Tom Grieve Trade Analysis Part 5

This week I will continue the analysis of all the trades Tom Grieve made as the Rangers GM. I posted part 4 on March 15 of this year, if you want to see my last post of this. This time I will analyze all of the trades Tom Grieve made as GM between the December of 1988 and 1989.

28. 12-5-88 The Chicago Cubs traded Rafael Palmeiro, Jamie Moyer, and Drew Hall to the Texas Rangers for Mitch Williams, Paul Kilgus, Steve Wilson, Curtis Wilkerson, Luis Benitez (minors), and Pablo Delgado (minors).

Win - Palmeiro played five years here after being traded before going to Baltimore for five years and then coming back. His home runs increased almost every year, going from 8 to 14 to 26 to 22 to 37. Jamie Moyer had two decent years ERA-wise (4.86 and 4.66), but two awful years record-wise (4-9 and 2-6) as a Ranger. Hall pitched in 38 games and 58.1 innings as a Ranger and had a 2-1 record with a 3.70 ERA and 40 strike-outs compared to 29 walks. Mitch Williams only pitched 2 years in a Cubs uniform, but pitched well. His record as a Cub wasn’t very good though, as his combined record of the two years was 5-12. Kilgus pitched one year as a Cub and had a 4.39 ERA and a 6-10 record in 145.2 innings pitched. Wilson pitched 2 and a half years for Chicago and never had an ERA under 4.20. Curtis Wilkerson only played two years in Chicago and struggled both years, hitting .244 and .220 with only 1 home run in both years put together. Neither Benitez or Delgado ever made it to the Cubs.

Record: 7-5-16

29. 12-5-88 The New York Yankees traded Bob Meacham to the Texas Rangers for Bob Brower.

Tie - Bob Meacham never played as a Ranger and Bob Brower only played in 26 games as a Yankee.

Record: 7-5-17

30. 12-6-88 The Cleveland Indians traded Julio Franco to the Texas Rangers for Pete O'Brien, Oddibe McDowell, and Jerry Browne.

Win – Julio Franco played five years as a Ranger and made it to the All-Star game three times (winning the MVP in one of those games) and won the batting title once in those five years. He hit .316, .296, .341, got injured in ’92 and hit .234, and hit .289 in ’93. O’ Brien played one year as an Indian and hit only .260 with 12 home runs and 55 RBI’s. McDowell only played half a year for the Indians and hit .222 and Browne was only an Indian for three years.

Record: 8-5-17

31. 12-19-88 The Montreal Expos traded Mike Berger (minors) to the Texas Rangers for Scott Anderson.

Tie – Mike Berger never made it to the majors and Scott Anderson only had 54.2 career innings pitched, only 18 of which were with the Expos (in 1990).

Record: 8-5-18

32. 3-30-89 The Atlanta Braves traded David Miller (minors) and cash to the Texas Rangers for Dwayne Henry.

Tie - David Miller never made it to the majors and Dwayne Henry only pitched 51 innings for the Braves in two seasons.

Record: 8-5-19

33. 6-29-89 The Milwaukee Brewers traded La Vel Freeman and Todd Simmons (minors) to the Texas Rangers for Scott May and Mike Wilson (minors).

Tie - Neither Todd Simmons or Mike Wilson ever made it to the majors. La Vel Freeman only had three major league at-bats and Scott May only had 5 major league games.

Record: 8-5-20

34. 7-29-89 The Chicago White Sox traded Harold Baines and Fred Manrique to the Texas Rangers for Scott Fletcher, Sammy Sosa, and Wilson Alvarez.

Loss – Wilson Alvarez threw a no-hitter in his first game as a member of the White Sox and went on to play 6 and a half years as a White Sox team member, going 67-50 while he was with the team. He even went to an All-Star game while he played in Chicago. Scott Fletcher went on to play 2 and a half years as a White Sox player. Sammy Sosa had an incredible career and hit 587 homers before coming back to the Rangers. He had 1562 RBI’s and walked 884 times between stints with the Rangers. He put up incredible numbers in his career. Harold Baines played only 2 half-years as a Ranger before being traded to the A’s (batting .285 and .290 with a total of 16 home runs) and Fred Manrique only played 1 half-year as a Ranger.

Record: 8-6-20

Results of last week’s poll:
Where do you think Blake Beavan will start the season?
Spokane (Short-season A) – 35%
Clinton (Low-A) – 35%
Rookie League – 28%

Come back next week for my April Awards.