liberty and union

At least I stirred up the pot.

"if you can trade your first round pick and still keep a first rounder, why wouldn't you just trade ALL your picks, or as many as you could?"

You don't trade all your picks, or even a single pick, unless it is worth it. Your comment seems to assume that I keep the first rounder for free after I trade. I do not. I keep him with my second round pick. So, I only trade my first round pick if:

expected value (wright + second round pick) < expected value (wright + whatever i got in a trade for my first rounder pick).

This limits the extent to which these trade will occur.

More fundamentally, I don't understand when David Wright and my first round pick become equivalent. Clearly, I can trade Wright without losing my first round pick. But, if I trade my first round pick, I lose the ability to keep Wright? Or how about this - can I trade my first round pick and Wright for Santana? Under your logic, the answer seems to be no - or at least, the pick and Wright are actually a single commodity, and Czap would have to choose which one to use. Why does that make sense?