Over the Christmas holidays, I have been examining the Phillies recent trading of stars such as Curt Schilling, Scott Rolen and Bobby Abreu. The unmitigated disaster of that group was Bobby Abreu who traded for four useless players a couple years back.. However, the Phillies just won the World Series, so what is the moratorium on whining about bad trades?
The Cubs have been whining about Lou Brock for forty years now. That's fine, I guess, but I wonder what if the Cubs had won a World Series? Lou Brock did win a couple World Series with the Cards, and did a great job doing it. But Brock also played the same position as Billy Williams, left field. Billy Williams was a heck of a ballplayer. I suppose they could have put Brock in center, but really, that would have a bit troublesome. I mean, when the Cardinals got rid of Curt Flood, they did not move Brock to Center. They put Jose Cardenal in Center. I don't see any special advantage to getting Lou Brock and Williams. They had to trade one of them. They traded him for a young starter who had won 18 and 20 games within the prior 5 years. And when he did not work out, they screwed the Phils out of Fergie Jenkins.
No,the reason Cubs fans still whine about the Brock is that Brock actually won a couple World Series with the Cards. In retrospect it was a lousy trade, but if the Cubs had actually won in 1969, I do not think they'd still be bringing it up.
The Phillies, in 2000, traded Curt Schilling for Vincente Padilla and Travis Lee and a couple others. They did okay, but they were only around for a couple years. In 2002 , Scott Rolen was traded for Placido Polanco, who was in turn traded to the Tigers where he has been exteemely valuable. They traded him for Ugueth urbina, who then went to prison, but the Phils should have gotten more anyway. Then a couple years back, they traded Abreu. I still can't believe how little they got for him, but the simple fact is this: when they got rid of Abreu, they started to contend.
Now they won the World Series. I suppose I have to stop whining about the bad trades, now, but I still think they should have gotten more for Abreu.
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The reason the Cubs traded Brock in the first place was because they tried to stick him in center, where he wasn't all that good defensively. That bled over into the rest of his play as well, leading them to conclude they would be better off without him. Which they probably were, and it's not the Cubs' brass's fault Broglio, who seemed like a better player at the time, didn't pan out.
The Cardinals had Flood, so they could just stick Brock in left and let him worry about hitting a zillion singles and stealing bases. Which he did just fine.
I do not remember the Brock trade, but I do remember Lou Brock, and there is no way a championship team could have featured him in Centerfield. On the Cubs he was a man without a position. You could feature brock in left if you had a Curt Flood in center (which is how the Phillies have been getting by with lousy left fielders for years defensively, they had Maddox or Ashburn or Victorino or someone, so they don't need a left fielder who can catch.)
Abd Brock was more than a singles hitter. He had a little pop. And he was brilliant in the post-season. But if you talk to a Cubs fans, they have a vision of Lou Brock in center or right which was just ludicrous.) Thwey might have traded him for someone better, but realistically, that probably would have been Jenkins.
Hi, guantanamera121212
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