The Yankees and Rays combined to make one minor trade this season, but the other six playoff teams were active on the trade market in 2011. I recapped each team's in-season trades last week; here are some highlights (production with new team in parentheses):
- Phillies acquire Hunter Pence (.324/.394/.560 with 11 HR in 236 plate appearances) for Jonathan Singleton, Jarred Cosart and Josh Zeid.
- Tigers acquire Doug Fister (1.79 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 0.6 BB/9 in 70 1/3 innings) and David Pauley for Francisco Martinez, Charlie Furbush, Casper Wells and Chance Ruffin.
- Brewers acquire Nyjer Morgan (.304/.357/.421 in 421 plate appearances) for Cutter Dykstra. Note: though Morgan was traded before the season, I'm including him since he was traded on March 27.
- Brewers acquire Francisco Rodriguez (1.86 ERA with 10.2 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in 29 innings) for Danny Herrera and Adrian Rosario.
- Cardinals acquire Edwin Jackson, Octavio Dotel, Marc Rzepczynski and Corey Patterson for Colby Rasmus, Trever Miller, Brian Tallet and P.J. Walters.
- Rangers acquire Mike Adams (2.10 ERA with 8.8 K/9 and 1.8 BB/9 in 25 2/3 innings) for Joseph Wieland and Robert Erlin.
Now that you've considered the trades, it's time to vote.
Which playoff team made the best in-season trade?
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Phillies (Hunter Pence) 42% (5,051)
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Tigers (Doug Fister) 31% (3,746)
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Cardinals (Edwin Jackson, others) 12% (1,433)
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Brewers (Nyjer Morgan) 6% (679)
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Brewers (Francisco Rodriguez) 5% (644)
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Rangers (Mike Adams) 3% (315)
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Other 1% (145)
Total votes: 12,013
The Cardinals trade! Most importantly we dumped Rasmus – all talent, no head. Plus each of the pitchers we got in the trade have performed well, while Colby has done what he does, suck!
Yep, cause we all know a 140 PA sample size is enough to go on.
*cough*
how about 526 PA?…since you know…thats what he had this year
He had an .859 OPS last year. I guess that means nothing.
to be fair to the rasmus-haters, their rasmus-sucks sample size is twice as large as the rasmus-is-good one. it’s the discounting of his potential that’s irrational
Felix Pie and Corey Patterson had tons of potential also.
well that changes everything
Pie met his potential ::insert helmet collecting joke here::
I’d never argue that Rasmus has been awful more more times than great, but the dude’s 24 and already has 7.9 WAR to his name. Since the trade was for the potential, discarding it altogether as a fan’s leverage for argument sake is asinine.
he’s 25 therefore you lose
Well he’s close enough to 24, therefore.. I still lose, but I feel better.
sorry, no player should struggle ever.. If you have a bad year, you should be banished from baseball for eternity
It’s funny, isn’t it? After a great year last year, he puts up a bad one and all of a sudden, “he sucks”, “bust” etc…
Matt Kemp had a .760 OPS last year. Dodgers totally should have gotten rid of that headcase. Shields had a 5.18 ERA last year and had the highest HR/9 rate in AL. Tampa should have gotten rid of him!! Ellsbury was injured and bad for the little he played.
I wish people had a little bit more perspective instead of being fan boys all the time.
Can you post more often? Yes? Thanks!
Seriously though, Rasmus has had a brutal year, but for anyone to suddenly assume this is the player to expect ought to be the definition of stupidity.
Except it was for 3 rental players that could have been landed for in the off-season for nothing. The trade was basically scrabble for rasmus
Landing them in the off-season would not have gotten us to the playoffs this year. Instead of winning game 2 of the NLDS, the Cards would have been watching the game from home.
The trade has already been worth it, even if all we have to show for it next year is Scrabble and a compensatory pick for offering arb for EJax.
Dotel has another year on his contract as well no? It’s a bit steep, but presents possibilities. I think he pitched so well for the Cards he’s now a type A, so Arb won’t be likely.
Cardinals don’t make the playoffs without that trade. If you interpret it that way, its the best move and its probably not close. All the other teams would still be where they are right now without those trades.
This. There is no question the Cardinals are not in the playoffs without the trade. While we all like to kill Mozeliak for the trade, it has paid off this year.
Mo did a great job. Rasmus was going nowhere in St Louis, Tallet and Miller couldn’t get anyone out.
Rasmus stands flat footed in the outfield, does not cover enough ground and won’t listen to anyone even when hitting a buck 98. What does that tell you. Potential does not put runs on the scoreboard, execution and performance do.
I disagree. There’s only a slim chance the Tigers make the playoffs without Fister and, quite honestly, the Delmon Young trade. It can even be argued that the Young trade served as the real launching pad for their playoff run, as they acquires him just before their fantastic month of September, including the 12-game winning streak that clinched things.
ummm…..
The Tigers were the only team in their division to finish over .500. I’m pretty effin sure they’d still be in the playoffs
Doug Fister had a WAR of 15 after he came over though, so it would have been a tie if they didn’t have him. Assuming whoever pitched for him was a 0 WAR player.
LOL. WHAT?! Fister started 10 games for the Tigers, but somehow put them over the top by 15?
Intangibles. Fister has them too!
i was obviously being sarcastic. The tigers won the division by 15 games, Fister was not the difference.
Ridiculous use of WAR FTW.
Literally could have have had dotel and Paterson in the off-season and Jackson two seasons ago.
why does that matter?
playoffs will serve as a tiebreak between pence and fister, but the brewer trades combined were pretty slick
LOL How is the Cardinals trade 3rd? That’s funny. Trading high-ceiling talent for a bunch of rental relievers/starter.
Yeah because Rasmus has really proven that he’s high end talent…
I said high-ceiling talent.. learn to read u donkey. If you don’t think Rasmus has proven he can be a great player ur nuts.
Ok yes he’s high-ceiling talent, but he’ll never reach it unless he grows up. The way he’s looking right now that won’t happen.
He’s 24 years old. You’ve never met him before so don’t act like you know he has to grow up or not. Ridiculous.
His maturity was a big problem in St. Louis. The veterans even asked for him to be traded. Also, one part of growing up is getting away from his dad, which he can’t seem to do.
Tony is that you??
I love fans that somehow feel they have an intimate knowledge of clubhouse culture..
Cards felt they could move him because a) they needed pitching and bullpen help and b) he was more of a commodity than jon jay who could step in to fill his spot..
Why people are insistent on calling every player ever traded a bad person or a club house cancer is beyond me .
Whoops didn’t meant to like your comment there. Yes you are right they needed all of that stuff which they could have gotten by trading someone else. However, when you have the veterans asking for him to be traded then you know there is something else going on. I also think Tony had a big part of it IE: the Rolen situation. However, if he was a mature player and listened to the coaches then he would still be wearing Cards uniform.
Who else could they have traded that would have brought back that kind of major league ready return AND take 3 stiffs off your roster?
the rest of your post is stuff in your head thats not proven fact. . I can do the same..
Colby was traded because he’s an alien, he probed Albert Pujols for baseball knowledge. Albert complained and so he was traded.. The cards have kept the fact that he is a foreign life form from the planet formerly know as Pluto a secret because he falsified his documents and he’s actually 1,230 years old not 24.
Now I am one that did not like the Rasmus trade at all and I stand by wishing he was still a Cardinal. But…….
It was pretty widely known that Colby did not fit in well in the clubhouse. He and Brenden Ryan were the “odd balls” last year. That was a large part of the reason they traded Ryan, thinking if Colby didn’t have his little side-kick, he would focus more on baseball. This year, it was the same stuff. He was often by himself, only wanted to go to his dad for help and blah blah blah.
IMO, when you have a talent like Rasmus(hopefully), it’s okay to adjust your thinking and kind of let them do their own thing. Not every person is the same and needs treated the same. But the way TLR runs a clubhouse, that doesn’t last in St. Louis.
Hey, let them keep calling them club house cancers. The Jays will take in all the Bautistas, Escobars, and Rasmus in the league.
I want to know when Bautista was a clubhouse cancer. I always see Jays fans saying this. He never had any problems besides not being a good baseball player.
Aparently back when he sucked and played on 3 or 4 teams in one year he wasn’t exactly a happy camper. But when you’re bounced around like he was who can blame him?
I have never heard a bad thing about his work ethic or attitude. Sure they got him cheap just as they did with the other two. But that’s because he was a utility player, not a young future star that had fallen out of favor.
more like a utility player who had the tools to be better than he was. I’ve also heard the rumors about bautista not being the best clubhouse guy… i believe AA mentioned him in an interview when asked about all the attitude-issue players he’s acquired. i believe he was referring to his time in pittsburgh. but he’s a star now, and everyone raves about how hardworking and leader-like he is. as usual, no one cares about intangibles when the player rakes, its just something for broadcasters to fill airtime with.
its the same thing with colby. no one really cared if he couldnt get along with la russa last year when he was OPSing in the mid 800’s. but all of a sudden he struggles, and people point to his personality as the reason he cant succeed. as usual they cant just accept that some guys have bad years – they have to find some extraneous reason for his failure. i’m not saying that rasmus doesnt have personal issues, in all likelihood he does. but those issues have probably been part of who he has been his entire baseball career, which has generally been a booming success if you look at last year, his minor league track record and before.
point is, talent wins out more often than not, and the jays will take as many of those players as they can get.
All conjecture.
The way I see it, he’s in a similar situation to what Matt Kemp was last year. They both had very disappointing years, especially because of their potentials, and a change should help him. The dodgers dropped guys like Torre and Bowa, and Kemp bounced back. Rasmus is getting away from LaRussa. Might have the same affect it did on Kemp.
“like” for “donkey”
Yea ya damn donkey!!!
mini-Donkey!
.366 wOBA as a 24 y/o sophomore season centerfielder? naaaaah
and this year?
there goes the “rasmus is great right now and all the time” argument i was gonna make. good work
wonder if there’s anything to that “he is high-ceiling talent” thing we were actually talking about though
what did Mike Trout do this year for the Angels?
.672 OPS…
Would you trade him for anything right now?? probably not..
its called potential.. for some reason, you fail at all things context.
corey patterson and felix pie had context too. I THINK YOU SEE MY POINT
Does anyone remember Shawn Abner with the mets, Most potential going.
As Ferrariman said above, without the trade the Cards don’t make the playoffs. That said it also has the potential to hurt in the long run. But still it was a win now move that paid off so far.
But how much has that trade affected there chances to win now? Braves had one of the greatest collapses in history.. that’s why that got in.
the cardinals finished really strong also…don’t act like it was solely the braves collapse
Not solely, the Braves collapse sure, but my god, it’s like they didn’t want to make it to the playoffs.
You still have to win more games than the other team does, whether you win them in Aprol or September, they all count
That trade resulted in a playoff berth… that’s why. Long term its probably a bad deal but you can say that for any prospect for veteran swap.
If ur saying that stupid trade = playoffs ur way out to lunch. They got in because of a huge collapse to the Braves. All of the players they acquired will be gone other than a mid-relief pitcher in Rzep.. That was an embarrassing trade for the Cards.
They solidified their bullpen.
They acquired a #4 starter who allowed them to move a tiring McClellan to the bullpen.
They get a draft pick when that #4 starter leaves.
It will be embarrassing for the long run but in the short term, they got everything they could have wanted out of that trade. The Braves may have collapsed but the Cardinals had to win to get in.
Okay that trade had nothing to do with them getting them to where they are right now though. They got into the playoffs with almost complete luck. The second biggest collapse by a team in MLB history. So don’t say receiving average rental players for Rasmus did anything substantial or will prove to give them anything substantial. Only if they win the WS and those players play a huge role in that will that trade be alright for the short-term.
give it up…the trade had quite a bit to do with getting the cards in the playoffs and you are definitely in the minority in thinking that it didn’t.
You do realize that even though the Braves collapsed the Cardinals still had to win games to catch up to them right? That trade helped them get the players they needed to win those games. As of August 25th the Cards were 10.5 games out. You can’t make up for those 10.5 games without winning…just saying.
Okay, let’s try to make this easier for you. The Cardinals won the Wild Card by one game. They had to go 20-8 down the stretch to do that. If the Cardinals had Rasmus, Miller, and Tallet…they don’t go 20-8. Because of Jackson, Dotel, and Scrabble they did(I would say Patterson but if they didn’t get him maybe they could have went 21-7, he’s horrible).
it looked reallyyyy bad at first because it didn’t make the cards any better and they were what? 10 games out..
but now that they got in, especially if they go far and win, it will be a worthwhile trade.. gotta strike when the irons hot.
Oh yeah, I thought it was a horrible deal and completely laughed at that organization. I think they got everything they hoped to get out of that deal though.
But it worked out so it’s hard to say it’s a bad short term move. Long term, it’s a horrible deal.
Most now for future deals can be looked at in that manner.. The only thing that eases the pain is winning in the now
Like giving up Hanley Ramirez but winning a WS with the players you acquired..
Or Giving up D’arnaud,Drabek and Gose and getting to watch roy halladay pitch every 5 days.
Pretty much it. It’s still a massively huge overpay on the Cards part, but a playoff spot and maybe a deep playoff run would make it much easier to live with.
Kinda hard to pick Fister after how he got lit in game 1…
Including the playoffs, he has only lost one start. Not bad at all. Pence and Fister are neck and neck. No one is beyond those two.
I’d give Pence the edge because he played every game for the Phillies until they clinched. Fister was amazing down the stretch for the Tigers though. I think both teams did a great job with these trades.
No doubt those were the two best acquisitions and someone would be hard pressed to argue against that.
if not for game 1 i would have given fister the edge so far just because the tigers gave up so much less than the phillies
Brewer trades were nice, but Morgan trade was done on March 27th
I agree with this poll:
1A. Pence
1B. Fister
3. Cardinals
The Cardinals solidified their bullpen and their acqusitions have gotten the job for them so far in the two games VS. the Phillies (besides Eye Chart… he was awful in 1 and 2).
Phillies got the right handed bat who I think is an upgrade over Werth.
Fister, what can you say about him. If it weren’t for the # of games Pence impacted, I’d consider this the best acquisition. Absolutely un hittable for the tigers until Cano got to him in Game 1.
I’d go Pence, Cardinals, Fister, but they should be the top 3 no matter what.
For me Fister hands down, as soon as he was traded to the Tigers he went directly to my fantasy team rotation. From no run support to a playoff team really does wonders for ones W/L, not to mention he usually pitches deep into games. The only reason i didn’t pick Pence was because I’m a Braves fan and im allowing it to cloud my judgement indefinitely
I chose other..
andrew friedman laughs at trades, and just calls up Matt Moore and Desmond Jennings
Indians
Was the morgan trade during the season? i thought it was spring training. and he shouldn’t even be on this list anyway, are you kidding me?
“Brewers acquire Nyjer Morgan (.304/.357/.421 in 421 plate appearances) for Cutter Dykstra. Note: though Morgan was traded before the season, I’m including him since he was traded on March 27.”
I copied and pasted that for you from about 10 inches of scrolling up.
Thanks bro, no need to be a jerk about it. I don’t read the article when its a poll, sorry.
Didn’t think I was being a jerk? Sorry if I made you feel bad.
you’re such a mean guy Rabbitov!
Btw, fister was the best move, IMO. Paid off the best
On the Hunter Pence trade, you forgot outfielder Domingo Santana, who was the player to be named later. Santana had a terrific season in A ball, and profiles as a high ceiling player.
What about the acquisition of David purcey for th tigers.
Speaking of the Cards-Jays trade, Why does there have to be a winner in every trade? Jays got a potential 5-6 WAR centerfielder and the Cards made the playoffs. In short, both teams got what they wanted. This is a great trade for both teams.
I’m gonna go with my favorite team!!! Michael Bourn and the Braves…oh, wait 🙁 🙁
My vote was for the Brewer’s picking up Francisco Rodriguez. Any one who watched Cameron Loe set up for John Axford in the first half of the year understands how important Rodriguez has been to the Brewers.
Thanks Cardinal fans for letting me get a word in……Hunter Pence. He is about to show you why the next two days………I guess that is a little more that A word……..
error in comment—Discus and my browser were, having “words”… 😉
I actually had a tough time understanding why Fister was traded by Seattle to begin with…his numbers were actually pretty impressive all things considered.
Plus, I mean Fister might be the best “MLB Porn Name” of all time…with that name he would have been the perfect addition to what the McCourts (notice I include BOTH of them) have been doing to the fans since day one…if the Dodgers had been able to move on Fister all that would have been needed would have been to move Dodger Stadium to the San “Pornando” Valley….of course the “icing on the cake” would have been a bullpen catcher named “Fluffer”.
But seriously time will tell but I think Fister is going to be a nice addition to the Tiggers for years to come. He eats innings, has pretty good control and shows many of the signs we see in young SP’s destine to become upper end starting pitchers.
phillies were basically a lock even before the pence acquisition, so i wouldn’t really call it the “best” move. i think fister has done so much more for his respective team than anyone else on this list.