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Toronto, Philadelphia, Oakland, and Seattle complete ONE OF THE MOST COMPLICATED AND SIGNIFICANT BASEBALL TRADES IN RECENT HISTORY. Nice rundown here by ESPN’s Jayson Stark.

Highlight: Philadelphia gives up star pitcher Cliff Lee and receives star pitcher Roy Halladay, while giving up three of their best young prospects for three of Seattle’s best.

But my favorite part of the article is the extensive quotation from baseball scouts. I love reading the insights of baseball scouts. These guys make next to no money, travel constantly, and watch and evaluate players who may be of no immediate relevance to the teams they work for. And they always have very interesting and very blunt things to say. In short, they are serious and committed experts. I just love this level of seriousness about their jobs:

“[Philadelphia is] better with Halladay, by a little, but not by a lot. They’re both tremendous,” said one scout. Another scout’s take: “Roy Halladay is still the answer to the question, ‘If you had to win a game tonight, who would you pick to pitch it?’ I used to say Curt Schilling. But Halladay has been my answer for the last four or five years.”

“Scouts we surveyed were split on whether the prospects exiting [Philadelphia] (Kyle Drabek, Michael Taylor and Travis d’Arnaud) have a higher ceiling than the prospects arriving [in Philadelphia from Seattle] (Phillippe Aumont, Tyson Gillies and J.C. Ramirez). But the whole group is ‘a bunch of legit prospects,’ said one NL scout. ‘They’re not just throwing in a bunch of names to make this look good.'”

“And this trade is another sign of just how fast GM Jack Zduriencik has overhauled the whole ambiance of the [Seattle] Mariners in barely a year on the job. ‘I like this move for Seattle’ said the AL scout quoted earlier. ‘This and [signing Chone] Figgins clearly upgrades them. I’ll tell you what, man. Jack is sharp. He flies under the radar, but when he got that job, I was sure they’d get better. And they have. He’s a great evaluator.'”