Worst baseball trades thread, or, why did the Cubs trade Lou Brock?

So I'm mucking around on baseball reference and I'm looking at Lou Brock, because I couldn't remember if he was in the HOF (I'm starting to advance in age, you know). And I see where he was traded in 1964 from the Cubs to the Cards for two throwaway pitchers and a throwaway position player. And it strikes me that this has to be one of the worst trades of all time. I guess the Cubs were trying to bolster their pitching staff, but my god did they get fleeced.

So, two questions: Anybody here with any further insight on why the Cubs made this deal? And, what are some other trades what were monumentally bad this way?

Obviously the Babe Ruth deal comes to mind ... others?

 

Frank Robinson traded by the Cincinnati Reds to the Baltimore Orioles for Milt Pappas, Jack Baldschun, and Dick Simpson.

 

Ernie Broglio wasn't throwaway at the time. He was a 20-game winner in 1960 and had gone 18-8 with a sub-3.00 ERA the season prior to the trade. But he blew out his arm shortly after the trade and was finished.

Still a stupid trade; I'm just sayin'.

 

My Phillies traded promising youngster Ferguson Jenkins for Bob Buhl in 1966. That didn't go well.
Sox-Mariners: Heathcliff Slocumb for Jason Varitek was somewhat one-sided.
Red Sox also traded Sparky Lyle to the Yankees for Danny Cater in the 1970s. Not, in retrospect, an executive of the year move. Not to mention Jeff Bagwell for Larry Anderson.

But this is dynamiting fish at the aquarium. Almost all "bad" trades follow the same formula: A team that thinks it's a contender missing a piece trades a young guy for a vet. The vet is not the piece, while the young guy goes on to stardom. It's a matter of the imperative of winning now.

PS: The all-timer, Frank Robinson, is an exception to that rule. That was just pure miscalculation.

 

July 21, 1988: Jay Buhner traded by the New York Yankees with a player to be named later and Rich Balabon (minors) to the Seattle Mariners for Ken Phelps. The New York Yankees sent Troy Evers (minors) (October 12, 1988) to the Seattle Mariners to complete the trade.

"What the hell did you trade Jay Buhner for?! He had 30 home runs, over 100 RBIs last year! He's got a rocket for an arm... You don't know what the hell you're doing!"

 

Mets trade Nolan Ryan and 3 minor leaguers to Angels for Jim Fregosi

Mets trade Tom Seaver to Cincinnati for Pat Zachry, Doug Flynn, Dan Norman and Steve Henderson

 

Tampa Bay takes Bobby Abreu in the expansion draft and then trades him to Philly for Kevin Stocker.

 

Yankee Blunders

Oct. 21, 1981: Traded Willie McGee to the St. Louis Cardinals for Bob Sykes
Dec. 9, 1982: Traded Dave Collins, Fred McGriff, Mike Morgan and cash to the Toronto Blue Jays for Dale Murray and Tom Dodd

 

Damn, I didn't even know about that one.

 

They also got Derek Lowe in that deal

 

Mike, Phillie had serious racial problems when the let Fergy go.
The Abreu deal came out lopsided but Stocker had limited ability and pretty much had peaked. Abreu could hit and had a gun for an arm. Not only that, he'd shown flashes of being a good player but couldn't break through with the Astros.
There have been so many awful trades in baseball so I'm going to stick with our latest Hall of Fame inductee, Mr. Rickey Henderson, who if I'm not mistake is the only HOF to be born on Christmas Day.
12-05-1984: Henderson traded by Oakland Athletics (with Bert Bradley) to New York Yankees for Stan Javier, Jay Howell, Jose Rijo, Eric Plunk and Tim Birtsas.
06-21-1989: Henderson traded by New York Yankees to Oakland Athletics for Greg Cadaret, Eric Plunk and Luis Polonia.

 

It wasn't stupid. Brock was 25 and had been mediocre in two full seasons with the Cubs and was off to a bad start in 1964. Broglio was 28 with four really good seasons to his credit, including going 21-9 with a 2.74 ERA as a 24-year-old. It was a reasonable deal at the time. No one can predict injuries.