Doug Melvin Trade Analysis Part 5

This is part 5 of an analysis of the trades Doug Melvin made while he was Rangers GM. This week I will cover 1999 and the beginning of 2000. 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.

29. 8/27/99 - The Seattle Mariners traded Jeff Fassero to the Texas Rangers for a player to be named later. The Texas Rangers sent Adrian Myers (minors) (September 22, 1999) to the Seattle Mariners to complete the trade.

Tie – Fassero only pitched 17 innings for the Rangers and Myers never made it to the majors. Fassero was part of the Rangers’ stretch run to the playoffs that year but was not very effective, posting a 5.71 ERA and going 1-0.

Record: 10-7-12

30. 11/2/99 - The Detroit Tigers traded Frank Catalanotto, Francisco Cordero, Bill Haselman, Gabe Kapler, Justin Thompson, and Alan Webb (minors) to the Texas Rangers for Juan Gonzalez, Danny Patterson, and Gregg Zaun.

Win – This is a tough trade to analyze because the Rangers were a regular playoff team with Juan and have been a bad team ever since this trade. But when you look at the performance of the players the Rangers got vs. the ones they gave up, it’s a win for the Rangers. The Rangers got two good years out of Cat (.291 in 2000 and .330 in 2001) and many good years out of CoCo, including two All-Star years. We got three good years of back-up from Haselman, and a couple of decent years from Kapler (he hit .302 in 2000 and had 17 homers in 2001). Justin Thompson didn’t make it back to the majors for years due to injuries and finally appeared for the Rangers in 2005 as a reliever for two games. Juan Gonzalez went just .289 with 22 HR and 67 RBI in his one year in Detroit. He then had a good year for Cleveland in 2001 (.325, 35, 140) before coming back to Texas. At that point, we not only had all of the players we got from Detroit but had Juan back too. Patterson had some solid years as a reliever for Detroit for 5 seasons. Gregg Zaun didn’t even play one game for the Tigers.

Record: 11-7-12

31. 12/13/99 - The New York Yankees traded Chad Curtis to the Texas Rangers for Brandon Knight and Sam Marsonek.

Win – Knight only had 19 innings pitched and Marsonek only had 1 inning pitched, while Curtis had one decent year for the Rangers (.272 with 8 homers and 48 RBI).

Record: 12-7-12

32. 3/16/00 - As part of a 3-team trade: The Texas Rangers sent Lee Stevens to the Montreal Expos. The Montreal Expos sent Brad Fullmer to the Toronto Blue Jays. The Toronto Blue Jays sent David Segui and cash to the Texas Rangers.

Tie – Lee Stevens batted .265 and .245 in his two years there. He had 22 home runs and 75 RBI in 2000 and 25 homers and 95 RBI in 2001. David Segui played very well for the Rangers in 93 games in 2000 before being traded. He batted .336 with 11 homers and 57 RBI.

Record: 12-7-13

33. 6/9/00 - The Florida Marlins traded Brant Brown to the Texas Rangers for Chuck Smith.

Loss – Brant Brown never played for the Rangers and Chuck Smith was only in the majors two years. He went 11-11 for the Marlins in 34 games, posting a 3.84 ERA.

Record: 12-8-13

34. 6/9/00 - The Chicago Cubs traded Dave Martinez to the Texas Rangers for Brant Brown.

Tie – Dave Martinez never played for the Rangers and Brant Brown had less than 100 at-bats for the Cubs.

Record: 12-8-14

Results of last week’s poll:
Who do you think will win the World Series?
Red Sox – 33%
Yankees – 24%
Angels – 14%
Mets – 14%
Cubs – 5%
Brewers – 5%
Indians – 5%

Come back next week for my end-of-the-season awards.