Jared Hughes of the Pirates and Zach Putnam of the Rockies made history today as the 26th players on their teams' respective rosters for this afternoon's double-header. This was the first time teams carried extra players, now a possibility for select double-headers under the sport's new collective bargaining agreement. I believe the change makes sense for ownership, which reduces injury risk by adding depth, and players, who obtain additional service time and pay. On to today's links…
- Jose Reyes says the Mets should keep David Wright in place long-term, Kevin Kernan of the New York Post reports. “That’s good if they can bring David back, he’s a symbol of the game,’’ Reyes said.
- Dan Szymborski of ESPN and Baseball Think Factory takes his readers on a tour of the worst trades in recent history. The Bartolo Colon trade and the Mark Teixeira trade top the list, but the Vernon Wells–Mike Napoli swap also makes an appearance.
- Marvin Miller, the 95-year-old former leader of the MLB players association, says player salaries are reasonable when compared to the earnings of some CEOs, the Associated Press reports (via ESPN.com). Miller describes the current dynamic between owners and players as a win-win situation. "It is an amazing story how under those circumstances, there can be both management and labor really winning," Miller said.
The Worst Trades link is a duplicate of the Jose Reyes link.
I have to say, while the colon and teixeira trades were bad, they only look so bad because of how well the prospects panned out, they weren’t necessarily bad trades at the time. Whereas the wells trade was horrible from the moment it was announced. Most people thought the angels easily coulda easily demanded $30 million at least, and in hindsight, they shouldn’t haven done the deal even if Toronto had covered his entire salary.
…then toss in the fact that Napoli hits 30/.300 for their division rivals and that’s only icing in the cake
That’s kind of the point of looking back on trades that include prospects.
And that wasn’t the point I was making…at the time, most GM’s would’ve made the same decisions or similar decisions in the case of the Colon and Teixeira trades. Just because those trades ended up extremely uneven doesn’t make them bad decisions, just unfortunate ones. Whereas with the Wells trade, no other GM would’ve made that bone-headed move if they were in that position, and it was blatantly obvious from the moment the deal was made…
The Colon trade was idiotic for the Expos. For another team, maybe not.
The Teixeira trade felt bad because the Braves had nothing to show for it.
The Wells trade was AA using jedi mind powers.
The Angels were the real winners for Teix. Low cost (Kotchman post-hype & redundant arm), got big production from him down the stretch then got Mike Trout and Tyler Skaggs with the picks.
In terms of deadline trades for stars, can’t think of a better outcome then Teix was with the Angels.
I’m gonna have to disagree with you completely. The Rangers were the winners of the Tex situation. Getting two starters with top to middle of the rotation potential and all star SS for a guy who we wouldn’t be able to re-sign anyways was absolutely brilliant. Granted, the Angels gave the Braves the final slap to the face, but Texas were easy winners there.
At the time of the Colon deal, many felt the Expos gave up too much. They were worried about contraction though so were willing to overpay at the time.
What made the deal even worse was Minaya admitted later that he and his staff had no scouting reports (or nearly none) on their OWN minor league prospects as ML baseball had taken over the team and new staff was coming in. The Indians just went in and robbed them blind..
I wonder if I should say something that would spark the mods to see this so we cab get the link for the worst trades fixed
someone write in all caps
Yellow?
I’ll take Brady Anderson + Curt Schilling for Mike Boddicker as the worst deal over the last 35 years any day. Sure, the Orioles gave away Schilling a few years later and Boston wouldn’t have won the AL East that season without Boddicker, but Long term? They gave away the farm for a couple seasons for Boddicker and don’t even mention Larry Anderson for HOF’er Jeff Bagwell….
Eh there’s been some worse deals:
-Pirates giving up Aramis Ramirez for very little.
-The Pierzynski for Nathan and Liriano deal.
-The first 2 times Randy Johnson was traded was for very little.
-Heathcliff Slocumb for Tek and Lowe.
There’s probably a lot more but I’d have to think.
Brady Anderson + Schilling for Boddicker outshines even Slocumb for Tek and Lowe.
Sure Boston got some use out of Bodicker and Seattle got Zippitty doo-dah out of Slocumb, but Baltimre got 2 outstanding talents (1 they didn’t get the use of in Schill) for Boddicker and really.. Larry Anderson Boston had for 2 months in exchange for one of the better players of the last 30 years?
Tek and Lowe have been good for sure, but those 2 were hold ups without a weapon and Boston on the losing end.. Lou Gorman was totally inept when he made deals.. John Tudor for Mike “hit man” Easler.. Calvin Schiraldi, Wes Gardner and a few other bodies for Bobby Ojeda?
Most of the Szymborski article is Insider
Marvin Miller seems like such a cool guy. Let him run the MLBPA again.
Uh okay, he’s one of the main reasons player salaries are astronomical & ticket prices are so high… Yeah, but he’s such a cool guy.
Well he does have a point. $10MM to play a game is nothing compared to a billion to do nothing.
who makes a billion dollars for doing nothing?
Exaggeration, but look high up in corporations, and how much they make.
micro economics says you are wrong…. ticket prices are so high because they are a scares commodity
Now why was my comment removed? Scarcity of tickets prices are controlled by the ticket brokers… not the by the major league club. Prices are set before the year even starts based on that team’s operating costs… Salaries are part of that cost. And ‘scarce’ is the word, not “scares”.
If people didn’t go to games, ticket prices would come down. Ticket prices aren’t the only source of revenue for teams, thanks to regional TV contracts, so the correlation between salaries and ticket prices probably isn’t as strong as it once was
“If”… I go to minor league games & those stands are pretty packed… They don’t cost as much as big league parks… Why? Because they don’t pay the players as much & their operating costs aren’t as much… Major league teams don’t price their seats based on how scarce their tickets are. The “ticket brokers” do that…