Wade's Trades

by David S. Cohen on Oct 12, 2005 2:40 PM EDT in News Comment 10 comments

Ed Wade liked to make trades. He just didn't usually like to make good trades or timely trades. Over the coming days and weeks, the Good Phight will analyze Wade's body of work in a variety of ways, including looking to some of his key trades to determine which team got more value from the trade.

But first, the Good Phight presents this chart with Wade's entire body of work in the trade department. Read it, and enjoy re-living the glory of Phillies additions such as Bobby Sismondo, Chad Ogea, Felipe Crespo, and Jeff D'Amico. Read it, and marvel at Ed Wade, the trading man.

Date	Team	Traded	Received
December 15, 1997	Mets	Hector Mercado	Mike Welch
December 23, 1997	Cubs	Mickey Morandini	Doug Glanville
August 28, 1998	Angels	Gregg Jefferies	Doug Nickle
November 9, 1998	Mariners	Mark Leiter	Paul Spoljaric
November 13, 1998	Indians	Jerry Spradlin	Chad Ogea
November 19, 1998	Cardinals	Ricky Bottalico, Garrett Stephenson	Jeff Brantley, Ron Gant, Cliff Politte
May 5, 1999	Blue Jays	Paul Spoljaric	Robert Person
July 7, 1999	Mariners	Jose Flores	Domingo Cedeno
July 20, 1999	Devil Rays	Marty Barnett	Scott Aldred
November 10, 1999	Padres	Adam Eaton, Carlton Loewer, Steve Montgomery	Andy Ashby
December 12, 1999	Giants	Bobby Estalella	Chris Brock
March 10, 2000	Tigers	Wendell Magee	Bobby Sismondo
March 29, 2000	Astros	Yorkis Perez	Trever Miller
July 12, 2000	Braves	Andy Ashby	Bruce Chen, Jimmy Osting
July 26, 2000	Blue Jays	Rob Ducey	John Sneed
July 26, 2000	Diamondbacks	Curt Schilling	Omar Daal, Nelson Figueroa, Travis Lee, Vicente Padilla
July 29, 2000	Angels	Ron Gant	Kent Bottenfield
August 4, 2000	Padres	Desi Relaford	David Newhan
March 31, 2001	Brewers	Bobby Sismondo	Mickey Lopez
June 5, 2001	Royals	Paul Byrd	Jose Santiago
July 23, 2001	Mets	Gary Bennett	Todd Pratt
July 27, 2001	Mets	Bruce Chen, Adam Walker	Dennis Cook, Turk Wendell
July 27, 2001	Giants	Wayne Gomes	Felipe Crespo
November 9, 2001	Dodgers	Omar Daal	Eric Junge, Jesus Cordero
December 13, 2001	Orioles	Chris Brock	John Wasdin
March 28, 2002	Reds	Reggie Taylor	Hector Mercado
May 22, 2002	A's	John Mabry	Jeremy Giambi
May 26, 2002	Blue Jays	Cliff Politte	Dan Plesac
June 25, 2002	Indians	Bruce Aven	Jeff D'Amico
July 29, 2002	Cardinals	Scott Rolen, Doug Nickle	Placido Polanco, Mike Timlin, Bud Smith
December 15, 2002	Red Sox	Jeremy Giambi	Josh Hancock
December 20, 2002	Braves	Johnny Estrada	Kevin Millwood
May 19, 2003	Giants	Mike Wilson	Damon Minor
July 9, 2003	Indians	Lyle Mouton	Aaron Myette
July 21, 2003	Pirates	Frank Brooks	Mike Williams
August 31, 2003	Reds	Eric Valent	Kelly Stinnett
November 3, 2003	Astros	Brandon Duckworth, Ezequiel Astacio, Taylor Buchholz	Billy Wagner
December 3, 2003	Twins	Bobby Korecky, Carlos Silva, Nick Punto	Eric Milton
June 3, 2004	Indians	Scott Youngbauer	Robert Ellis
July 30, 2004	Reds	Josh Hancock, Andy Machado	Todd Jones, Brad Correll
July 30, 2004	Giants	Ricky Ledee, Alfredo Simon	Felix Rodriguez
August 9, 2004	Reds	Javon Moran, Joe Wilson, Elizardo Ramirez	Cory Lidle
December 3, 2004	Yankees	Felix Rodriguez	Kenny Lofton
May 14, 2005	Nationals	Marlon Byrd	Endy Chavez
June 8, 2005	Tigers	Placido Polanco	Ugueth Urbina, Ramon Martinez
July 21, 2005	Diamondbacks	Tim Worrell	Matt Kata
August 29, 2005	Giants	Kelvin Pichardo	Michael Tucker

Transactions compiled from Baseball Reference and MLB.com.

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blind pig finds four truffles...

Spoljaric for Person

Bennett for Pratt

Mabry for Giambi (though this was Beane's deal, and I'll go to my grave thinking he did this to set up a possible subsequent snookering that never fell into place. Utley/Madson/prospect for Hudson might have been it; Wade smartly rejected the offer)

F. Rodriguez for Lofton

Most of these were little deals that had little impact, which is probably true of most GMs. What I find of interest is that Wade pretty steadily acquired prospects or young pros and added depth through 2000; then he tried to make "compression" deals. But he never built in redundancy; if Mike Williams screwed the pooch, we were stuck with him nevertheless.

Last night I started reading "Mind Game," the Baseball Prospectus book about the 2004 Red Sox. It's great and I'll have a lot more about this in the next couple weeks, but what struck me is how Epstein overloaded on 1b/DH options going into the 2003 season. He added Jeremy Giambi (per the above), David Ortiz, Kevin Millar, Earl Snyder, and David Nilsson that off-season. Two of those guys worked out pretty well; when the other three crapped out, the Sox never suffered for it.

by dajafi on Oct 12, 2005 3:17 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

clarification

"Most of these" refers to Wade's full record, not the four deals I mentioned. Obviously, I think the Phils made out very well on those four.

by dajafi on Oct 12, 2005 3:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

another plus deal

Still perhaps too soon to tell, but I suspect Lidle for Easy/Moran/Wilson will continue to be a good one. It would have been much easier to take, however, were it not for the other prospects-for-old pitchers deals made around the same time.

by dajafi on Oct 13, 2005 6:11 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'd add a fifth

I think the Duckworth/Astacio/Buchholz for Wagner deal has worked out fairly well. Wagner has had two excellent seasons with the Phils, while the three players traded for him have been fairly marginal.

by jbindc35 on Oct 12, 2005 4:31 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Wow

The number of utterly inconsequential trades is pretty awe-inspiring. That's a lot of wasted cellphone minutes.

Anyway, I think the Frod for Simon and Ledee trade was pretty good also. Simon looks like nothing, Ledee was bad for the remainder of the season (though it's impossible to say if he'd have done as bad in Philly). Frod was useful and landed us Lofton, who was very useful.

by JakeV on Oct 12, 2005 11:11 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

What I'm wondering

Is whether most GMs have track records like this with their trades. Are little inconsequential Bobby Sismondo trades normal? Or was Wade's record something aberrational?

by David S. Cohen on Oct 13, 2005 7:57 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

In his defense...

Any of these prospects really turn into anything? The only real value we lost was Rolen and Schilling who both wanted out. Schilling can be debated whether we got good value or not, but Rolen was obviously a bust.

I will say that in his big trades FOR players, I was pretty happy at the time. Millwood, Milton and Wagner were all pretty good trades. Silva is likely to not be as good as he has been (though he has pitched better than I expected), Estrada was a one year wonder and we lost nothing in getting Wagner.

by jonk on Oct 13, 2005 3:31 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Adam Eaton

We gave up Adam Eaton to rent Andy Ashby for half of a season. Terrible.

by WheresFregosi on Oct 13, 2005 3:53 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Here are the significantly one-sided moves:

[b]Here are decent players that Wade traded away and clearly did not get equal value. I'll mark extenuating circumstances with a :[/b]

Adam Eaton, Curt Schilling, Paul Byrd, Bruce Chen, Omar Daal, Scott Rolen*, Carlos Silva

[b]Here are decent players Wade acquired without giving equal (or close to equal) value:[/b]

Robert Person, Billy Wagner, Cory Lidle (arguably), and Kenny Lofton (maybe--it was only one season)

[b]Here are aquisitions by trade that absolutely killed the team with their horrible play, either by stinking in key roles, or under-performing what Wade expected of them:[/b]

Paul Spoljaric, Chad Ogea, Andy Ashby, Bruce Chen, Travis Lee, Dennis Cook, Turk Wendell, Kevin Millwood, Mike Williams, Todd Jones

He gave away way too much, acquired little except Wagner (and that wasn't a true trade, it was accepting salary as much as anything), and, probably most damningly, broght in 10 guys whose negative contributions cost lots of wins, and at least one playoff appearance.

Minor league reviews at philliesphans.com. Also check out http://phillychuck.blogspot.com/ for prospect pics and analysis.

by phillychuck on Oct 13, 2005 3:56 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

good list

A couple caveats--I can't blame Wade for Spoljaric, because he flipped him so quickly for Person, who was effective for most of three years (and had that two-homer game in his lousy year, which at least was kind of fun). Chen was actually pretty good for the Phils in 2000, though obviously not what they hoped, and it wasn't like Ashby was particularly effective for the Braves. Even Travis Lee was marginally worthwhile in 2001, I think.

But the serial misjudgments--particularly regarding all those relievers from 2001-2004--showed Wade's true colors as GM.

by dajafi on Oct 13, 2005 6:10 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs