I agree with Psychosport, this is just an example of why the A's have one of the two best front offices in the league. Spend half the money of the Sox/Yanks and still make the playoffs. I honestly wouldn't be surprised to see Zito go too now. Anybody who is saying that the A's are dumb for making these last two trades is pretty dumb themselves.
What has been looked over so far though, is THE CARDINALS! HOLY SHIT! Mulder-Morris-Carpenter, then go along with an offense that pretty much only lost role players. There is no way the Cubs come back for the division this year, sorry.
Also, a funny note for all you Red Sox fans...I couldn't read the story because I'm not an insider, but there was a headline on ESPN.com reading "Pedro wooing Varitek"
I really would laugh if that went through.