I think that should be taken with a grain of salt. I have seen one article that state that...an AP wire article, without quotes, and without a byline. considering the state of sports journalism in this country, I wouldn't give it too much weight. BA's take on Willis at the time so if Bienfiest really did insist on Dontrelle, that's more a credit to him than a knock on the Cubs because the foremost experts didn't see anything all that special. as for not wanting to trade him and keep the farm stocked, the Cubs farm system was ridiculously stocked at the time. Willis, Guzman, Mitre, Krawiec, Ryu, Bruback, Smyth, Cruz, Zambrano, Pinto (?), Ferreras, I'm probably missing a couple/few...and they knew they were going to be able to draft Prior at the time of the trade. there were chips to trade to fill a few holes, which was pretty necessary, because that is the type of fanbase we are. At the time of the trade I was living in Miami. I don't know about the wire reports but I heard Loria's son in law state on WQAM radio that the scouts were real high on this Willis kid. At the time he was taking call after call defending the trade. The Marlin fans were furious b/c they saw it as just another salary dump. The most interesting aspect of the trade was Alf. Dale Torbord, son of Jeff Torborg and a professional Wrestler was the strength and conditioning coach for the Marlins. The Marlins were worried about El pupo's (the octopus) off-season "conditioning" so they assigned Torborg to work him out every day. After about the third day Alf started hiding from Dale. At one point Dale had to go and track him down. He was hiding in the stall of the ladies bathroom. Soon after Alf was packaged with Matt.