Is it just me or are the "top" teams on that list some of the worst performing teams* throughout MLB history and the "bottom" teams some of the most successful?
*obviously excepting the Yanquis
― gygax! (gygax!), Thursday, 10 February 2005 16:50 (twenty-one years ago)
The Royals of the George Brett era were pretty good. And most of the Braves' stinkers occurred pre-Maddux?
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 10 February 2005 17:21 (twenty-one years ago)
I wonder what the Cards score would be if you subtract off the Lou Brock trade? It looks like they'd be way into the bottom quartile if not for that one deal.
― MindInRewind (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 10 February 2005 17:33 (twenty-one years ago)
Who did the White Sox get in trade that put them so high on the list?
The Braves are also that low including with the Doyle Alexander for John Smoltz rip off.
It would be interesting to see this broken down by decade.
I don't know if it would hold out or not, but perhaps why some of the more successful teams are near the bottom is that they make trades based on current season and winning it all that particular season instead of building long term.
The Cubs division titles in 84 and 89 were both tied to trades that worked out great that particular season, but over the long haul probably don't look so hot. Here are the trades in question:
Rick Sutcliffe --June 13, 1984: Traded by the Cleveland Indians with George Frazier and Ron Hassey to the Chicago Cubs for Mel Hall, Joe Carter, Don Schulze, and Darryl Banks (minors).
Mitch Williams --December 5, 1988: Traded by the Texas Rangers with Luis Benitez (minors), Pablo Delgado (minors), Paul Kilgus, Curtis Wilkerson, and Steve Wilson to the Chicago Cubs for Rafael Palmeiro, Jamie Moyer, and Drew Hall.
― Earl Nash (earlnash), Thursday, 10 February 2005 18:10 (twenty-one years ago)
I think if you looked at a lot of the salary dump "trades" in the past 5 years, you'd be left scratching your head if you couldn't see the $$$ involved (as w/ these stats.)
― bnw (bnw), Thursday, 10 February 2005 20:42 (twenty-one years ago)
Also, by these criteria it's funny what trades were LONG-TERM duds. Mets fans wouldn't tend to label acquiring Rusty Staub as lopsided against the Mets, since they won a flag in '73 and he capped his career as a PH deluxe in their '84-85 renaissance... But Ken Singleton(4 MVP top tens) and Tim Foli had long, decent careers while Staub only had 3-1/2 years as a Met regular.
The cross-ref to an all-time bad trades list, if you missed:
http://www.all-baseball.com/mikesbballrants/archives/017353.html
― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 10 February 2005 21:07 (twenty-one years ago)