Worst baseball roster decision (40-man, waive, release) ever (no trades, please)

Re: Worst baseball roster decision ever

A lot of these (Santana, Clemente, Smoltz) have the benefit of hindsight, years later.

Here's one that, as soon as the next season began, had the immediate feeling of "Uh-oh."

Pedro Martinez for Delino Freaking DeShields.

(An LA Times letter to the editor, among the many lamenting this trade in the coming years, wrote, "He is DeVoid of DeHit, DeVoid of DeField, and is not DeClutch." I waffle on whether the level of possible racism in that is higher than the level of evil cleverness, since Delino, with that SOB non-leader Piazza, was emblematic of the Dodgers' 1990s issues).

 

Re: Worst baseball roster decision ever

And it was all Jody Reed's fault. If he didn't turn down that lucrative deal, they don't trade for DeShields.

As for Clemente, that was all about the Dodgers' arrogance. They buried Clemente in Montreal (basically benching him for the second half of the season in 1954), and figured no one had taken a good enough look at him to take him in the Rule V draft. Of course, Branch Rickey, who had originally signed him for the Dodgers, was now Pirates president, and snapped him up.

 

Re: Worst baseball roster decision ever

The dude specifically said 40-man roster decisions, not trades.

And yet....

Sigh.

 

Re: Worst baseball roster decision ever

I thought a trade was a "roster decision."

Silly me.

 

Re: Worst baseball roster decision ever

While it didn't hurt in the long run, the Pirates' Rule 5 fiasco in 2003 was epic in regard to roster mismanagement:

An executive from an American League team with a mid-round pick was asked Monday why his club didn't select a Pirates player in the Rule 5 draft.

"There wasn't anything left," he said.

Good point. By the time the draft reached that stage, there truly wasn't anyone left to be had.

Among the 20 players drafted, the Pirates were pillaged early and often, losing five prospects among the first six selections. The Cleveland Indians also lost five players, but not in such rapid-fire succession.

Chuckles emanated from the gallery when the fourth and fifth Pirates players were drafted away. A few picks later, the volume increased when the Pirates decided to pass on their chance to make a selection.

"I heard the laughs coming from back there," Pirates farm director Brian Graham said. "Realistically, it's a compliment. You don't want to lose players, and it's not a positive for us. But it is a compliment."

The spin from the Pirates' camp was that the raiding was a testament to the strength of the farm system. The Pirates' affiliates had the best aggregate winning percentage of any major-league organization last year, and some of the prospects lost yesterday had posted impressive numbers.

"When your farm system has the kind of success we had, what happens is players become attractive," Graham said.

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_170159.html

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Re: Worst baseball roster decision ever

That was a disgrace. I remember the spin was some story about leaving room to sign free agents, which they didn't even do if IIRC. Cheap, stupid bastards.

 

Re: Worst baseball roster decision ever

I think the Rule 5 mess in 2003 was a way to save a few dollars, but the Pirates had a history of similar stupid shit.

In 1990, they fucked up and exposed prospects Wes Chamberlain and Tony Longmire to waivers. They ended up having to trade the two of them to the Phillies along with Julio Peguero in exchange for Carmelo Martinez. Chamberlain was a highly-regarded prospect, though he never became more than a part-timer in the majors.

 

Re: Worst baseball roster decision ever

Yes, silly you.

Here's why:

<i>No trades. Just roster decisions. The Santana one is perfect.</i>

And:

<i>We have just talked so much about bad trades in the past, I thought 40-man roster decisions would be pretty interesting.</i>

Maybe you should be calling talk shows.

 

Re: Worst baseball roster decision ever

From the same story:

Except for a couple of good months by Shelton a few years ago, it's not like any of the five amounted to much (though Bautista did cost them Jeff Keppinger when the Pirates re-acquired him).

 

Re: Worst baseball roster decision ever

I don't see how you can call it addition by subtraction when you trade a guy and he goes on to clearly outperform the player you got for him. If Francoeur had gone on to stink it up with the Mets, that would be one thing. But the fact that he's played well in NY suggests that maybe the problems in Atlanta weren't entirely on Francoeur's end. I admit I thought the Mets were crazy to get him, but at this point there's no way to see this as anything but a bad deal for the Braves.

 

Re: Worst baseball roster decision ever

Bad deal for the Braves? They've got one of the best records in the major leagues since they traded Francoeur. He was a blight in their lineup, and his performance with the Mets is completely irrelevant to that point.