Tom Grieve Trade Analysis Part 3

This week the Rangers signed Eddie Guardado to a one-year contract and also signed Jamey Wright and Adam Melhuse to minor league contracts with invitations to Spring Training.

Eddie Guardado:
Eddie has been a quality, reliable reliever in the past but the last time he pitched 50 innings in a year was 2005 due to some injuries the last couple of years. Guardado could be on the DL a lot or could be healthy again and a very good reliever for us. He should compete with CJ for the closer role but will probably be our set-up man. I think that it was a good low-risk signing.

Jamey Wright:
Last year Wright did pretty well when relieving and should be a decent long reliever for us. I think that this was a very good signing, especially since it’s a minor league deal.

Adam Melhuse:
Adam probably won’t do much, but if Laird gets traded, he would fill in pretty well as a backup. I like this move.

This week I will continue my analysis of Tom Grieve’s trades. See my 12/9/07 blog entry for the last installment.

13. 7-26-86 The Chicago Cubs traded Ron Meridith to the Texas Rangers for a player to be named later and Bryan Dial (minors). The Texas Rangers sent Rick Surhoff (July 28, 1986) to the Chicago Cubs to complete the trade.

Tie - Ron Meridith only pitched 23 innings after the trade. Bryan Dial never made it to the majors, and Rick Surhoff only pitched 9 career innings.

Record: 4-4-5

14. 9-30-86 The Pittsburgh Pirates traded Jeff Zaske to the Texas Rangers for Randy Kramer.

Tie - Zaske pitched 5 total innings in his career and Randy Krammer had a 6-15 career record.

Record: 4-4-6

15. 3-24-87 The Detroit Tigers traded Ruben Guzman (minors) to the Texas Rangers for Orlando Mercado.

Tie - Guzman never made the majors and Mercado had a .199 career batting average in 253 games over 8 seasons with 8 teams.

Record: 4-4-7

16. 5-15-87 The Texas Rangers traded Mike Mason to the Chicago Cubs for a player to be named later. The Chicago Cubs sent Dave Pavlas (June 6, 1987) to the Texas Rangers to complete the trade.

Tie - Mason only pitched 44 innings after the trade and Pavlas never played for the Rangers.

Record: 4-4-8

17. 6-25-87 The Los Angeles Dodgers traded Larry See to the Texas Rangers for Jose Mota.

Tie - See had 23 at-bats after the trade, and Mota had 38 career at-bats.

Record: 4-4-9

I will be taking next week off. Come back in two weeks for a write-up of the Rangers Fan Fest.