Hmm it's odd, I didn't think the trades were as off as they have been in previous years/examples. First thing to keep in mind is that the players the Giants are trading, while decrepit in real life are not so in the game. The game's AI shouldn't make decisions off of real life, it should make them within the context of the game, and all those players have been rated pretty decently the last few years.
Secondly, we don't know the whole situation between the trades. Sabathia in a walk year + two cheap guys for the three Giants is in a walk year, is probably the worst in my opinion. The Joba trade, while particularly scary on the surface makes much more sense with his explanation that Damon and Cano are out and the Yankees arn't doing that well. Just a quick search finds a list of young players the Yankees traded away from 1997 to 2005. (
http://www.newpartisan.com/home/the-...aded-away.html) Is it really that out of line that if the Yankees were going to flirt with missing the playoffs would make such a trade?
It seems to me that the major problem with the trades in the write up isn't the trade AI per se, it's the horrible roster ratings that ruin a reasonable measure of the AI itself.
BTW, loved the write up itself, sounds like great fun.