Broken system?

[Royals]

So Alex Torres is a 22 year old in AA with this line:

5-2 2.64 1.25 WHIP 47.5 IP 53/19 K/BB 3.16 FIP

Also handled the Cal League last year, and has swing and miss stuff from the left side.

Dayan Viciedo is struggling but he was a super highly touted prospect.

It's two solid AA prospects who are both arguably in the top 10 in their team's system for a mid-rotation starter.
I'm not a fan of the deal, but I don't even think it was his worst one. It's certainly better than Pavano for Chris Nelson

Viciedo is struggling? 8/1 k/bb ratio isn't 'struggling' it's drowning, and he's been shifted off 3b because he's too fat and slow. A prospect is still just that, a prospect. The odds on any SP making something of themself are small, they're even smallerfor plaers with plate discipline as awful as Viciedo's. As for Kuroda, he certainly isn't an ace, but he's very solid and the market value on SP in the league is as high as it's ever been. He's proven, and the potential of Viciedo and torres doesn't come close to the proof of Kuroda.

it wasn't worse than Pavano for Nelson, but that's not saying much

[Giants]

It's certainly not a kick a GM out of the league bad, and that isn't the kind of trade that is going to have a serious impact on his record. The Beckett for Manny/Joba trade and the Joba/Prospects for Chipper trade were much much worse for the development of his team. Those weren't necessarily deals that needed to be vetoed on their face individually either, but making them showed a GM without a clue about how to put the pieces together, and that wasn't getting any better.