Relax, Reds Fans...At least you had the Big Red Machine.
The Cincinnati Reds' yesterday traded away OF Austin Kearns and All-Star SS Felipe Lopez to the Washington Nationals for a slew of relievers and SS Royce Clayton yesterday. Naturally, there's been an uproar among Reds fans since it appears that Drunk Guy (and former Reds GM) Jim Bowden, who is now helming the Nats, has fleeced their team.
Relax...there have been PLENTY worse moves...
The only way the New York Mets' ill-fated 2004 trade where they sent away phenom pitching prospect Scott Kazmir and Jose Diaz to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for Victor Zambrano and Bartholome Fortunato can be rationalized is that they compared these two pictures and determined Kazmir to be the bigger nerd (I mean, would you think this guy would become a future All-Star???).
There have been plenty of gawdawful trades in Major League history; the crap de la crap of which result in a complete disaster for one of the teams involved.
Here are a few particularly stomach-churning deals:
1991: Baltimore Orioles trade prospects Pete Harnisch, Steve Finley and Curt Schilling to the
Houston Astros for slugger Glenn Davis. Davis was out of baseball within two years; Harnisch and Finley became solid Major Leaguers while Schilling molded himself into a Hall of Fame-caliber pitcher (that's another argument for another time).
1997: Seattle Mariners trade prospects Derek Lowe and Jason Varitek to the Boston Red Sox for the immortal Heathcliff "Smoke 'em" Slocumb. Arguably the best move that came out of the oft-criticized Dan Duquette era in Bostonia (honestly, it's right up there with letting Mercenary Clemens go and put frosted tips in his hair in Toronto).
2003: In what will eventually be referred to in your Encyclopedia Brittanica as the "Gold Standard in Horrifically Bad Trades," the San Francisco Giants swap perennial turd A.J. Pierzynski for Francisco Liriano, Joe Nathan, and Boof Bonser. Congratulations, A-Jerk! You're officially the answer to an outstanding trivia question.
But I digress...
My take on the Reds' trade is: Sure, it's a bad trade in the sense that your above-average offense takes a substantial hit in production (particularly with Royce Clayton in the lineup---how the hell has this schmoe stuck around so long?), but now you at least have building blocks in Bill Bray, Gary Majewski and Daryl Thompson so your starters will be able to come out of games without wanting to pound a bunch of Rolaids and wash them down with a jug of Mylanta. Also, what has Austin Kearns done in baseball besides injure himself in every imaginable way? I'll leave you on that note.
