What goes on in Kenny Williams mind?

Lets see if I have this right. Following the 2007 season the White Sox sent Gio Gonzalez, Fautino De Los Santos, Ryan Sweeney and $3.5 million to the Oakland Athletics for Nick Swisher. The the players sent represented the #1, #2 and #6 prospects in the White Sox system according to BP. In 2007 Swisher hit 262/381/455 with 22 HR's while playing OF/1B. This trade coupled with the Dan Haren deal were the signals of another rebuilding phase in Oakland while acquiring Swisher was meant to give the White Sox a bit more consistent offense as they felt lacking in OBP. Now after a horrid year by Swisher, 219/332/410 with 24 HR's, they have shipped him off to the Yankees for Wilson Betemit, Jeff Marquez and Jhonny Nunez, or to be more exact; a utility player and a pair of future middle relief arms. Swisher is under contract through 2011 to the tune of $26 million, which is part of why the Sox went after him in the first place. They had planned on using him to help them turn the page when it was time to move on from Dye/Konerko/Thome.

Now the White Sox have virtually nothing to show for trading their top 2 prospects and have shown quite a bit of impatience with one of their own players. Batting average was never Swishers strong point and it almost seemed inevitable he'd have a season like this. His BB rate and IsoP are almost identical as in 2007 and his K rate is only slightly higher. Based on these numbers it seems as though the only real change was his batting average on balls in play (don't have the figures available this second). This has the potential to be a steal for the Yankees as they can easily carry Swishers contract even if he really is done. On the other hand if he does bounce back to the useful player he was before, he will help cushion the blow of the loss of Abreu and the continued decline of Matsui/Posada. Overall this looks like a short sighted move by Kenny Williams as he traded a once very good young player at his lowest point of value. Even if they felt he gave up last year (which they did) they still could have brought him back to re-establish a little value so they could better recoup what they gave up to get him.