Parting with the best pitcher in baseball, Twins GM Bill Smith was understandably looking for young stud arms in return and he would play the bitter rivals off against each other.

Talks with the Red Sox broke down over Boston's refusal to include then-23-year-old, no-hit phenom Clay Buchholz. So Smith set his sights on the Yankees' duo of Philip Hughes and Ian Kennedy. Again, he was rebuffed, leading Smith to make a deal with the Mets for Carlos Gomez (.286 OBP for the Twins) and three pitching prospects who have gone 20-20 with a combined 4.56 ERA in the minors.

Smith might not be the only GM regretting how those talks played out.

Five months into the 2008 season, Theo Epstein and Brian Cashman are no doubt rethinking their stances and reappraising Buchholz (2-9), Hughes (0-4) and Kennedy (0-4), who are a combined 2-17 and the three biggest reasons Boston and New York are looking up at Tampa Bay.

The disappointing trio headlines a large group of young pitchers who took giant steps backward this season, including Detroit's Justin Verlander and Cleveland's Fausto Carmona.

Clay Buchholz

On Sept. 1 last year, Buchholz turned in an electrifying performance at Fenway Park, no-hitting the Orioles on 115 often filthy pitches, the last of which was a knee-buckling curveball to Nick Markakis for his ninth strikeout of the game.

The kid from Nederland, Texas, who had blown through the Red Sox system (23-12, 2.46, 4-to-1 K/BB) was not just unhittable, he was now untouchable.

But a funny thing happened on the way to Cooperstown. Beginning on May 7, Buchholz began a regression that has baffled Red Sox Nation. He is 0-7 in his last 10 starts with a 9.21 ERA. In midsummer he was sent down to Pawtucket and instructed to concentrate on his fastball.

Upon returning, Buchholz's fastball did seem to have more life — often hitting 95 on the gun — but it didn't translate to results. He just kept getting hammered every five days.

In his last start the Red Sox staked him to a 4-0 lead in Baltimore, but he coughed it up in 2.1 wretched innings and was optioned to Double-A Portland the next day.

Philip Hughes

While going 25-8 with a 2.03 ERA over parts of four minor-league seasons in the Yankee system, Hughes established himself as the top pitching prospect in all of baseball.

On May 1, 2007 in Texas, at age 21, he looked to be well on his way to fulfilling all that promise on the big-league level. With pinpoint command of his fastball and plus curve, he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning in Arlington. Then he grabbed the back of his leg. And thus began a disastrous 16 months. After being forced out of his no-hitter with a hamstring injury, he then injured his ankle rehabbing the hammy and ended up making only 13 starts, going 5-3 with a 4.46 ERA.

But he was given a clean bill of health and inserted into the New York rotation to start this season. After six starts he was 0-4 with a 9.00 ERA, 13 walks, 13 strikeouts and 47 baserunners in 22 apocalyptic innings before mercifully landing on the DL with a rib injury. After a successful rehab stint he could have started for the Yankees this Saturday, but in a sign of how bad it's gotten for Hughes, the Yanks chose to go with Carl Pavano instead.

Ian Kennedy

Maybe the Yankees were afraid Hughes's return would be as shaky as Kennedy's. Kennedy made it back from a lat injury earlier this month and that return lasted a grand total of six outs in a shellacking by the Angels. "I'm not upset about it," was Kennedy's summary of his outing. Manager Joe Girardi was so disgusted by how clearly not disgusted Kennedy was by his own performance that the righty was one and done and shipped right back to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

For the season Kennedy is 0-4 with an 8.17 ERA, 27 walks and 77 baserunners in 39.2 innings. It's a far cry from the spectacular tease he gave Yankees fans last year (1.89 ERA in three starts) that so convinced Cashman not to deal the 23-year-old in the offseason.

Justin Verlander

When the Tigers look back at this lost season, there will be a ton of questions, but without a doubt the biggest head scratcher will be Verlander's bizarre step backward at age 25.

After going 35-15 in his first two full seasons, Verlander has struggled through a 9-13, 4.60 ERA season while battling mechanical problems that amounted to tipping his pitches. If Verlander had matched last season's winning percentage through 26 starts, Detroit would be only four games out of first place.

Fausto Carmona