Two very interesting articles on mlb.com. In the first, Josh Byrnes breaks down the real deal, talking about the general process involved in deals. Here's a good quote:
I think most teams take great care with their trades. There's a finality to it. There's a message to your players. There's a message to your fans. I'm not sure anyone tries to win trades, so to speak, but I think the deal really needs to make sense on a lot of levels or else most teams won't do it. There's a lot of care taken, consideration from all angles -- the here and now, the long-term value. There are some deals you make with an awareness that this deal will probably look better in a year than it does today, and some deals that will look worse in a year. So you analyze the impact of the deal as thoroughly as you can.
There's also the information that we were talking to the Marlins about getting Paul Lo Duca in fall 2005 - presumably, before getting Johnny Estrada instead. The second piece discusses the Anatomy of a trade, in particular the one for Randy Johnson. The original plan, was a three-way trade with an AL team, with us trading relievers for a first-baseman, who'd then be spun on to the Yankees in return for Johnson. That didn't come through, but it's a fascinating insight into the work that's involved.