Before you mischaracterize me as being a Pollyanna or “shilling for the team,” what I am about to write is not so much my personal opinion as it is my inference around what David Forst and Co. were thinking come August 1st.
A cool way to analyze trades, I think, is to put aside — for at least a moment — your own “expert opinions” as fans not privy to the conversations or context, and to try to figure out how we got from point A (Frankie Montas is on the trade block) to point B (the A’s conclude the best deal is the Yankees haul of LHP Ken Waldichuk, RHP Jose Medina, LHP J.