Sunday, December 22, 2013

#752-754 Traded Series

#754 Frank Robinson

The Trade:  December 2, 1971: Traded by the Baltimore Orioles with Pete Richert to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Doyle Alexander, Bob O'Brien, Sergio Robles and Royle Stillman.
It is strange to see a picture of a man in Dodger blue who was so famous as a Red or Oriole.

What it was;  a case of prospects for two veterans…Baltimore realizing that despite it success would need to influx new blood in pitching and provide opportunity for players like Terry Crowley and Don Baylor..Robinson stint in LA is something of a bust with limited playing time…He is traded across town…Richert  plays two seasons in Dodger blue in more of bullpen by committee situation than is custom to today…As for Baltimore the only player of significance is Alexander…He plays for 18 more seasons, but only 3 ½ of them for the birds.... Alexander becomes incredibly well traveled wearing the uniforms of 8 teams.





#753 Denny McClain

The Trade:  March 4, 1972: Traded by the Texas Rangers to the Oakland Athletics for Jim Panther and Don Stanhouse.   Stanhouse would eventually become a quality closer in late seventies but not for the Rangers; the collective win loss record for the Panther and Stanhouse Texas stint was 9 wins, 26 losses.  Actually worse than McClain 1971 record…Denny was run out of Oakland before the end of June 1972 and pitched his last games for the pitching starved Atlanta.


This was not trade of any consequence.  Oakland rolled along to the playoffs.  The big trade was a year and change earlier:   October 9, 1970: Traded by the Detroit Tigers with Elliott Maddox, Norm McRae and Don Wert to the Washington Senators for Ed Brinkman, Joe Coleman, Jim Hannan and Aurelio Rodriguez.   This gave Detroit a left side of the infield and Coleman who had his best years, Washington was put in a tailspin, arguably resulting in their exit to Texas.   Dennis was even worse for Oakland and shipped to the minors and Atlanta by the end of the year.  




#752 Joe Morgan


The Trade:  November 29, 1971: Traded by the Houston Astros with Ed Armbrister, Jack Billingham, Cesar Geronimo and Denis Menke to the Cincinnati Reds for Tommy Helms, Lee May and Jimmy Stewart. 



It will always be slanted towards the Reds, a steal…Take away Armbrister and Stewart, There is hardy player who didn’t take an active role in their respective clubs.  On the Houston side, Tommy Helm continues a successful career, Lee May maintain the power numbers he shown in Cincy…Houston didn’t hurt themselves massively they just maintained offensive status quo…for about 3 years without any added pitching….The Reds got greater and greater longevity;  six, seven, and eight years of prime production from Billingham, Geronimo, and Morgan respectively.   Morgan’s advantage with the Reds is three fold, protection from an all star line up, relative health, and an incredible batting eye leading to walks or hits the leading to best on base percentage for 4 out of the next 5 years.


*Nothing like 10 inches of heavy snow to make you want to put up more posts...





4 comments:

  1. What I have learned from these "traded" cards is the timing of Topps' operations. Trades made as early as November or December are apparently still too late to affect the following year's set. And trades made in late February or early March are apparently not too late to affect the 6th series/checklist. Maybe it shows how cumbersome things really were in the days before computers were common in the workplace.

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    1. The idea of the time delayed "series" was pivotal to what turned up on the front. I think the best example is the Bob Aspromonte card its the only record I can find of him being in Reds uniform during their Spring Training. This card series concept was discarded a year or two later.

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  2. Each of these trades reflect a small piece of a much bigger story. A book could be written about the bigger picture in each of these cases - the end of McLain's career, the end of Robinson's playing days, a change in direction for Steve Carlton and Joe Morgan's career, etc.

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  3. I find McLain and the Curt Flood stories a turning point in baseball. They are two sides of being "human" that baseball covered pretty well prior. Flood the point man for players rights. Ultimately he is the hero of all players. McClain however crosses a line with the dreaded gambling and baseball. He's really never the same on the field.

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