Thanks to the 184 people who participated in the Kenny Williams trade survey -- and especially the 182 people whose answers I didn't have to throw out because they weren't all 1's and/or 10's.
Now that the news cycle has entered a lull, let's take a look at the community results:
A few observations:
*Time is a general manager's friend. Many of you said it in the comments, but there were a lot of trades worthy of 5's, and you can see that in the results. Thirty-three of Williams' 54 trades fell between a 4 and a 6, which illustrates how hard it is to "win" a trade.
Sometimes it works toward extremes, though. Had we taken the temperature of the Rowand-for-Thome trade after 2006, I'd say it'd score a lot closer to 5. The White Sox failed to make the playoffs, and Fenceface Rowand became a fan favorite in Philadelphia. But because Thome kept producing while Rowand declined into albatrossdom, the trade broke into the "good" ranks.
*2005 helped a lot. I would call the Keith Foulke trade one of Williams' three worst trades. It was positively Swisheresque in how it was forced by managerial disdain, and it was a visible downgrade in every way but the previous year's save total. But because Neal Cotts immaculately timed his one good season, much is forgiven.
The same can be said for the Geoff Blum trade. Not counting the playoffs, Blum's name would probably be close to Horacio Ramirez's on this list, because they both didn't help much during the regular season. That's fine by me. Luck happens.
*Had blogs existed in 2001, the James Baldwin trade might have scored a bit lower, because Williams traded for the wrong guy. From a Chicago Tribune story on July 27 of that year:
[Jeff] Barry hit .290 in Triple-A and had a .163 average in 49 major-league at-bats in '95 and '98. The Sox originally thought they were getting Class-A right-hander Jonathan Berry , but a "miscommunication" problem between the two teams led to Williams accepting Barry instead. Williams said the Sox would "honor" the trade despite the mixup on an apparent last-minute throw-in.
*The two trades that got a grade from everybody: Thome-Rowand, and Freddy Garcia-Gavin Floyd.
*And speaking of 5's, I think it's awesome that the Jake Peavy trade was the only one to fall smack dab in the middle of the spectrum. It seems like everybody is giving it one more year before making up their minds.
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On the current trade front, we have ourselves a bit of a sourcedown between Joe Cowley and everybody else.
The subject matter: Carlos Quentin.
Cowley tweeted on Saturday that the Sox were "actively shopping" Quentin, later elaborating that they were looking for a package along the lines of what Williams received for Carlos Lee.*
Dave Van Dyck went straight to the source, and Williams emphatically denied that he was looking to deal Quentin for anybody. Cowley took joy in ripping the Trib for getting an obvious answer.
Bruce Levine's source, however, said the Sox were not dangling Quentin. Rather, Williams listened to overtures from three teams, and didn't hear an offer he liked. Later, he told another GM that they weren't shopping him.
Whether it's Cowley or Levine who's right, this is an awful lot of noise around one player. It's not by any means a solid bet, but if I were forced to wager, I'd guess that Quentin isn't going to be with the Sox when April rolls around.
*Speaking of the Lee trade, while it ranked fairly high on the scale, the average was dragged down by 27 scores of 4 or lower. So basically, their looked at Williams' gamble like Lou Brown looked at Willie Mays Hayes' basket catch:
