I feel like beane has chased the draft picks he traded away and it impacted the draft a lot...also, it adds a ton of uncertainty to the draft prep process...they know they are likely going to trade down to get a third back, but I have to imagine that makes all the prep prior to the draft, all the mock drafts and scenarios completely hypothetical.
Yeah there's a ton of uncertainty in the draft as it is, but essentially going in not knowing where you're picking at all because your plan is to get more picks early...I think there is a plus side to this in terms of certainty if you do nothing and trade wise, and they don't have to do anything trade wise to chase picks