Time to panic: It's "trading deadline" time...

                             Ah, the trading deadline...the time of the year where all the contending teams scurry around, looking up and down their minor league roster for a  (maybe) future star as trade bait for the teams' immediate needs.  Maybe a pitcher, maybe a hitter, usually a player whose best days are behind them (hello, Ichiro) .  It's also the time of year for teams to decide if they're actually IN contention.  This year, with the expanded Wild card format, more teams will be, in theory at least, ready to make a deal.  Most of the time, however,  the young players don't turn out to be that great.  Maybe they'll last a few years, or become role players, but usually, you never hear from them again. Unless, of course,  they eventually end  up as coaches and managers in the Minor Leagues.  Other times....


                    It was 1990, and the Red Sox found themselves in contention, but they needed some help.  More precisely, bullpen help.  That help came in the form of Larry Andersen of the Houston Astros.  Andersen had been around the league a bit, pitching for the Indians, Mariners, Phillies, and in 1990, The Astros, mostly as a set up man or long reliever...  He was 37 years old at the time, but still had good stuff and actually helped the Sox win the AL Eastern division (although he kind of blew up in the actual playoffs against the A's).  He would have a few more years in the bigs afterwards with the Padres and back with the Phillies again (I think he may be the only player to be on both the 1983, and 1993 Phillies pennant winning teams) then retire in 1994.  Oh, and who did the Sox  give up for him?  No one really, just somebody named Jeff Bagwell.  Yeah, THAT Jeff Bagwell, as in the future Hall of famer.  I believe this was the move that eventually got Sox GM Lou Gorman canned.


   
           The Sox would recover, of course, but it did change things considerably in Houston, as Bagwell helped keep the team in contention for most of his career, culminating in the Astros only World Series appearance in 2005, although, to be fair, Bagwell didn't play in it much, being injured at the time and had  just 1 hit in 8 at bats.  It would also be his last year in the bigs, ending a career he could look back on fondly; 1991 Rookie of the year, 1994 MVP, appearing in four All Star games, and so on.  As For Mr. Andersen, he was mainly remembered for being a prankster in the clubhouse, although he did have some pretty good years.  After all, you don't make in  to your '40s in the Majors by sucking.  There may be some irony in Andersen's last season, 1994, also being the year Bags won the MVP.  I kind of always thought 1994 was a wasted year anyway, with the strike and all.  Having no World series that year really ticked me off.

                  So all you GM's out there, beware.  Double check and make sure you don't just "give away" the next Jeff Bagwell.  It's easy for me to say...I don't run a team.  Hell, I would trade for players just because I like their name.  Placido Palanco, for example.  How cool a name is that?  Sounds like what the guy on the Dos equis commercial should be named. I would have signed Oscar Gamble, and in his contract would be a clause in which he could NEVER cut his 'fro...I would have signed Darren Daulton just to have his wife in the stands.  She was a looker...But seriously, you don't want to be the GM who trades a guy who ends up hitting .297 lifetime, with 449 homers and 1,529 RBI's which Bagwell did in 15 years , all the while doing so with one of the most uncomfortable batting stances this side of Phil Plantier,  or, if I can do a "call back", Oscar Gamble...I'm not going to mention him for a third time, because if I do, he will appear, "beetlejuice" style in my Brooklyn apartment, and I will have to explain the bit I do onstage about him...