12/8/1977

[Guest Edgy DC]

This trade happened.

Texas Rangers	Bert Blyleven	→←	Al Oliver Nelson Norman	PIttsburgh Pirates
Adrian Devine Tommy Boggs Eddie Miller	Tom Grieve PtBNL (Ken Henderson)
↓		X		↑
			Jon Matlack	John Milner
Atlanta Braves	Willie Monta�ez	→		New York Mets

Who won?

Who lost?

Who came in between?

[DocTee]

Bucs win, grabbing (should be) HOF Blyleven and Milner...

Rangers do well with Scoop and Matlack

[Guest Edgy DC]

Yeah, I think it's

Pittsburgh
Texas
Atlanta
New York

It could be argued that Atlanta lost, as they gave up an All Star firstbaseman and the three guys they got gave them one good year (Boggs) and a whole lot of squat. But Willie would only go on to have one mediocre year and one lousy one before bouncing around for years as a reserve.

Check out Miller's seemingly good (but not) year. He hit .310. Yay, but on close inspection, he got 35 hits --- 34 singles and one double.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

The rumor was that the Mets could have also swapped Matlack to Boston for George Scott; or to Kansas City for John Mayberry, but I guess they wanted a slimmer and more stylish first baseman.

The whole shebang was motivated by the Rangers' desire to rid themselves of Blyleven's contract, and found the Pirates the only interested takers, but the Pirates were also looking to shed Al Oliver and HIS $$, but only if they got a hitter to replace him. The Mets were the key to making it all happen because the Pirates had little that interested the Rangers and vice versa. The Mets obviously were in the market for a new first baseman but neither the Pirates or Rangers were offering one, so they involved the Braves, which were only interested in unloading expensive players for less expensive ones.

So the Rangers and Braves agreed on an initial deal -- young pitchers Devine and Boggs and minor league outfielder Miller for Montanez; the Rangers then traded Montanez (who at $300 K per, would become the Mets most expensive player) with Greive and a PTBNL to the Mets for Milner and Matlack, allowing Texas to accomodate Pittsburgh's desire to move Oliver, plus the Nelson kid, who was considered a real comer, for Milner. (so the Rangers made 3 separate trades, all arranged in one package.

I think for the Mets to have won this deal they would have needed Greive to bounce back to his 75-76 form and Montanez to maintain his 1977 form ( which he did). They waited all that time for a PTBNL (Henderson) only to trade him almost immediately.

(edit)

Atlanta saved $$ & got a few good years out of Boggs, but Devine was nothing special.

Matlack gave the Rangers 1 big year and a few other decent ones, and Oliver was quite good for them.

(censored)

[Zvon]

This trade pissed me off.
Not that it was or wasnt a good trade.
I grew up with Matlack and Milner.
But hell, I was in shock when they traded Agee in 72(?), and the only time I ever turned my back on the Mets was when the traded Seaver in 78.
I wanted M Donald Grants (or whatever his name was) head on a pole.
The Mets were still my team, but I dont think I went to another game until about the time Mookie came up.

I use to call Montan~ez hotdog.
These were tough times for Met fans, those years.
Eww...I shiver at the Met memories.

[Guest Edgy DC]

Mets got one average year out of Willie and Matlack would have probably his best season in his first year in Texas, before sliding toward mediocrity, perhaps a victim of those 270 innings under the Texas sun. But mediocrity is more than Grieve or Henderson gave them. Milner was far more than they were for the Pirates also. It's hard to look at them as having done well.

Blyleven threw three years for Pittsburgh. No great seasons, but one damn fine one in 1978. Then he got pinched by Cleveland. Milner was an key platoonist for the championship team, drugs or no.

[Guest Johnny Dickshot]

D'oh. I misread Blyleven's stat line and it changes everything.
1. Pittsburgh
2. Texas
3. Mets
4. Braves