From Bill Madden's NY Daily News article:
As word of the Yankees' trade for Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte from the Pirates filtered through the annual party thrown by Hall of Fame chairman Jane Clark on Friday night, no one was more stunned than Pirates Hall of Fame second baseman Bill Mazeroski, whose homer against the Yankees won the 1960 World Series.
"I can't believe it!" Mazeroski said. "We just traded two of our best players for four guys I never heard of. How could we do this?"
OK, settle down Beavis. First of all, admittedly I am glad that you. Bill Mazeroski, are so upset you sonofabitch. afterall, as star character Cologero Anello said in the movie a Bronx Tale you "made Mickey Mantle cry" when you beat the Yankees with a home run in the 1960 World Series. Furthermore, the fact that you never heard of the players received by the Pirates in the trade just shows that you don't follow the game much beyond the Three Rivers area. Mind you, Jeff Karstens, Ross Ohlendorf, Jose Tabata, and Dan McCutchen are not household Major League names, they at the least are reasonably well known prospects.
Ohlendorf is still projected as having a high ceiling, and Karstens has shown some encouraging flashes as well. Take them out of the AL East and you may have some nice chips of your own. Tabata is also a very high celing prospect with great tools. The Pirates aren't winning anything this year, but you may have effectively added to future starting pitchers, and a starting centerfielder.
Besides, was anybody else offering the Pirates the same or a better deal? Nah.
You want a real lopsided trade? How about when the Arizona Diamondbacks were trading Curt Schilling to the Boston Red Sox for Casey Fossum(currently MLB-MIA?) - after they refused to trade him to the Yankees unless they received both Alfonso Soriano and Nick Johnson in return? You wanna talk about conspiracy and collusion?
But again, it tickles me to hear how upset and seemingly outraged that you were, I mean what could be worse than feeling like you got "rooked and robbed" by the likes of Brian Cashman, eh?