Billy Beane might not be so dumb...

[Yoda]

The Hudson trade was a bit of a stinker for Beane really. He got one real pitching prospect (Dan Meyer), who now, aged 25, has pitched 18 innings in the bigs, a 6th or 7th man type arm in Juan Cruz, and a random AAAA OFer who put together a flukish half of a season with the Braves, in Charles Thomas. Pretty dreadful, especially compared to the Mulder trade.

He screwed up and learned from it. When it comes to prospects, more often than not, quantity beats quality.

[kab21]

I liked the Haren trade for both teams from the beginning. Beane knew that he wasn't winning anything (possibly lucky to be .500) for the next couple of years and picked up some decent prospects even if they are a couple of years away. Haren is a very good pitcher, but a tad overrated IMO. I think it works out well for AZ since they really needed to add another solid pitcher to their rotation and only lost MiLB depth.

win-win in my book