The Ghosts of Deadlines Past

Every year players and fans alike are excited at the prospect of change that the trading deadline brings to the game. I felt that with my post being finalized at exactly the same time as the deadline, it was only natural to talk a little bit about some last minute deals.

This year we've already seen Cleveland unload Cliff Lee to Philly and it appears likely that Victor Martinez is going to Boston. Jarrod Washburn is now officially a Tiger. And yet somehow, one name has remained suspiciously off the waiver wire. That's right, I'm talking about Miguel Olivo. No, seriously, no one wants Miguel Olivo. Roy Halladay is still a Blue Jay (as of this writing) and it looks like he may stay put. He has clearly been the crown jewel of this years deadline but with Buchholz now likely headed to the tribe and Boston seemingly out of the race, no one left seems to want to pull the trigger. Does anyone want Adrian Gonzalez?

All of these teams feel that this move or that may be the final piece of the puzzle they need to make a run at the post-season or even compete for a championship. We all know hindsight is 20/20 so lets look back over the past few years and see how well these last-minute transactions panned out.

2008

Cubs get Harden and Gaudin. It's far more difficult to complain about Harden than how the club handled Gaudin in the subsequent offseason. At least we still have Neal Cotts.

Brewers rent CC Sabathia for almost four months and give up Matt LaPorta, Zach Jackson, Rob Bryson, and Taylor Green. The Brewers pushed all their chips into the middle of the table and dealt for a guy that they planned on running out to the mound every fourth day. That's exactly what they did and he ended up going 11-2 for Milwaukee. Looking back, they may not have made the post season without him but he sure as shit didn't help them once they got there.

Manny to Dodgers, Jason Bay to Boston, Brandon Moss, Craig Hansen (from Boston), Andy LaRoche, and Bryan Morris (from LA) to Pirates. This deal was huge for a few teams. Obviously Manny going to the Dodgers was huge and Bay finally started to spread his wings for the Red Sox. The Pirates got LaRoche...I guess.

Griffey to White Sox for Nick Masset, Danny Richar and $$$. This deal was bizarre. The White Sox didn't need another outfielder and Griffey played in Chicago for only one year before returning to Seattle. Masset is "pitching" for Cincinnati and Danny Richar can be found at the track when he's not playing AAA ball in Louisville.

2007

Wonderkind Eric Gagne found a new home in Boston where he....still is?

Braves land Mark Teixeira, Ron Mahay, Octavio Dotel, and Royce Ring and give up Kyle Davies and Wil Ledezma. For all the hype surrounding this Teixeira deal, he didn't last much longer than a wet fart in Atlanta before cashing in and moving to NY.

The Padres are the proud owners of Morgan Ensberg and all they had to give up was a PTBNL. I'd say that's fair.

Matt Morris goes from the Padres to the Giants in exchange for Rajai Davis. My how the mighty have fallen. And he only made $9.5 million that year. Ha!

Tadahito Iguchi returns to his hometown of Philadelphia to plug the gap left by an injured Chase Utley. Has since been fitted for a ring.

2006

The Professor gets kicked out of Chicago once again but this time he heads to the west coast. I don't think anyone was happy to see Maddux leave, particularly when they saw we were getting Cesar Izturis in his place. I tried to find a picture of Izturis screwing something up by typing in his name, and subsequently typing in his name plus the word "bad". The same pictures came up. Go figure. Now you get nothing.

Julio Lugo joins the prodigal son in LA for the tune of Joel Guzman and Sergio Pedroza. Wait, the Dodgers traded FOR Lugo?

Roberto Hernandez and Oliver Perez to the Mets and Xavier Nady to the Pirates. Xavier felt it was in his best interests to get injured in a larger market and was later absorbed by the Yankees.

Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle head to the big apple for CJ Henry, Carlos Monasterios, Jesus Sanchez, and Matt Smith from the Phillies. You suppose Corey ever crashes as Jesus' place? I'll let you take it from here.