Kenny Do Good?

...and so I said, "Rectum? Damn near killed him!"

Even though the Sox are rolling, it's pretty clear that acquiring Griffey was a waste of time. He leaves runners on base, has less range/mobility than John Madden, and generally under-produces where he can. Oh and did I mention that we're on the hook for a good chunk of his contract?

And yet, I'm not entirely convinced it was a bad trade.

See, we make fun of Kenny Williams. A lot. Sometimes mercilessly. But you also have to keep in mind that Kenny has an OBSCENELY good track record as of late when trading - so I have to believe that there's more to it than Griffey sucking. Here's a brief refresher course for Kenny's last few big impact deals in no particular order (deals we obviously dominated are in bold, deals that the full impact remain to be seen are in italics):

Sox Acquire Griffey for Nick Massett and Danny Richar.
Sox Acquire Horacio Ramirez for Paulo Orlando.
Sox Acquire Nick Swisher for De Los Santos, Gio Gonzalez, and Ryan Sweeney
Sox Acquire Orlando Cabrera for Jon Garland.
Sox Acquire Carlos Quentin for Chris Carter.
Sox Acquire John Danks for Brandon McCarthy.
Sox Acquire Gio Gonzalez and Gavin Floyd for Freddy Garcia.
Sox Acquire Matt Thornton for Joe Borchard.

If needed, you could probably bold a few more of these items (like the Cabrera/Garland trade, which was great for both teams, but just imagine this squad without Cabrera right now), and others will probably pan out in our favor over time (Swisher's value gets better every year).

Really, I think the Griffey trade might be a case of "addition by subtraction." Massett wasn't exactly pulling his weight with the squad (and he wanted to start anyways), and Richar wasn't going to make this squad any time soon with the emergence of Alexei Ramirez and Chris Getz. In return, we get a guy who could bring in some fans, give a little boost to the offense, and might be able to resurrect his career in Chicago.

In Kenny we trust, right?