You were expecting more for Kris Benson, an overpaid pitcher with a career losing record and an earned run average worse than his last-place team's ERA?

Sure you were. Because these are lines that will awaken Pirates fans in a cold sweat:

Jason Schmidt: 44-47, 4.39 ERA, 799.2 IP

Kris Benson: 43-49, 4.26 ERA, 782 IP

Those were their respective records as Pirates. Schmidt was traded at 28, Benson at 29. In less than four seasons with the Giants, Schmidt is 50-18 with a 2.89 ERA. Now that Benson is a Mets pitcher, he will dominate, too.

That's the theory, anyway. The Mets must believe this, or they wouldn't have traded their second-best pitching prospect, a third-base prospect and a good major-league hitter for Benson and a minor-league second baseman. But some thought the Mets went a bit nuts.

"They probably will wind up paying double fare for Benson," wrote Buster Olney, baseball analyst for ESPN, "first, in the toll of prospects they dealt to get him, and then when they give him a huge contract to keep him off the free-agent market. And that will probably be something in the range of three years, $27 million (but wouldn't you love to have the leverage of Benson's agent right now and ask for $12 million-$13 million a year with the Mets under enormous pressure to get deal done). That makes no sense whatsoever. It would have made more sense to keep the prospects and go hard after Benson in the offseason."

Unless Mets general manager Jim Duquette falls into Cam Bonifay's trap of bidding against himself, he should be able to get Benson for less than what Olney guessed. Because at $6 million this season, Benson is overpaid. Sixty starters in the major leagues have a lower ERA.

Injuries have been part of Benson's problem, and he was very good in eight of his final 10 starts with the Pirates, but that only solidified him as the poster child for Bonifay's philosophy of paying for promise rather than production. Benson was paid roughly $18 million (including his $2 million signing bonus) for 43 career victories. That's more than $400,000 per win. Now, with a real chance to top his career high of 11 victories, he's going to seek a raise.

In a fair world, he wouldn't get it. A slightly younger Jeff Suppan had a better year with the Pirates last season (10-7, 3.57 ERA) but was a bust after his trade to the Red Sox (3-4, 5.57 ERA). Suppan signed a two-year, $6 million deal with St. Louis and is 9-6 with a 4.02 ERA. That's closer to what Benson is worth.

So the Pirates made a pretty good deal. For Benson and Altoona second baseman Jeff Keppinger, the Pirates received a right-handed clone of Rob Mackowiak plus two prospects.

Ty Wigginton, the Mackowiak clone, is essentially the average National League third baseman with a shade more power. According to Baseball Prospectus, the average third baseman this season has a .272 batting average, .332 on-base average and .441 slugging average.

Mackowiak: .274/.332/.470

Wigginton: .278/.327/.475

This trade kicks Mackowiak to right field and moves Craig Wilson to first base. That should add thump to the dismal end of the batting order. Wigginton will bat seventh, where Pirates collectively have batted .232/.263/.305, the worst output in the league. Randall Simon and the recently released Chris Stynes were the chief offenders.

Of course, a similar move might have been tried long ago, with Tony Alvarez playing right field. Instead, we saw Simon hit .150 in June and July. Oh well.

Wigginton, 26, who can also play first and second, won't be arbitration eligible until after the 2005 season and so should remain good value. But the more intriguing pickup is Matt Peterson, the Mets' second-best pitching prospect, who arrives in Altoona with the obligatory injury (strained oblique, not serious). Peterson, 22, was 6-4 with a 3.27 ERA at Class AA Binghamton, with 90 strikeouts and 45 walks in 105 innings.

Lastly, the Pirates got Jose Bautista back. The best of the Rule 5 refugees, Bautista, 22, could be the third baseman of the future. But he has lost more than a year to injury and a rule that has pinned him to a series of major-league benches. Leaving Bautista unprotected hurt the Pirates, but it may have hurt this player more.

Ryan Vogelsong, the pitcher the Pirates received for Schmidt, takes Benson's place in the rotation -- at 5 percent of the price. Vogelsong pitched so well in his past 24 innings (2-1 with a 2.63 ERA) that with one more win his victories will cost less than $100,000 apiece. But who's counting?