From the moment the A's traded for Matt Holliday last November everyone knew that he would be trade bait come July 2009. Today that trade bait has been traded to the St. Louis Cardinals.

    A's GM Billy Beane has been extraordinarily good at trades the past decade, having an uncanny ability of getting rid of All star caliber players right before they fell off (Jason Giambi, Mark Mulder, Barry Zito). Here is a breakdown of how the whole trade for Holliday then trade Holliday experiment has worked out so far:

Players the A's traded to the Rockies for Matt Holliday on November 12th 2008:

Huston Street: Streeter has been amazing for the Rockies this season his era is below 3 and he currently has 24 saves.
Greg Smith: Smith has been a huge disappointment for the Rockies he's currently in the minors.
Carlos Gonzalez: He has been bouncing up and down from the Majors to the Minors all year. His defensive prowess has kept him in the bigs, but currently his bat is letting him down.

Players the A's received from the Cardinals for Holliday today (July 24th 2009):

Brett Wallace: Wallace is really the centerpiece of the deal for the A's. He was the first round pick for the Cardinals last year and has been tearing up the minors with his bat. He's currently a 3rd baseman but probably will move to first base.
Clayton Mortensen: Mortensen has been very good in AAA this year but got beat up a little bit last month in his major league debut giving up 2 ER in his 2 innings of work.
Shane Peterson: Peterson lit up the 07 cape cod league and was drafted in the 2nd round last year. Peterson should make it to the bigs next year as an outfielder.

Although its way to early to tell how this experiment will work out. The A's once again have turned one all star into multiple top tier minor league prospects. The Cardinals know this all to well years ago the Cardinals traded a young talented pitcher named Danny Harren to the A's for All star Mark Mulder. Mulder's body then broke down and has been on the DL for most of his time with the Cardinals, while Danny Harren has solidified his position as one of the best pitchers in baseball.