like I'm trying."
So why trading young BMac and not free-agent-to-be Buehrle?
"Because there's nothing out there that would give us an equal chance and set us up for the future. I think [Buehrle] is going to have his best year ever. The bottom line, and maybe it has been lost in transition, is that we're still focused on winning in '07. As it stood at the end of [last] season, we would have been taking $50 million for a rotation out of a $100 million payroll. It just wasn't going to work."
"There's no doubt we have strong interest in bringing him back, but those are numbers where we have to take a step back and wrestle with them. Once you do these deals, if you are wrong, they can cripple the club with ramifications for a lot of years. But this guy has been the consummate professional on and off the field. We just have to consider all the variables."