Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
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)
Comments

I rated this a win/win for both teams at THT a while ago:

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/smoltz-for-alexander/

Posted by: studes at September 4, 2006 01:52 PM

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.

Posted by: LargeBill at September 4, 2006 02:16 PM

Also, pitching prospects are the hardest thing in the world to predict, mostly because of injuries.

Posted by: david at September 4, 2006 05:13 PM

Trade worked how it was supposed to, plain and simple.

Posted by: Tan The Man at September 5, 2006 12:33 PM
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