Sure, it was a bad trade. But you don't think you're going out on a pretty untenable limb to suggest Smith knew it was one of the worst deals in a decade and still pulled the trigger? You're welcome to suggest his mindset was wrong (mis-evaluated Capps or Ramos or something) but to suggest he knowingly made a stupid trade? Cmon. That's just not a reasonable position. That's fine, but this issue has been hammered over and over. Never, in Ryan's career, has he given any indication of willingness to do this. You can suggest until the cows come home that the circumstances are different, but this is a guy who has gone on the record about his lack of comfort with contracts to pitchers past 3 years. It's one thing to be cautious, it's another to have a debilitating view of risk-averse contracts. To date, that's all we've seen from him, even after an offseason promise to upgrade the rotation. (Which, clearly, has not worked out) So I'm going to need some sign of hope before I can buy into all the other reasons people suggest. I'm going to need to see the propensity to actually do it before I accept that he's just being prudent.