September 04, 2006
Happy Birthday Doyle
6-4-2 Disses the Alexander for Smoltz trade on Doyle Alexander's birthday.
A light went on for him in 1987 at the age of 36, and he placed fourth in the Cy Young voting while a member of the Tigers -- who traded John Smoltz in order to get him, a farcically bad trade.
Not at all. The trade was made so the Tigers could win in 1987. Alexander was fantastic down the stretch. But remember, it took a long time for Smoltz to become the pitcher we all think of today. Through 1995, Smoltz was a slightly above average pitcher, with a 90-82 record and a 3.53 ERA. It wasn't until his 1996 season that he turned into the great John Smoltz. So if it took Mazzone a long time to set John right, how long would it have taken someone on the Tigers?
The Tigers made a trade for the now against an uncertain future. It worked. There's nothing wrong with that.
Posted by David Pinto at
12:29 PM
|
Pitchers
|
TrackBack (0)
This is exactly how trades are supposed to work.
The team in the race gets a player ready to perform now.
The team out of contention gets a player who may perform well in the future.
Sometimes it works out well and sometimes it doesn't. "Potential star" means just that. For every traded guy that ends up a Bagwell or Smoltz another ten turn out to be Alex Escobar.
Also, pitching prospects are the hardest thing in the world to predict, mostly because of injuries.
Trade worked how it was supposed to, plain and simple.