When we look back at the 2009 trade deadline, the deals that come to mind first are the ones that shaped the remainder of that season. After all, Victor Martinez, Matt Holliday and Cliff Lee led their new teams to the postseason a year ago. But some of last year's deadline deals had a major impact on this year's pennant race. Here's a closer look at five of them:
- Reds acquire Scott Rolen – Rolen has played excellent defense in Cincinnati this year, adding 20 homers and batting .288/.361/.504.
- White Sox acquire Jake Peavy for Clayton Richard and others – Here's a question for you: where would the Padres be without nearly 200 innings of 3.71 ERA ball from Richard? I'm guessing they'd be more than 0.5 games out of a playoff berth if Kevin Towers hadn't pulled the trigger on the Peavy deal. Keep in mind that Heath Bell and Adrian Gonzalez both stayed put last summer despite considerable interest from other teams.
- Giants acquire Freddy Sanchez – The Giants didn't make the playoffs last year, but they signed Sanchez to an extension soon after the season ended. He hit .296/.345/.403 this year when shoulder problems didn't keep him out of the lineup. GM Brian Sabean was hoping the former batting champ would lead the Giants to the postseason last year, but Sanchez has helped his team in the uncomfortably close NL West this year.
- Blue Jays keep Roy Halladay – Does Roy Halladay end up on the 2010 Phillies if the Blue Jays trade him last summer? It's possible, but lots of other teams had interest in Halladay, too.
- Phillies acquire Cliff Lee – Not only did Lee help the Phillies reach the World Series, last summer's trade set in motion the sequence of events that led Lee to Texas, where he helped the Rangers win the AL West.
Here’s a sixth deal that impacted the race. The Tigers led the division just before the All Star break, and when they lost Magglio Ordonez for the season, Dave Dombrowski got NOBODY to replace him. When they lost Zumaya for the year, DD got nobody. Carlos Guillen- not replaced. Bobby Seay out for the year- nada. Zach Miner, same deal. Inge out two weeks, DD gets Jhonny Peralta. Season over.
is not making a deal as much of a headliner event as making a deal is? Also this was refering to only 2009
the tigers suck.
Not sure that I buy the argument that Clayton Richard has been as good as Jake Peavy could have been. Just as likely – the Padres might be leading the NL West with a full season of Jake Peavy.
but….the White Sox didn’t get a full season out of Jake Peavy so what would lead us to believe the Padres would of?
dealing with these hypotheticals (“what if’s”) – I took the liberty of granting the Padres a full season of Peavy. Maybe the Padres training staff would have prevented Peavy’s injury, maybe he would have missed the bus to the stadium the day the injury should have happened,… who knows?
im sorry but your whole “hypothetical” situation you got going is a bit more then ridiculous to be completely honest.
what about Huff???
These are 2009 deadlines deals. He was an offseason signing
ahh understood
Here’s a deal that was missed. Twins acquire Carl Pavano from the Indians in August 2009. Where would the Twins be without him? Also, since they technically resigned him for 2010, would the Twins have signed him had they not traded for him? no.
thats very true, but the real pavano will show up in the playoffs and cost the twins the playoffs
yankees are going to be swept.
Does Roy Halladay end up on the 2010 Phillies if the Blue Jays trade him last summer? Maybe, since the Phillies had interest in the right-hander as soon as he became available, but maybe not.
Umm..this paragraph is awkwardly written, is the “maybe not really necessary?
As bad as it looks now, on July 31, 2009 I would have traded what Kenny did for Jake Peavy. It was not a bad decision, no matter what other Sox fans say, for the following reasons:
Jake Peavy seemed at the time to the last cog in a dominant rotation. He may be infured now, but people have to realize just how much of a freak injury a detached Lat muscle is.
Clayton Richard was a old (25 year old) prospect with very average stuff. The guy may be dominating the NL west in PETCO, but a lot of that is due to soft opponents.
Aaron Poreda is a two pitch pitcher who’s ceiling is quality setup man or below average closer.
Jake Peavy is a true ace who the Sox still lack with him out (Danks and Buehrle are damn good pitchers, but not aces, Floyd and Jackson too inconsitent).
I disagree. He hasn’t pitched a full season since 2007, and he was on the D/L at the time of the trade…and he is DLed again. All it will take is another dominant season to make everyone forget, but as of right now it looks like you got yourself a lemon.
Yes, he is injury prone, and his mechanics are close to Kerry Wood bad, but his injuries always seemed to be a calculated risk: any pitcher with his style has a chance to have a torn UCL or rotator cuff. The problem is, Kenny (and almost any person in baseball) could never have calculated the chance of him having a detached lat, an injury that has NEVER happened to any pitcher before.
The WWF had Barry Horowitz, The Brooklyn Brawler, “Playboy” Buddy Rose, and when I was older, they had Crash Holly and Shawn Stasiak. You need goofy talentless bums to make the other, more talented guys look good. So, for the past 20 years, I’m glad the Pittsburgh Pirates have been around to make the GMs of other teams (such as D.C.’s Mike Rizzo) look like Albert god-damned Einstein.
I knew during the World Series 2009, when CC stated that he would “go” on three days rest in game 3 (?), moved back due to rain, and Cliff Lee responded that he would not and that he never had, that Lee’s days in Philly were numbered.
Reds were crucified by many when they made the Rolen deal, but that deal set them up for this year as Rolen has provided veteran leadership and put up solid numbers.
Losing Magglio crippled that lineup. I’d even be inclined to say losing Zumaya and Guillen were almost non factors
Zumaya was having a great season, but counting on him was a big mistake, and was predicted by many. I’ll say the same thing about 2011 right now. Counting on him would be a big error. The bullpen went from great to crud when he got injured.
Hard to say that losing Guillen was a big blow, because the kids that were called up have done very well in his place. Miggy and the Mudhens have actually led the league in runs scored for August and September combined.
Miggy and the Mudhens, I like that.