For all you want to say about Billy Beane and Paul DePodesta, they've certainly made the last few days as a baseball fan very interesting.

For one, it appears that other baseball GMs are starting to get a clue and that Beane isn't able to rob most other teams the way he did at the beginning of the decade. Certainly he didn't rob the Braves or Cardinals.

In fact, it seems that he should've gotten more for Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder. However, only he knows what circumstances he faces (ie, ownership demands to slash payroll) and what he has up his sleeve. Label me a Billy Beane-apologist if you want, but he has earned the benefit of the doubt.

When a baseball team diversifies their risk with a large number of high quality prospects, it's extremely likely they will earn great returns on their investment. Yes, that is a comparison to stocks, and that is what the A's are planning on with these 2 trades. Considering they have a very strong player development program, it's very possible that no one will be complaining about these trades 10 years from now.

But more to the point, I can't complain because I'm an Angels fan, and the trades don't appear to help the A's in 2005.