Monday, February 4, 2008

Worst trade of the Decade?

Alternate title: Sabashing!

How do you think you could evaluate the worst trade of the decade? How about these criteria: 1) it is used as a reference by guys who are not typical teeth-gnashing Giants fans, and 2) it is used in a reference that is not even about baseball.

The generally tremendous Mr. Tremendous has posted a post on www.firejoemorgan.com about an article about Ernie Accorsi's (NY football Giants General Manager) trade for Eli Manning being a good trade written by Mike Freeman of CBSSports.com. Rather than read that article, I recommend the fjm article here: http://www.firejoemorgan.com/2008/02/small-sample-sized-revisionist-history.html.

The fjm guys write about bad sports journalism, pointing out just how bad it is in content, logic, grammar, and language usage and are merciless at it. The authors of this site are not SF Giants fans, alhtough they follow baseball closely. They are Boston Red Sox fans, although their comments skewer sports journalism in any media from any city. Here are some quotes from the article being skewered, and italicized comments from Mr. Tremendous:

"'What difference does it make what we gave up?' Accorsi continued....because that's how you evaluate whether it was a good trade."

Do you think Brian Sabean is like, "Who cares about Liriano, Bonser, and Nathan? We got A.J. Pierzynski and cash!!!!"

"My friend Doyel might know college basketball better than anyone, as well as the thug-filled, cracked-jaw-fest that is the MMA, but one thing NFL media rooks like him forget when discussing the Giants-Chargers trade is this caveat: The Chargers wanted fierce defensive end Osi Umenyiora to be included in the deal. Accorsi said hell no. It was the right move by Accorsi, and Umenyiora has been a force."

If the Twins had asked for Barry Bonds in the Nathan/Liriano/Bonser deal, and Sabean had said no, that would not have meant that Sabean had made a good deal.

OK, I realize that there are still more or less two years to go in the decade, depending on if you count 2010, but I think this is a significant entry. Discuss.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heck yes! everybody knows this shit!

Anonymous said...

wait. what about trading away Matt Williams? He as so nice and cute and all.

Anonymous said...

That was last decade, asshole. Get over it.

Anonymous said...

I don't want to talk about this. I want to talk about the NEXT trade, which will be really, really good, you wait and see. We'll get a warrior, a guy that knows how to win.

Anonymous said...

Well, I was going to put something on here today, & you kind of set it up. The problem with this off-season for Giants' fans has been the boredom of it all. A team that goes 71-91 should be doing SOMETHING! Aside from the 'big' Rowand move, most of what we've done has been pass on free agents, including our own (Bonds & Feliz - don't get me started right now, but hasn't it crossed your minds that Bonds will be back this season?). And, going back to the subject of the Sabean legacy, one of you mentioned Wilson Alvarez & Roberto Hernandez as examples of past successes??? Giving away 7 prospects to get to the first round of the playoffs with rent-a-players? What? Sorry - I'm still not sure where even his past prominence comes from. And, the recent past has been a disaster. So, this year, his response has been 'do nothing' - what a strategy! No, I don't want to give up our starting pitching, but something has to change. Of all the geezers we have talked about bringing in, the most palatable would be Koskie or Mike Sweeney. We've done nothing. What a bore! Which brings me to the subject of my off-season sports interests: Chelsea soccer & Hockey Night in Canada. No point going on about Chelsea - it's been an interesting year, to say the least. But, I am happy to report that, after a hiatus of a couple of years when they showed just National-type advertising, CBC has returned to the former practice of putting some local affiliate's broadcast on the NHL Center Ice Package. One year, it was from Prince Edward Island - I learned a lot about Prince Edward Island that year. The next year, Manitoba. If watching auto repair shop ads from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan doesn't get your juices flowing ... well, then you need to spark up your life somehow. Sure, MLB Extra Innings shows everyone's local broadcasts, but they are almost all Fox affiliates, with the same shit on every one. But, Saskatoon? ... that's top notch fun! Just had to get a few words in before heading down to Oaxaca tomorrow night ... hasta muy pronto!

Anonymous said...

Maybe the G-men should get a coupla those Saskatoonians. Bet they got some power, but not much in the on-base department, eh hoser?