Worst Deals Ever?

[barrysloate]

I forgot about the Bobby Bonilla deal. That is truly a colossal blunder. Also the Lou Brock and Frank Robinson deals were equally dreadful. It seems like what constitutes a really bad deal is getting a marginal player, and trading a future Hall of Famer to get him. You wonder how teams make such costly mistakes.

[DaveW]

Those of us in the SF area might say that the Giants signing Barry Zito for 7 years and $126million was a pretty bad deal. That tied up a lot of money for a mediocre 5th starter. He did OK this year, but for the first 5 years of the deal, he was awful.

[Mikehealer]

Not baseball, but the Cowboys trading Herschel Walker for what turned out to be one HOFer(E. Smith) and most likely another(D. Woodson) as well as several other starters/contributors on three Super Bowl teams.

[steve B]

Varitek and Lowe for Heathcliff Slocumb. Lousy deal for the Mariners great for the Red Sox.

Steve B

[bbcarddan]

I`m surprised no one has mentioned the Larry Anderson for Jeff Bagwell deal or steal depending on your perspective.

[chaddurbin]

the dodgers gave out a few bad deals recently (andruw jones, jason schmidt), but their all-time nomination is getting delino deshields for pedro martinez, prolly the greatest 4-5 year stretch of any pitcher in history when you factor in how juiced up the hitters were and how overwhelmingly dominant he was.

[novakjr]

I know Sosa's a rough name to throw out there because of the PED's, but you can't argue with production...I'll ignore when the Rangers traded him, but instead look at when the White Sox sent him to the Cubs in exchange for George Bell.

Padres sending Ozzie Smith to the Cardinals for Sixto Lezcano and Gary Templeton.

Reds sent Paul Konerko to the White Sox for Mike Cameron.

Dodgers sent Pedro Martinez to the Expos for Delino Deshields.

[EvilKing00]

a few that werent mentioned:

Jeff Kent - for carlos biarga

Lenny Dykstra and Mcdowel - for juan samuel

mark langston for - randy johnson

[scooter729]

Originally Posted by novakjr

Dodgers sent Pedro Martinez to the Expos for Delino Deshields.

Pedro was then sent by the Expos to the Red Sox, in exchange for Carl Pavano and Tony Armas Jr, where Pedro only went on to have seven of the most dominating years. Not bad when a player can twice be involved in extremely lopsided trades!

[David W]

Originally Posted by DaveW

Those of us in the SF area might say that the Giants signing Barry Zito for 7 years and $126million was a pretty bad deal. That tied up a lot of money for a mediocre 5th starter. He did OK this year, but for the first 5 years of the deal, he was awful.

As a Cardinal fan I was ecstatic when Zito was set to start game 5. Cards up 3 to 1 and one of the all time worst free agent signings ever in Zito having to pitch for San Fran...... We should have lit him up but somehow he turned the clock back 6 years.

The first big time free agent bomb was Wayne Garland way back in the 70's, 10 year deal for $2/3 million after a 20 win season with Baltimore. Led league in losses his first year, and that was his best year before injuries ended his career early in the contract.

And Mike Hampton never lived up to his contract due to injuries.

I think the Pujols deal will rival the A Rod mistake soon.

[HOF Auto Rookies]

Until Liriano fizzled, one of the great ones was AJ Pierzynski for Liriano, Nathan, and Bonser.

[bwbc917]

Brandon Phillips is stolen by the Reds for P Dave Stevens.

[barrysloate]

It seems like the list of really bad deals is a long one. It would be an interesting topic of discussion to figure out why people who are paid to make trades beneficial for the team so often get it wrong. For every GM who makes a good deal there is another GM who was taken to the cleaners.

[EvilKing00]

Also, I know someone mentioned Babe Ruth getting sold from Boston to the Yankees BUT

What about when he was Sold from Baltimore to Boston! and what about Philadelphia Athletics and Cincinnati Reds who passed on the deal first to get ruth! lol

[cardsfan44]

Ozzie and Lou already have been mentioned. If you don't worry about steroids how about the McGwire trade:
Eric Ludwick, Blake Stein, and TJ Mathews- I'd say the cardinals did alright on that one

Jim Edmonds for Adam Kennedy and Kent Bottenfield(won 18 games then after traded was terrible)

David Freese for an old Jim Edmonds- any cardinal fan remember 2011?

[brob28]

Time will tell on this one but he looks pretty good right now: the White Sox traded Gio Gonzalez twice - didn't get anyone still with the team.

[novakjr]

Originally Posted by brob28

Time will tell on this one but he looks pretty good right now: the White Sox traded Gio Gonzalez twice - didn't get anyone still with the team.

It's not really fair to make that statement without mentioning that they had gotten Jim Thome and Nick Swisher in those respective deals..