Baseball fans: The best and worst trades your team had ever made.

[Counciltucky]

I love trades. Yeah, they uproot families and such, but that happens.

Anyway, I'm a Yankee fan.

BEST TRADE EVER: Getting Babe Ruth, of course, from the Red Sox for cash.

WORST TRADE EVER: Probably trading Jay Buhner for Ken Phelps.

All things considered, the Yankees haven't made too many dumb trades if this is the worst.

[Jack Rabbit]

1. You got my vote on the other thread . . .

Worst trade: Cepeda for Sadecki.
Best trade by the Giants: Chris Brown and a couple of nerver-weres to the San Diego Padres for Kevin Mitchell and Dave Dravecvky. That was good for a division title one year and a pennant in another.

[Counciltucky]

2. You really think...

...the Sadecki trade was worse than A.J. Pierzynski?

[Jack Rabbit]

3. I can give you one very good reason why it was the worst of all time

Because I am a Giants fan and it happened when I was 14. When I was 14, the the universe could only be in order if the San Francisco Giants won the pennant.

That's just the way the world was when I was 14.

[Counciltucky]

7. Very understandable.

I remember how the Yankees were my entire world at the same age, so that makes complete sense.

[Captain Hilts]

4. I'm a Mets fan and a Red Sox fan, I just don't have enoough fingers and toes to count. nt

[Reverend_Smitty]

8. I think one that happened recently will come back and bite us in the ass...

Scott Kazmir for Victor Zambrano (who pitched like 5 games before getting hurt and was just released). Also pretty much any personnel moves Steve Phillips did in his last 2 years as GM were pretty awful (Mo Vaughn comes to mind...is he still on payroll?). Also the Lenny Dykstra/Roger McDowell for Juan Samuel was a trade that began a decade's worth of suffering.

hmmm lets see who else we traded Jason Bay for Steve Reed and Jason Middlebrook
Jeff Kent for Carlos Baerga

but I can't decide what the worst of all time is, either...Nolan Ryan to the Angels for Jim Fregosi...oops! or the "Midnight Massacre" Tom Seaver to the Reds for Pat Zachry, Doug Flynn, Steve Henderson and Dan Norman as well as Dave Kingman to the Padres for Paul Siebert and Bobby Valentine.

I'm sure there are others but quite frankly I'm getting a little depressed thinking about it.


Edit: forgot to add the best trades
Keith Hernandez for Neil Allen and Rick Ownbey
Mike Piazza for Preston Wilson and a few others
or
Gary Carter for Hubie Brooks, Mike Fitzgerald, Herm Winningham, and Floyd Youmans.

[Captain Hilts]

12. I can't remember how we [Mets] got Kevin McReynolds.

Davey Johnson just loved that guy and gave him preference over Dykstra and Wilson, even in games in big stadiums on carpet. The platoon was to accommodate playing McReynolds every day - and Wilson was forced to bat from his weak side.

I can't remember how we got George Foster either. He was a dud on several levels.

Johnny Franco was a great aquisition.

Players I miss:

Danny Heep - I think we let him go.
Our catcher that went to KC.
Getting rid of Kevin Mitchell.
Letting Juan Berenger go.

[PDittie]

5. Stros

Best: Jeff Bagwell for Larry Andersen

Worst (5-way tie):

-- Joe Morgan, Denis Menke, Cesar Geronimo, and Jack Billingham for Lee May, Tommy Helms, and Jimmy Stewart (the utility infielder, not the actor), 1971.

-- Mike Cuellar for Curt Blefary (1968). Must have been the bad acid.

-- Curt Schilling for Jason Grimsley (1992). Must have been brain damage.

-- Rusty Staub for Jesus Alou and Donn Clendenon (1969), who refused to report; he was replaced in the deal with Jack Billingham, Skip Guinn, and $100,000, thus making Billingham a factor in two of the franchise's worst transactions.

-- Ken Caminiti and Steve Finley for Derek Bell, Ricky Gutierrez, Phil Plantier, Craig Shipley, and Doug Brocail (1994). Plantier and Shipley both were back with the Padres by 1995. The Astros thought so highly of Ricky G that they let him go away as a free agent, replacing him with the incredible Tim Bogar.

World Series appearances, MVPs, and Cy Young awards usually followed quickly for Astros trading partners.

[rep the dems]

6. Phillies fan.

Trading Jim Thome to the White Sox for Aaron Rowand worked out pretty well, I'm certainly glad that we kept Howard instead of Thome. I imagine trading Gavin Floyd and some other pitcher for Freddy Garcia will turn out well too.

So pretty much any deal we make with the White Sox is good.

I guess trading Schilling to the Diamondbacks was pretty bad. Omar Daal lost about 20 games that year, Travis Lee didn't hit very well, and Vicente Padilla was so so.

[argyl]

9. Rangers: Ron Darling and Walt Terrell for Lee Mazzilli. Even worse

than the Harold Baines for Sammy Sosa trade,IMHO.

At least with Baines they were in contention for the AL West and wanted an All Star calibre player to help in the stretch. And that's what they got.But they didn't get the AL West.

[BOSSHOG]

10. Ryne Sandberg for Ivan Dejesus

Actually the Phillies traded Larry Bowa to the Cubs for DeJesus but the Cubs insisted the yet to be proven Sandberg be thrown in the trade.

And a little lagniappe for Philadelphia fans strolling down memory lane; how bout that wacky Sonny Jurgensen for Norm Snead deal?

[Bluzmann57]

11. And as a Cub fan

I am still grateful for that trade. It almost made up for Brock for Broglio. Another fine trade from Cubdom: Some warm bodies to Philly for Ferguson Jenkins. Wonder if we can talk Philly out of a pitcher or two? Nah, not anymore.

[BOSSHOG]

13. I am forever greatful

that the Phils did not trade Mike Schmidt, even though many Phillie fans did not deserve him.

[Auggie]

14. S.F. Giants: Francisco Liriano and Joe Nathan for A.J. Pierzynski

Ouch -- that still hurts!

[Counciltucky]

16. That'll hurt y'all for a LONG TIME, too. n/t

[madinmaryland]

15. Worst...

Anything the Pirates have done since 1992.

[NJ Democrats]

17. Yankees also

While Ruth is number one don't forget this one: Yanks get Paul O'Neill Reds Get: Roberto Kelly

[Captain Hilts]

18. I love Paul O'Neill. Was Kelly the lousy centerfielder? nt

[Counciltucky]

19. Kelly was never that bad, far as I remember.

It was a hell of a trade, though. O'Neill was absolutely the heart and soul of the late-90s Yankee dynasty.

Another recent one: After getting Aaron Boone (stats be damned; one at-bat is everything here), the Yankees traded Robin Ventura to the Dodgers for minor-leaguers Scott Proctor and Bubba Crosby.

Oh here's another decent one from the past: Yankees trade Doc Medich for Willie Randolph, Ken Brett, and Dock Ellis.

Dave Righetti amongst other prospects from the Rangers for aging hurlers Sparky Lyle and Mike Heath; Roger Maris and warm bodies from the A's for aging Don Larsen and warm bodies; David Cone for three warm bodies ... the Yankees have definitely been on the good end of some serious lopsided trades over time.

[Captain Hilts]

20. Well, Kelly was no Mookie...I really liked Righetti and O'Neill. O'Neill was tops. nt

[opiate69]

21. Mariners fan here..

worst: Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek to the Red Sox for Heathcliff Slocumb (although, the recent Rafael Soriano for Horacio Ramirez may wind up in this category)

best: Jay Buhner to the Mariners for Ken Phelps.

[Counciltucky]

22. Horacio Ramirez is solid when healthy.

Sure, the final two words of that statement would be the huge caveat, but none other than Greg Maddux, who as far as I'm concerned knows more about pitching than anyone on the face of the earth, was quoted as saying Ramirez could genuinely be phenomenal.

That and in the Slocumb deal y'all gave up not one but TWO All-Stars. Soriano-Ramirez will never make that category.

On the plus side, y'all made up for it (though not fully) with Boston, getting Jamie Moyer for Darren Bragg.

(Edited to add last statement.)

[Redbear]

23. Horrible Astros trade of 1971

The 'Stros traded away Joe Morgan, Jack Billingham, and Cesar Geronimo for Lee May and Tommy Helms.


The next year Houston won 38 fewer games. Morgan flapped his arm to the Hall of Fame.