Posted by Brian Joseph on Friday, July 30, 2010 at 4:19 am

Keep it simple, stupid. One of my mentors used to live by the mantra.

Nowhere does the KISS principle apply more than evaluating Major League trades. Here’s how simple it is:

1.) Which GM is smarter?
2.) If GMs are relatively close in intelligence (read: both geniuses or both idiots), which organization is more Sabermetrically inclined?

The players involved do not matter. The conditions surrounding the deal mean nothing. It’s just that simple.

Take today’s deal between the Astros and Phillies, for example. Since Ed Wade is the dumbest GM in baseball (even dumber than Dayton Moore!), even though Ruben Amaro has no shot of besting the likes of “Z” from Seattle, fleecing doofus Wade takes little effort. He just has to say yes.

Granted, in this case, it looks like it might be true. But it’s comical to read the reactions to the deal that sent Roy Oswalt to Philadelphia for  very little.

Well, that’s not exactly true. At one time, Brett Wallace was pretty special. Oh, wait, that was when Oakland traded for him. This is what ESPN’s Keith Law said following the Holliday-for-prospects deal pulled off by the Athletics way back in 2009:

Wallace is the only impact prospect among all minor leaguers who changed hands in the past two weeks, and his is a special case, since he may have to move to first base, a position the Cardinals reserve for players with superhuman abilities.

As recently as January, Law had Wallace in his Top 20 Prospects and Baseball America placed him #31 on their list. To be fair to Law, he hasn’t been as harsh toward the Astros’ haul as most although he does feel the Phillies won.

One year later after a smart GM (Billy Beane) dealt away Wallace to a relatively unknown quantity in GM Alex Anthopoulos and then was moved to the village idiot (Wade), the former king of the trade deadline prospects now has suspect tools.

Obviously, it must be Wallace’s poor performance since joining the Blue Jays that formed this opinion, right? Last year, when Wallace reached AAA with Oakland, he posted a slash line of .302/.365/.505 after a slash line of .293/.346/.423 at St.Louis’ minor league stop. This year that line has “dropped” to .301/.359/.509.

Actually, an easier explanation is that Wade is an idiot so Wallace must not be as he was advertised when the Athletics flipped Matt Holliday in ‘09. That’s when Wallace was a can’t miss star.

There are plenty of other “reasons” the Astros were losers in this deal. Even though since May, the general take on Oswalt was that he shouldn’t bring back much in a deal because of his price tag. To get the deal done, the Astros sent Oswalt to Philly with a briefcase full of $11 million.

While this differed very little from the $9 million the Mariners sent to the Cubs so they could rid themselves of Carlos Silva’s monster contract earlier this year (and acquire resident problem child Milton Bradley who is hitting a whopping .205, by the way), Wade and Co. were ever so doltish on the financial side of the deal. (Any guess which side won the Cubs (Bradley)/ Mariners (Silva+$9 million) deal? Here’s a hint: “Z” was the GM of the Mariners and the other guy once hired Dusty Baker.)

But that’ll always be the case involving anything attached to Wade. He’ll never be the GM who saw Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels, Brett Myers, Pat Burrell, Gavin Floyd, Marlon Byrd, Ryan Madson, Michael Bourn, J.A. Happ, Kyle Kendrick, Josh Outman, and Nick Punto drafted under his watch in Philadelphia. He’ll always be the GM who needed Pat Gillick to come in and clean up his “mess”. Compare that to a smart GM like Josh Byrnes whose recent firing from Arizona set back the organization years according to Buster Olney despite having nowhere near the draft resume that Wade did in his first gig.

Wade will never be the GM who took over the club with the worst minor league system in baseball. He’ll be the GM who kept it there for two years running despite small glimmers of hope like Jason Castro and Jordan Lyles.

Wade will never be the GM who signed Brett Myers on the cheap and found a solid #2 starter. He’ll be the GM who took a $4 million flier on Pedro Feliz only to watch it blow up in his face. In Oakland, Beane was a genius when he signed Ben Sheets for the same amount Wade shelled out for both Myers AND Feliz and despite that move blowing up in Beane’s face totally (like the Nomar Garciaparra and Jason Giambi signings in ‘09), Beane still gets credit where credit isn’t due.

He won’t even be the GM that dealt a shaky closer for a future All-Star. He”ll be the GM that dealt Brad Lidge for weak prospect Michael Bourn and hand his former team a World Championship.

At the end of the day, if GMs were partnered up for a remake of “Dumb & Dumber”, Wade will always be “Dumber” to whomever he’s paired up with. So, no matter the results of any trade, signing, draft selection, or roster move, the evaluation of Houston’s current GM will never be favorable. KISS that possibility goodbye.