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

Keith Hernandez to the Mets for Neil Allen and Rick Ownby.
Yes, I know the reason the Cards made the deal but still ...

 

Nov. 15, 2003 --

MINNEAPOLIS -- All-Star catcher A.J. Pierzynski was traded Friday by the tightly-budgeted Minnesota Twins to the San Francisco Giants for right-handed pitcher Joe Nathan and two minor leaguers.
The minor-league pitchers are right-hander Boof Bonser and left-hander Francisco Liriano. The Twins will give up either a player to be named later or cash to complete the deal.

 

The Astros pretty much created the Big Red Machine.

Jack Billingham, Cesar Geronimo, Joe Morgan and Denis Menke for Lee May, Tommy Helms and Jimmy Stewart.

Plus, the Senators' deal for Denny McClain -- gave up Brinkman, Epstein, couple other good players.

 

The Tigers received Joe Coleman, Eddie Brinkman and Aurelio Rodriguez for McLain (who won 14 more games in his career) and Don Wert (who had 40 at-bats before hanging it up).

Brinkman and Rodriguez were only the left side of the Detroit infield for the next five seasons, and Coleman (despite losing every game I saw in person over than span) was a solid starting pitcher.

 

The Reds looked at the actuarial tables, calculated the risk-reward, and pulled the trigger.

A brutal miscalculation.

 

The Astros were particularly inept during that time period. They traded Rusty Staub to the Expos in 1969 for Donn Clendenon (who refused to report). They traded Jimmy Wynn to the Dodgers for Claude Osteen in 1973. Wynn hit 50 home runs over the next two seasons, while Houston dumped Osteen mid-season to the Cardinals for some guy named Dan Larson. And they sent Milt May, Dave Roberts and Jim Crawford, all serviceable players for the Tigers, and got back Terry Humphrey, Gene Pentz, Mark Lemongello and Leon Roberts. Oof.

 

Great talent, but with issues.

Given the conservative nature of Cardinal management, not surprising.

 

The obvious nightmare for Tigers fans is John Smoltz for Doyle Alexander.

But there two times that the Phillies helped the Tigers reach post-season play. First, Detroit acquired Woodie Fryman in August of 1972 after being waived by the Phillies, and he promptly went 10-3 down the stretch to help the Tigers beat the Red Sox by a half-game. And Detroit traded John Wockenfuss and Glenn Wilson to Philadelphia in March of 1984 and received in return Dave Bergman and Willie Hernandez. That turned out pretty good for the Tigers, too.

 

That one was ridiculous.

 

As I said, Ben, I know the reasoning but they should have gotten more.
A rare trade where the Mets got the best of the deal

 

The Phillies have been known to help out many teams.

 

Aramis Ramirez and Kenny Lofton to the Cubs for Jose Hernandez, Matt Bruback and Bobby Hill.