RIP Lou Brock

[micropolitan guy]

Oh boo.

Putting aside Babe Ruth for cash, was he the centerpiece of the most one-sided trade in major league history?

I only got to see him at the end of his career, but he even had a mystique -- and stole a boat load of bases -- when he in his 30s.

RIP to one of the great ones.

Doyle Alexander for John Smoltz worked out well too - for Atlanta. Alexander did help Detroit make the 1987 playoffs but they lost to the Twins in the ALCS. He went 6-18 the next year and then was out of baseball.

 

[Starman]

Doyle Alexander for John Smoltz worked out well too - for Atlanta. Alexander did help Detroit make the 1987 playoffs but they lost to the Twins in the ALCS. He went 6-18 the next year and then was out of baseball.

It worked out fine for Detroit too: they finished with the best record in MLB and were the playoff favorites. They got Alexander to get them into the playoffs, and he did that.

Over the next 17-18 years, if you look at the records of the Tigers, having John Smoltz (even the HOF Smoltz he became in Atlanta), wouldn't have gotten them into the playoffs -- even once. In most of those 17-18 years they were finishing double digit games out.

 

[MTM]

Other than Dansby Swanson and others for Shelby Miller, most of these one-sided trades didn’t seem so awful when they were made. We can scold teams for not knowing what they had, but Bagwell was well down the Red Sox depth chart at 3B when he was dealt and Pedro Martinez was a fourth or fifth starter when traded for an All-Star in Delino DeShields.

 

[Splendid Splinter]

Other than Dansby Swanson and others for Shelby Miller, most of these one-sided trades didn’t seem so awful when they were made. We can scold teams for not knowing what they had, but Bagwell was well down the Red Sox depth chart at 3B when he was dealt and Pedro Martinez was a fourth or fifth starter when traded for an All-Star in Delino DeShields.

there was this guy named Babe Ruth who was pretty good when he got traded.

 

[Jake from State Farm]

It worked out fine for Detroit too: they finished with the best record in MLB and were the playoff favorites. They got Alexander to get them into the playoffs, and he did that.

Over the next 17-18 years, if you look at the records of the Tigers, having John Smoltz (even the HOF Smoltz he became in Atlanta), wouldn't have gotten them into the playoffs -- even once. In most of those 17-18 years they were finishing double digit games out.

They don’t win in 87 without Alexander
If the Braves pick Steve Searcy, the other left-hander the Tigers offered, there’s no guarantee Smoltz becomes Smoltz
He turned his career around after he hooked up with Johnny Sain on the Braves
Even if Smoltz became a star I don’t think there’s any way he would have stuck around on those crappy 90s Tiger teams

 

[maumann]

Smoltz to the Braves? Not even close to the worst Tigers trade in the past 50 years, which would be Eugenio Suarez for Alfredo Simon.

 

[micropolitan guy]

They don’t win in 87 without Alexander
If the Braves pick Steve Searcy, the other left-hander the Tigers offered, there’s no guarantee Smoltz becomes Smoltz
He turned his career around after he hooked up with Johnny Sain on the Braves
Even if Smoltz became a star I don’t think there’s any way he would have stuck around on those crappy 90s Tiger teams

True. I'm also sure there are lots of ifs with the Brock-Broglio trade, too.

But this is what we do know: Alexander had a great 1/2 season with Detroit, got them to the playoffs where they lost, and then went 6-18 two years later and was out of baseball. Smoltz became an HOFer. In real life, that's a very lopsided trade.

 

[I Should Coco]

You're not wrong, micro. But at least with Alexander-Smoltz, both sides got what they were looking for.

Unlike, say, the Mariners' trade for Erik Bedard ...

 

[misterbc]

Expo fans haven’t forgotten the Randy Johnson for Mark Langston disaster.

 

[micropolitan guy]

You're not wrong, micro. But at least with Alexander-Smoltz, both sides got what they were looking for.

Unlike, say, the Mariners' trade for Erik Bedard ...

It's the Mariners, so I expect it. MLB was full of very good ex-Mariners for years.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

Expo fans haven’t forgotten the Randy Johnson for Mark Langston disaster.

That’s another trade that, while in hindsight looks awful, was a very good one for the Expos when they made it. Langston did pitch well for Montreal, and Johnson, although he looked good in a brief time the year before, was 0-4 with an ERA over 6 at the time of the trade and nobody was certain that he would be able to put it all together.

 

[cyclingwriter2]

I’ve always felt the Cardinals trading Ted Simmons, Rollie Fingers and Pete Vuchovich for Larry Sorensen, Sixto Lezcano, David Green and Dave Lapoint in 1980 has to warrant some attention. The Brewers got two Hall of Famers with Simmons being an all Star twice in his first three years, and fingers winning the Cy Young and MVP in 1981 as well as a guy who would lead the AL in wins in 1981 and win the Cy Young in 1982. The Cards got almost nothing in return, but managed to beat the Brewers two years later in the World Series. At that point, Sorensen and lezcano were gone, Lapoint was the swingman and Green was the fifth outhfielder. Lopsided trade?

 

[Jake from State Farm]

It's the Mariners, so I expect it. MLB was full of very good ex-Mariners for years.

Carlos Guillen and Doug Fister say hello