What?

Wilson and Snell to Seattle; Clement, Cedeno, Pribanic, Lorin and Adcock to Pittsburgh.

The Mariners overpaid.  And I’m struggling to work out why do this deal to begin with. From either side.  Granted, one of the most glaring holes on the M’s was SS.  This addresses Short for a couple seasons, but it seems like the sort of trade one makes to solidify a hole and pick up a spare part for a playoff push, not the sort of trade a club that should be stocking up on potential should make.  Snell is a reclamation project, but has had a stellar stint in AAA this season, so that bodes well.  He’s an improvement over what the rotation currently looks like, with Bedard on the DL and Washburn almost certainly changing addresses.

From the Pirates POV, it makes more sense.  Clement will produce at the major league level.  What confuses me is that as an NL team, they must be projecting him at Catcher, a project that the M’s clearly gave up on.  Cedeno is a stop-gap at short (ideally a utility infielder), and if just one of the three Class A pitchers fulfills projections, he will be an above-average contributor at the ML level in a few seasons.

I guess I still have faith in Jack Z., but I’m not the only one left scratching my head on this one.

Changing sports, BBC Radio 5 that Celtic are already down 0-1 to Dinamo Moscow in their UEFA CL qualifier.  This news sure picks me up.

UPDATE: 

1) the M’s trade with Pittsburgh looks better once I learned that the Pirates are picking up the vast majority of Wilson’s and Snell’s salaries, but I still think it falls in Pittsburgh’s favor.

2) The Mariners sent Wladimir Balentien to the Reds for RHP Robert Manuel.  This one looks irrelevant.

3) At least Celtic are only down 0-1 at the half.