It's hard to fake your way through 162 games, so most MLB playoff teams have earned the right to play in October. Once every few years, a team in a weak division slips into the playoffs with a mediocre record, but teams like the 2005 Padres and 2006 Cardinals are exceptions.
Now that this year's postseason lineup has been determined, we have the chance to look back at the trades the eight playoff teams made this year. Here's a summary of the in-season acquisitions that made an impact for one of MLB's 2011 playoff teams (linked team names go to our Transaction Tracker):
National League
- Phillies: Hunter Pence, John Bowker
- Cardinals: Rafael Furcal, Edwin Jackson, Marc Rzepczynski, Octavio Dotel, Corey Patterson
- Diamondbacks: Jason Marquis, Brad Ziegler, John McDonald, Aaron Hill
- Brewers: Nyjer Morgan, Sergio Mitre, Francisco Rodriguez, Felipe Lopez, Jerry Hairston Jr.
American League
- Yankees: Sergio Mitre
- Rays: None
- Tigers: Wilson Betemit, Doug Fister, David Pauley, Delmon Young
- Rangers: Koji Uehara, Mike Adams, Mike Gonzalez, Matt Treanor
All four National League teams added valuable contributors in midsummer trades. The Rangers improved their bullpen with a pair of highly-coveted late-inning relievers and the Tigers acquired Doug Fister, who posted a 1.79 ERA with a 57K/5BB ratio in 70 1/3 innings down the stretch and is arguably the acquisition of the season.
After months of rumors about the Yankees' interest in starting pitching, GM Brian Cashman remained quiet on the trade front. The Wild Card Rays were also inactive despite constant rumors about B.J. Upton, James Shields, Johnny Damon and others. Tampa Bay's midseason acquisitions came from the minor leagues, where Desmond Jennings and Matt Moore began the season.
The Yankees and Rays are not averse to trading players – Cashman nearly acquired Cliff Lee last summer and Friedman makes major trades just about every year. Similarly, the Tigers and Brewers aren't this aggressive every year – they simply saw potential upgrades on the market. If there's a lesson here it's that the significance of the trade market varies wildly from year to year and from team to team.
The Brewers stuck gold with Morgan
struck*
Nope, the brewers stuck Morgan and gold, together in a hole, along with a leprechaun =)
JD is to be commended for addressing most of the Rangers needs to get them back to the World Series. After their strong starters, they have shutdown guys for the 7th-9th innings. I expect the Rangers to get even stronger next season by adding a guy like Pujols or Fielder.
texas fans never appreciate just how good Michael Young is
Rays: None
Haha I love it.
Best acquisition was the meat-train by far.
Fister <3
Fister is awesome
Delmon Young has chipped in some nice offence.
But Fister is a beast.
Fister kinda reminds me of Roy Halladay right now. Probly wont be consistantly that good throught his career but he was doing his best impression the second half of the year.
HAHA good joke, comparing Fister to Halladay.
Have you looked at his numbers? Granted this is only his third year in the majors so it’s a small sample size, but he’s not exactly a chump.
Why don’t you go an compare his first three years in the pros to Halladays first three years and see if you still want to laugh at that statement.
Granted, sustained success is a key to Halladays greatness, but there isn’t any reason for me to believe fister can’t keep up solid numbers as long as he keeps healthy.
Haha ur cool for laughing at that. Fister was better than Halladay in the 2nd half wich is what I meant was Halladay like. And just the way he pitches reminds me of Doc. (although I dont watch Halladay pitch much so what do I know lol)
Doug Fister was not better than Roy Halladay after the All-Star break. If anything, they were comparable and Halladay was slightly better. I’m not knocking how good Fister has been like the rest of these guys, but he was never better than Halladay this year.
Fister hasn’t exactly faced the greatest of competition since joining the Tigers either. 3 starts against Cleveland, 2 starts against Kansas City, and one against each of Baltimore, Minnesota, and Oakland.
Halladay didn’t face much better competition, but I doubt that anyone seriously doubts Halladay’s talent.
I really want to make a dirty joke using his last name, but I respect MLBTR’s respectful rules about that sort of thing. Darn you, professional baseball website!
Hahahahahahahhahahahaha i get the untold yet very funny joke!! hahahaha
Does it involve a certain LHP that Mr. Fister was traded for?
Here’s a summary of the in-season acquisitions that made an impact for one of MLB’s 2011 playoff teams
I was unaware Mitre, Bowker, and Lopez made an impact
The impact of Mitre with the Yanks came in the form of “sheeesh… we better call Nova up again from the minor leagues”, and Nova went undefetead the rest of the way after his callup (something like 15 consecutive starts, yanks just lost 3 of the games he started).
The Battle for Mitre – Yankees and Brewers in the world series
YEAH RIGHT-
Rangers vs. Cardinals
The real story of the tigers at the deadline is what they gave up; which was basically nothing. Everyone was so quick to jump on Detroit for the package they sent to the M’s, but in reality, the only real talent they gave up for all four of those players was Furbush(who is a C+ prospect, at best) and Casper Wells.
The return on the acquired players has been worth 20x’s more than they gave up(already) and is a true statement to DD’s skill at making amazing trades considering how weak the tigers farm system is, outside castellanos and turner. To get all that in 3 players(pauley doesn’t count considering we haven’t seen him at all in Detroit) without giving up either one of your 2 best prospects was another steal added to DD’s books.
Odviously the Mariners didnt realize that Fister was their ace haha…
The only player I was sad to see go was Francisco Martinez. Casper Wells is a good 4th outfielder on a playoff team, while Furbush’s future probably lies as a long reliever out of the pen where he was excelling for us. Ruffin is just a bullpen arm so nobodies crying over that loss.
Considering we have little idea how any of the 4 players the Tigers gave up will perform in the next 5-6 of team control that Seattle has over them, AND we have little idea of how good Fister will be over the next 3+ seasons, I think it’s a little early to say that nothing was given up.
That doesn’t even matter Doug Fister is doin awesome in the postseason
I’m really curious to see how the two best acquisitions, Hunter Pence and Doug Fister, respond to being in the playoffs for the first time.
I look for Pence to have an amazing post season. I’m not sure about Fister going into Yankees stadium though… although nobody predicted Cliff Lee would do what he did against the Yankees in the post season the 3 times he faced them.
It would be funny if the rays traded evan longoria and jeremy hellickson to the phillies for roy halladay and placido polanco.hahahahahaha
I’ll take that bet.
Look at adams and koji now there doin awesome in the postseason
Pujols wouldn’t accept a DH role, anyway.