Sunday, May 13, 2012

Early Returns on Trades



Pineda only looks like he's in pain, as thankfully it was just gas.

I was doing pretty good at ignoring the Montero/Noesi for Pineda/Campos trade, but the series with the Mariners this weekend brought it back into the front of my mind. It didn't help that Jesus Montero hit a home run in the first game Friday night, while the Yankees would be facing Hector Noesi in Game 2 on Saturday. My first reaction was to point out what the Yankee designated hitters had done compared to Jesus, while also pointing out Russell Martin's caught stealing percentage of 27% to Montero's 11%. But before I could even look at the numbers Noesi has put up so far in 2012, I decided to drop it.

"If he mentions my slash-line of .179/.303/.310 I will throw this ball at him"

A trip to one of the many Yankee forums I'm a part of changed that quickly. However, I decided to look at the trade a little differently. People are already judging that trade based on very early returns from the players, or lack thereof in the case of Pineda and Campos. So, after looking around at some bad trades over the years in MLB, I made this list...

  • In August of 1987 the Detroit Tigers received Doyle Alexander from the Atlanta Braves for minor league pitcher John Smoltz. In 16 starts for the Braves after the trade that season, Alexander went 9-0 with an ERA of 1.53. While John Smoltz wasn't called up to MLB until July 23rd of the following season, in which he had an ERA of 5.48 and WHIP of 1.672 in 12 starts. 
  • During the 1988 season the Boston Red Sox were looking for pitching help, and struck up a deal with the Baltimore Orioles on July 29th. The Os sent Mike Boddicker, who had an ERA of 3.73 over 180 starts, to Boston for prospects Curt Schilling and Brady Anderson. Boddicker threw 89 innings and started 14 games for the Red Sox after the deal that season, with an ERA of 2.63. Baltimore called up Schilling in early September, and Curt put up a big 9.82 ERA in his 4 starts that season. While Brady Anderson played 53 games for the Orioles in '88, hitting a sad .198/.232/.271. 
  • The Yankees traded Jay Buhner to the Seattle Mariners in July of 1988, and got Ken Phelps in return. Phelps had put up a line of .249/.392/.521 in 529 games for Seattle before being dealt, so it looked like New York was getting a fine hitter. Although Ken wasn't quite as good, he was able to give the Bombers a .224/.339/.551 triple-slash in his first 86 games. On the other side of the deal was Jay Buhner, who in his first 60 games for the Mariners hit .224/.320/.458. 
  • The date was August 30th, 1990. The Boston Red Sox were in the hunt to win the AL East, and were looking for some relief help. So they traded prospect Jeff Bagwell to the Houston Astros for reliever Larry Anderson. Anderson pitched really well for the Red Sox, giving them an ERA of 1.23 over 15 appearances, helping them win the division by 2 games over the Toronto Blue Jays (don't ask how the Yankees finished that season). That happened while Bagwell didn't debut in MLB until the next season.
  • Just prior to the trade deadline in 2002, the Cleveland Indians traded Bartolo Colon to the Montrol Expos for Grady Sizemore, Brandon Phillips, and Cliff Lee. After the deal Colon went 10-4 for the Expos, with an ERA of 3.31. Bartolo actually finished 6th in NL Cy Young Award voting. As for the other side of the trade, in 2002 Grady Sizemore was still in the minors, Cliff Lee didn't get called up until September 15th, and Brandon Phillips didn't get promoted to the bigs until September 13th. Sizemore was still in the minors the next season, while Lee had only started 9 games with an ERA of 3.61, and Phillips had a triple-slash of .208/.242/.311 in 112 games. 

Little-known fact... Cleveland agreed to pay for all of Colon's lunches the rest of the 2002 season, which consisted of a dozen hamburgers a day.

After reading that list, do I really need to come up with more reasons for people to be patient?

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)