Sportsline: Dobrow: The day after Santana changed baseball

Bill Smith’s quality custom illusions since…oh, about a day or so ago.

6. As much as the early conventional wisdom seems to be that Bill Smith overplayed his hand, remember that the Yankees are the biggest cavers in the game. They weren’t going to trade for Randy Johnson, then they did. They weren’t going to reopen negotiations with A-Rod, then they did.

Poor Mr. Smith simply had the back luck to have come along at the precise moment that the Bronx boys developed a backbone. You can’t say that Smith’s strategy was a poor one, because many a GM and agent have scored by doing exactly what he did—namely, playing the Red Sox and Yankees against one another. It just didn’t work out, is all.

The real problem here is that the deal destroys any credibility Smith has with his home fans. Unless at least two of the four prospects become legit contributors or Santana blows out his arm within the next nine months, Smith goes down in history as That Guy Who Traded The Great Johan Santana And Only Got A Few Warm Bodies In Return. Perception is everything and right now, fairly or not, Smith is perceived as an easy mark.