The worst, dumbest transactions (non free-agency signings) in the last ten years...
I've compiled a partial list of the dumbest transactions I can think of in the last ten years to show just how dumb some franchises can be... watch closely, your team may be on the list.
Kevin Stocker for Bobby Abreu...
In 1993 Kevin Stocker helped the Phillies get to the World Series with a hot second half and instantly won himself a part-time-job-turned-into-full-time-job for the next five years. And then Philadelphia evidently realized that he sucked (no duh...), and decided to see if anyone would take him off their hands. They settled on Bobby Abreu, who the D-Rays judiciously plucked from the Astros in the expansion draft... (yeah, you heard that right, after five good minor league seasons, the Astros gave up on Abreu after an average rookie season at age 23). It appeared the D-Rays wanted a "name player" or something, and had no patience to try to develop Abreu, who, it turned out, didn't need any development time. By the way, Abreu would be hands-down the best D-Ray in history. Way to set your franchise back ten years immediately.
Brian Giles for Ricardo Rincon.
Apparently nobody told the Indians that they could platoon talented players, as the Indians dealt Giles for the very servicable spot reliever Ricardo Rincon. Evidently the Tribe just gave up on Giles, who turned in two very average seasons (probably because he wasn't playing every day) before he was traded to the Pirates, who managed to make their one "We just ripped off a team somethin' fierce, but we still suck" trade that they make once a decade. There will be more on this later. Anyway, Giles turned out to be hitting the prime of his career, and actually put a face on the Pirates for a little while, all the meantime managing to get screwed out of a few All-Star appearances.
The release of David Ortiz.
I just want to know what exactly the Twins saw that was bad about his .272, 20 HR, 75 RBI season that was so bad they had to release him. Hell, they weren't even paying him that much. They'd put up with him in their farm system forever, what was the big deal? And then I remembered: they're the Twins, and they can only make so many good decisions. This, obviously, wasn't one of them.
Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek for Heathcliff Slocumb.
Wow, the Mariners sure know how to evaluate talent. They actually managed to deal two future All-Stars for a player who was clearly on the downslope of his career. You can trust me on this one: I was still a Red Sox fan when Slocumb was around, and it was depressing when he got to pitch. But I recall the Mariners being desperate, bemoaning the late '90s as their "best chance" to make it. So I guess being desperate really impairs your judgment. On a side note, that's not really much of a revelation.
Jason Bay/Oliver Perez for Brian Giles.
Again, this is a case of a team not projecting talent quite correctly. The Padres gave up Perez, who was fantastic last year (and not this year) and Bay, who is better now and is paid way less than Brian Giles. Jason Bay has been the victim of a number of inexplicable trades, actually, so it's really not surprising that the Pirates got him. There's another servicable outfielder that the Pirates (the worst team in MLB) can place as the face of an abyssmal franchise.
Johan Santana, rule V draft.
Oh, those silly Astros. In 1997 and 1999 Johan Santana was actually a minor league pitcher for the Astros, pitching fairly well with a high(ish) ERA but a strong, strong K/BB ratio, which, is we all know, is a better indicator of a pitcher's future success. Apparently, somebody forgot to tell the 'Stros this, and they let the promising Santana be unprotected. The Marlins picked him up, and promptly dealt him to the Twins. The Twins, who sucked, let him stay in the bigs (those are the rules...) get knocked around a bit, and watched as he turned out to be ok in 2001, dominant after that.
Mark McGwire deal, 1997.
This is one of the all-time dumps, as the A's, who really were bad at this time, let Mark McGwire go for three players who actually made their team worse off (well, maybe not T.J. Matthews) than if they had let Big Mac go in free agency. Billy Beane wasn't quite there to work his magic yet, I suppose.
Sean Casey for Dave Burba
Try again, Cleveland. Burba wasn't good, and Sean Casey is the sole reason for my "If he can hit for average at every level, he can hit in the bigs" rule. Throw guys like Chad Tracy, Lyle Overbay, and even the Rangers' Mike Young into this category. I love it when people act all surprised when somebody who hit like .350 in AA, .320 in AAA, and .400 in rookie ball hits well in the major leagues. "What, he could do that?" Yeah, just because he doesn't run fast or hit every ball out of the yard doesn't mean he can't hit a baseball.
Note: I would like to say that I'm not picking on the Indians. I understand that it's hard to play guys like Casey and Giles when you have Manny and Jim Thome. But these guys still have "value."
These two trades are examples of the dangers of 'playing for now.'
Expos trade Cliff Lee, Brandon Phillips, and Grady Sizemore for Bartolo Colon.
In 2002, the Expos were evidently contending and deemed it necessary to trade some shiny new prospects for the use of Colon for what everybody on Planet Earth knew was only one half of one year. Even at the time, people were sort of wondering what they were doing, but Colon pitched well, marginally vindicating the Expos at the time. And now we see how bad this trade really was, as Sizemore has turned out to be a future All-Star, and Cliff Lee has come close to winning 20 games. To think that the stud was supposed to be Phillips... ah, that's great stuff.
Astros trade Carlos Guillen, John Halama, and Freddy Garcia to M's for Randy Johnson.
At the time, this trade really looked like a screw job by the Astros, but Carlos Guillen has turned into a really great shortstop, and Freddy Garcia has been a pretty good pitcher in his own right. Let's not forget that John Halama pitched pretty well for the Mariners in his own right.
Now, the Astros made the playoffs because of Randy Johnson, but they might have made even more playoffs if they hadn't traded for him... oh, who am I kidding, this trade wasn't that bad, the Mariners don't even have any of these guys anymore.
Back to bad deals...
Yankees trade Eric Milton and Cristian Guzman for Chuck Knoblauch.
This is on the list because, while it doesn't look bad now, it was quite bad in the past. The Twins got four great seasons (and an All-Star appearance) out of Guzman, as well as four decent seasons (and an All-Star appearance) out of Milton. The Yankees got a second baseman who was despised by the fans, and who couldn't throw to first after a while. They also got the privilege of paying him $24 mil. And the thing is, the Yankees knew enough to draft Milton in the first round, but apparently they were too impatient to develop him for one more year.
Braves trade Jermaine Dye for Michael Tucker.
Whoops. This trade wouldn't be so bad if the Braves had just realized that Tucker was platoonable, and had been willing to do that. But they insisted on throwing at-bats at him in 1997 and 1998, hurting their playoff chances. Dye became a much better player, anyhow. He got to start an All-Star game, revitalizing the Royals for a little bit.
Indians trading with Brewers...
The Indians shouldn't be allowed to trade with the Brewers. It's really for their own good. They dealt Jeromy Burnitz for Kevin Seitzer in 1996, and Burnitz's career took off. They traded Richie Sexson for Bob Wickman, and Sexson's career took off. Now, to be fair, they sort of had the whole Thome/Ramirez problem going on, so they couldn't exactly make the deals they wanted, but still...
Richie Sexson for half of Arizona...
The Brewers managed to cash in with Sexson, and then they cashed him out in a huge way. They acquired Lyle Overbay, Chris Capuano, Junior Spivey (2002 All-Star!), Craig Counsell, and Jorge De La Rosa. Overbay and Capuano are obviously the keys, with Capuano winning 18 games this year, but De La Rosa was good in the bullpen, Counsell played for a year, and Spivey turned into Tomo Ohka this year, and Ohka was alright. So the Brewers got half a rotation and a good first baseman for... a good first baseman. Arizona didn't even get to see the Sexson effect, since he was injured for most of last year and then was signed by the Mariners in the offseason.
Off topic: Does anybody hit more unnoticed home runs than Richie? No, seriously, it's a valid question.
Dontrelle Willis and Julian Tavarez for Matt Clement and Antonio Alfonseca...
Kevin Stocker for Bobby Abreu...
In 1993 Kevin Stocker helped the Phillies get to the World Series with a hot second half and instantly won himself a part-time-job-turned-into-full-time-job for the next five years. And then Philadelphia evidently realized that he sucked (no duh...), and decided to see if anyone would take him off their hands. They settled on Bobby Abreu, who the D-Rays judiciously plucked from the Astros in the expansion draft... (yeah, you heard that right, after five good minor league seasons, the Astros gave up on Abreu after an average rookie season at age 23). It appeared the D-Rays wanted a "name player" or something, and had no patience to try to develop Abreu, who, it turned out, didn't need any development time. By the way, Abreu would be hands-down the best D-Ray in history. Way to set your franchise back ten years immediately.
Brian Giles for Ricardo Rincon.
Apparently nobody told the Indians that they could platoon talented players, as the Indians dealt Giles for the very servicable spot reliever Ricardo Rincon. Evidently the Tribe just gave up on Giles, who turned in two very average seasons (probably because he wasn't playing every day) before he was traded to the Pirates, who managed to make their one "We just ripped off a team somethin' fierce, but we still suck" trade that they make once a decade. There will be more on this later. Anyway, Giles turned out to be hitting the prime of his career, and actually put a face on the Pirates for a little while, all the meantime managing to get screwed out of a few All-Star appearances.
The release of David Ortiz.
I just want to know what exactly the Twins saw that was bad about his .272, 20 HR, 75 RBI season that was so bad they had to release him. Hell, they weren't even paying him that much. They'd put up with him in their farm system forever, what was the big deal? And then I remembered: they're the Twins, and they can only make so many good decisions. This, obviously, wasn't one of them.
Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek for Heathcliff Slocumb.
Wow, the Mariners sure know how to evaluate talent. They actually managed to deal two future All-Stars for a player who was clearly on the downslope of his career. You can trust me on this one: I was still a Red Sox fan when Slocumb was around, and it was depressing when he got to pitch. But I recall the Mariners being desperate, bemoaning the late '90s as their "best chance" to make it. So I guess being desperate really impairs your judgment. On a side note, that's not really much of a revelation.
Jason Bay/Oliver Perez for Brian Giles.
Again, this is a case of a team not projecting talent quite correctly. The Padres gave up Perez, who was fantastic last year (and not this year) and Bay, who is better now and is paid way less than Brian Giles. Jason Bay has been the victim of a number of inexplicable trades, actually, so it's really not surprising that the Pirates got him. There's another servicable outfielder that the Pirates (the worst team in MLB) can place as the face of an abyssmal franchise.
Johan Santana, rule V draft.
Oh, those silly Astros. In 1997 and 1999 Johan Santana was actually a minor league pitcher for the Astros, pitching fairly well with a high(ish) ERA but a strong, strong K/BB ratio, which, is we all know, is a better indicator of a pitcher's future success. Apparently, somebody forgot to tell the 'Stros this, and they let the promising Santana be unprotected. The Marlins picked him up, and promptly dealt him to the Twins. The Twins, who sucked, let him stay in the bigs (those are the rules...) get knocked around a bit, and watched as he turned out to be ok in 2001, dominant after that.
Mark McGwire deal, 1997.
This is one of the all-time dumps, as the A's, who really were bad at this time, let Mark McGwire go for three players who actually made their team worse off (well, maybe not T.J. Matthews) than if they had let Big Mac go in free agency. Billy Beane wasn't quite there to work his magic yet, I suppose.
Sean Casey for Dave Burba
Try again, Cleveland. Burba wasn't good, and Sean Casey is the sole reason for my "If he can hit for average at every level, he can hit in the bigs" rule. Throw guys like Chad Tracy, Lyle Overbay, and even the Rangers' Mike Young into this category. I love it when people act all surprised when somebody who hit like .350 in AA, .320 in AAA, and .400 in rookie ball hits well in the major leagues. "What, he could do that?" Yeah, just because he doesn't run fast or hit every ball out of the yard doesn't mean he can't hit a baseball.
Note: I would like to say that I'm not picking on the Indians. I understand that it's hard to play guys like Casey and Giles when you have Manny and Jim Thome. But these guys still have "value."
These two trades are examples of the dangers of 'playing for now.'
Expos trade Cliff Lee, Brandon Phillips, and Grady Sizemore for Bartolo Colon.
In 2002, the Expos were evidently contending and deemed it necessary to trade some shiny new prospects for the use of Colon for what everybody on Planet Earth knew was only one half of one year. Even at the time, people were sort of wondering what they were doing, but Colon pitched well, marginally vindicating the Expos at the time. And now we see how bad this trade really was, as Sizemore has turned out to be a future All-Star, and Cliff Lee has come close to winning 20 games. To think that the stud was supposed to be Phillips... ah, that's great stuff.
Astros trade Carlos Guillen, John Halama, and Freddy Garcia to M's for Randy Johnson.
At the time, this trade really looked like a screw job by the Astros, but Carlos Guillen has turned into a really great shortstop, and Freddy Garcia has been a pretty good pitcher in his own right. Let's not forget that John Halama pitched pretty well for the Mariners in his own right.
Now, the Astros made the playoffs because of Randy Johnson, but they might have made even more playoffs if they hadn't traded for him... oh, who am I kidding, this trade wasn't that bad, the Mariners don't even have any of these guys anymore.
Back to bad deals...
Yankees trade Eric Milton and Cristian Guzman for Chuck Knoblauch.
This is on the list because, while it doesn't look bad now, it was quite bad in the past. The Twins got four great seasons (and an All-Star appearance) out of Guzman, as well as four decent seasons (and an All-Star appearance) out of Milton. The Yankees got a second baseman who was despised by the fans, and who couldn't throw to first after a while. They also got the privilege of paying him $24 mil. And the thing is, the Yankees knew enough to draft Milton in the first round, but apparently they were too impatient to develop him for one more year.
Braves trade Jermaine Dye for Michael Tucker.
Whoops. This trade wouldn't be so bad if the Braves had just realized that Tucker was platoonable, and had been willing to do that. But they insisted on throwing at-bats at him in 1997 and 1998, hurting their playoff chances. Dye became a much better player, anyhow. He got to start an All-Star game, revitalizing the Royals for a little bit.
Indians trading with Brewers...
The Indians shouldn't be allowed to trade with the Brewers. It's really for their own good. They dealt Jeromy Burnitz for Kevin Seitzer in 1996, and Burnitz's career took off. They traded Richie Sexson for Bob Wickman, and Sexson's career took off. Now, to be fair, they sort of had the whole Thome/Ramirez problem going on, so they couldn't exactly make the deals they wanted, but still...
Richie Sexson for half of Arizona...
The Brewers managed to cash in with Sexson, and then they cashed him out in a huge way. They acquired Lyle Overbay, Chris Capuano, Junior Spivey (2002 All-Star!), Craig Counsell, and Jorge De La Rosa. Overbay and Capuano are obviously the keys, with Capuano winning 18 games this year, but De La Rosa was good in the bullpen, Counsell played for a year, and Spivey turned into Tomo Ohka this year, and Ohka was alright. So the Brewers got half a rotation and a good first baseman for... a good first baseman. Arizona didn't even get to see the Sexson effect, since he was injured for most of last year and then was signed by the Mariners in the offseason.
Off topic: Does anybody hit more unnoticed home runs than Richie? No, seriously, it's a valid question.
Dontrelle Willis and Julian Tavarez for Matt Clement and Antonio Alfonseca...
No, I can't do it. I can't hate on Matt Clement like this, he was worth it (just barely). The Cubs got three good years out of Clement, though he's not exactly the D-Train. I just want to point out that the Cubs have none of the players involved in this trade anymore, all of whom would have made them better this year. Typical Cubs crap.
Shawn Green for Raul Mondesi.
Not a very smart trade, Toronto. What exactly would possess a team to trade a guy who hit .309 with 42 homers for a guy who hit .253 with 33? And Shawn Green is one of the biggest character guys in baseball, while Raul Mondesi is insane. Anyhow, Green proved to be the better guy in this deal, although he still stuck LA with an albatross for a contract. Fortunately for the Jays, the Boss was willing to take on Mondesi's $13 million dollar 2003 season.
Note: These are all I care to think of for now. If you have any more bad deals, let me know.
posted by mike at 4:05 PM
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