This is part 2 of an analysis of the trades Doug Melvin made while he was Rangers GM. This week I will cover 1996. Each trade will be scored a win, loss, or tie. The score is based on how each player contributed to the Rangers at the major league level.
13. 1/25/96 The New York Mets traded Damon Buford to the Texas Rangers for Terrell Lowery.
Win – Terrell Lowry never played for the Mets while Damon Buford gave the Rangers one solid season batting .283 (and also one poor season when he batted .224).
Record: 4-2-7
14. 4/18/96 The Boston Red Sox traded Bryan Eversgerd to the Texas Rangers for a player to be named later. The Texas Rangers sent Rudy Pemberton (April 24, 1996) to the Boston Red Sox to complete the trade.
Tie – Bryan Eversgerd pitched 1.3 innings for the Rangers and Rudy Pemberton played 40 games for the Red Sox.
Record: 4-2-8
15. 7/31/96 The Boston Red Sox traded a player to be named later and Mike Stanton to the Texas Rangers for Mark Brandenburg and Kerry Lacy. The Boston Red Sox sent Dwayne Hosey (November 4, 1996) to the Texas Rangers to complete the trade.
Win – nobody pitched more than 70 innings for their team but Mike Stanton was a key part of the bullpen down the stretch for the 1996 Rangers playoff team (3.22 ERA in 22 games). Hosey never appeared for the Rangers. Brandenburg pitched decent for the Red Sox in 1996 (3.81 ERA in 29 games) but poorly in 1997 (5.49 ERA in 31 games). Lacy had a 5.59 ERA in 44 games over two seasons for the Red Sox.
Record: 5-2-8
16. 8/8/96 The Florida Marlins traded John Burkett to the Texas Rangers for a player to be named later and Ryan Dempster. The Texas Rangers sent Rick Helling (September 3, 1996) to the Florida Marlins to complete the trade.
Loss – Even though John Burkett helped the Rangers to their first division title (5-2, 4.06 ERA plus a playoff win), he had an ERA over 5.00 and a record of 32-35 as a Ranger. Ryan Dempster went on to become a good, solid relief pitcher and Helling pitched 100 good innings for the Marlins.
Record: 5-3-8
17. 12/16/96 The St. Louis Cardinals traded Cory Bailey to the Texas Rangers for David Chavarria (minors).
Tie – Bailey never played for the Rangers and Chavarria never played in the majors.
Record: 5-3-9
Results of last week’s poll:
Question: Who do you think was the best Rangers GM out of the last four?
Melvin: 61%
Grieve: 26%
Daniels: 9%
Hart: 4%
Come back next week for part 3 of this series unless the Rangers make a trade.
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3 comments:
Grant-
Enjoyed reading this one. Of the two trades that really mattered in '96 - the Rangers came out about a wash. Mike Stanton and John Burkett in versus Ryan Dempster and Rick Helling out isn't too bad. And although Stanton probably did better as a whole for the Rangers, I picked Burkett in your poll because of THE playoff win. Hopefully the Rangers can have some more in the future, but until then the Complete Game gem he threw against the Yankees makes him worth more than Stanton for me. Stanton only gave up one run in 3.1 innings in the playoffs, but took one of the losses against the Yankees.
Ken
Gotta disagree with the Loss call on the Burkett trade. It's short-term value was a major factor in the Rangers' first playoff berth and the ONLY Rangers playoff win. That's worth giving up Helling (before he was good - he was only 2-7 as a Marlin) and Dempster.
Also, in the long-term, I believe that Helling's stint with an organization that can really develop pitchers helped spark Rick's amazing 20-win season in '98 which started an impressive 4-year winning streak (even on some bad Rangers teams). Without that time in Florida, he may not have figured some things out.
http://rangersorrobbers.wordpress.com
I agree with your points about the playoffs but I think Dempster was just too good to give up for one playoff win.
Thanks for the great comments.
Rangersorrobbers - I checked out your blog and liked it. Thanks for reading mine.
Grant
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