I just want a simple tool that will help me quickly write scripts/packages that I can schedule to run. My transform requirements are pretty simple (changing column names, merging/splitting tables, and date conversions). I'll sacrifice flexibility for speed of development on this one.
Any come to mind?
I like the Pentaho Data Integration tool (also known as kettle) - although that might be a bit "too big for you .. but worth checking out!
SQL Server 2005? SSIS (but I wouldn't call it simple, but then again out of the list of things you gave, only the naming is really simple)
You can actually script package creation using C# (.NET/whatever, presumably even PowerShell).
EDIT: (hope you don't mind me butting in here Cade) Check that your ODBC driver plays nicely with SSIS. Some drivers (DB2/400 and some versions of Sybase for example) don't work all that well.
At least with the older versions of SQL Server, they shipped with DTS. Not the simplest, but it does work with ODBC and SQL Server, and you may already have it.
Some SQL development tools, like Advanced Query Tool (AQT), let you do lightweight ETL and schedule with command files... We have Informatica, but I used AQT to write from Oracle to files, for a short term request..