The Spec Richardson deals are the ones that really, really hurt. Morgan, Staub, Cuellar, Mayberry, Geronimo.... The Lofton trade is the single most sh!tty "player for player" deal I can think of. b****ing about Schilling or Caminiti or The Unit, or Zobrist, is hindsighting, unless you just don't know why those trades happened. This was my favorite from earlier, though, "Taylor Buchholz, Jason Hirsh, and WillyT for Jason Jennings". Who gives a **** about that trade? It sucked for both teams, how is that close to the worst of anything? He was also too lazy to learn to throw left-handed.
Honestly doubt he progresses to the level he has if not going to the Tigers, he credits Miggy with fine tuning his swing. Probably how Pirates fans feel now seeing the Astros nap Cole and Morton in consecutive years
Yeah, the JD Martinez comment is ludicrous. Literally nobody wanted him after we cut him, not a single team. He turned it all around, and great for him, but you can't blame the Stros for that one.
It hurt that one of those prospects ended up pitching against the Astros in the World Series. Freddy Garcia was the starter in Game 4. Motherf*** that series. Some say Drayton McLane is still trying to trade for that #2 starter to this day.
**** that. You do that Randy Johnson trade in '98 every day of the week and twice on Sunday. That's a no-brainer.
Let's take a look at Kenny Lofton. In 1990 in A, he played 124 games, had 481 at bats, and he hit .331, stole 62 bases and scored 98 runs. In 1991 in AAA, he played 130 games, had 545 at bats, and he hit .308, stole 40 bases and scored 93 runs. Then he was traded. On Cleveland, he became the best leadoff man in baseball, hitting .300 and leading the league in stolen bases every season for 5 years. At the time, I understand they wanted to move Biggio to second base and needed a catcher. But you don't trade a guy who had the obvious potential that Lofton had, especially for some no-name catcher. Either sign a free agent catcher or make another trade for one. A season before, they traded Glenn Davis for Schilling, Pete Harnisch and Steve Finley, which was a great trade. Davis was on the decline and the Astros knew it. He ended up doing nothing in Baltimore. However, Steve Finley was a good center fielder, so maybe that made Lofton expendable. So, either move one of them to LF or RF or get something alot better than Eddie Taubensee. Eric Anthony was struggling to hit .200 and they made him a starting outfielder. This trade still bothers me. Everyone knew Lofton would be good.
Rule V - Not putting them on 40 Man Roster SP Johan Santana, Bobby Abreu. Magglio Ordonez was in camp in Venezuelan Astros Academy, sent him away and White Sox signed him. Joe Morgan, Curt Schilling, Kenny Lofton, Steve Finley, Luis Gonzalez, Ken Caminitti, Teoscar Hernandez, Domingo Santana, Josh Hader, Brett Phillips, Delino Deshields Jr., J.D. Martinez.
Put me in the Kenny Lofton camp. I can't fathom how many runs he would have scored hitting in front of Biggio and Bagwell in the mid 90's. Granted they probably would have traded him like they traded everybody else that started to make money.
b****ing about Morgan, Staub, Cuellar, Mayberry, and Geronimo is hindsighting, as well. In hindsight, the trade for the Unit failed. It was not to give Astros their best shot to win a ring, it was to win a ring. From a hindsight perspective, the trade for the Unit probably cost the Astros their best chance to win the World Series prior to 2017. Trading for rentals like they are going to be around for a while is bad process. Astros had those players in their system and should have known they were too valuable to trade for one shot when they had a great core.
Luke Scott was productive, and reached competent MLB player status with Baltimore. Matt Albers was able to carve out an MLB career of sorts. Patton (who was the main prospect involved) didn't do much other than a flirtation with being a bullpen guy. In the end, the pieces involved ended up doing better than what was given up in the much lampooned Jennings trade.
