Stevie being Stevie -- baseball related

[smg58]

From a recent chat room involving Keith Law, ESPN.com analyst and former assistant to Jays' GM JP Ricciardi:

Eddie (Milwaukee)

What was Steve Phillips thinking? Almost trading a 19 year old David Wright for Jose Cruz Jr.? Ridiculous.

Klaw

I've been asked about that trade rumor for three years but never answered while Ricciardi was still GM. The offer was made, though; I was there when the call came in. It was the first time I'd heard of Wright, since I wasn't with Toronto in 2001 nor had I followed the draft when Wright was in it. JP's reaction was, "I'm not trading a major league player for some guy in the Sally League." And that was pretty much that. We had a chance to trade Cruz after that for Rafael Soriano, but JP refused to do it unless Seattle included Clint Nageotte, who, at the time, was a pretty hot prospect. It's weird; I can't remember some things that happened last week but I remember those conversations (over seven years ago now) like they just took place.

And this was 2002, a last-place season for the Mets. So which GM was the bigger idiot?

[Chad ochoseis]

Hindsight's always 20-20. In 2002, Wright was just another good prospect who might or might not have panned out and Cruz was coming off a strong season in Toronto. And the Mets needed an outfielder who wasn't named Roger Cedeno. I think if that trade had been made, we would have loved it in 2002.

[Frayed Knot]

While I'm sure we could probably trash every GM who ever lived if we wanted to scrutinize them for each trade they ever thought about making, to me this is an example of the typical Steve Phillips philosophy: going for the short-term gain at each and every opportunity no matter what the current condition of the club while costs be damned.

The first part of that method has to be measured against the second and third parts but with SP it seems like it never was.
In this case, Jose Cruz Jr was a good - though hardly great - corner OFer in the final year of a contract in 2002, the Mets were coming off a .500 season probably needing a lot more than JCzJ to get back to the top, and Wright was a 1st round pick less than a year earlier and off to a good start.

[metirish]

So Steve Phillips is not an idiot? , not buying it .

[smg58]

This happened at the deadline in 2002. Cruz had a career year in 2001 (.857 OPS) but had gone back to being the sub-.250 BA, sub-.800 OPS hitter he had otherwise been (and would mostly otherwise be) his whole career. The Mets either were just about to trade, or just had traded, Jay Payton for a two-month rental pitcher, so there was an opening in center (which wouldn't actually be filled for more than a full season). But this was a similar situation to the Kazmir deal two years later, where the Mets were clearly falling behind and desperate to salvage an unsalvageable season. Cruz was hardly a difference maker, and certainly wouldn't have been had he come. The only difference was that more people were aware of Kazmir at the time of the trade.

On the other hand, Ricciardi was too proud to take an A-ball prospect for a guy he didn't think highly enough of to offer arbitration to in the offseason and therefore got nothing for. That's just bizarre, even if the prospect in question doesn't turn out to be David Wright.

[Frayed Knot]

So Steve Phillips is not an idiot? , not buying it

Well I certainly didn't say I was FOR that deal; it's a trade that would have been idiotic in retrospect but of course you don't know that Wright is going to be WRIGHT at the time so I don't know that I'd use the work 'idiot'.

What I said - or at least tried to imply - was that it was a proposal of typical Stevie Phillips recklessness, one where he tries to patch up the near-term by lusting after whatever "name player" he thinks could be available without regard to the long-term cost or even to whether he's not just being dazzled by someone else's shiny bauble that's not going to solve his team's problems even he he can manage to overpay and get his hands on it.

[ashie62]

They are both unemployed idiots

[metirish]

So Steve Phillips is not an idiot? , not buying it

Well I certainly didn't say I was FOR that deal; it's a trade that would have been idiotic in retrospect but of course you don't know that Wright is going to be WRIGHT at the time so I don't know that I'd use the work 'idiot'.

What I said - or at least tried to imply - was that it was a proposal of typical Stevie Phillips recklessness, one where he tries to patch up the near-term by lusting after whatever "name player" he thinks could be available without regard to the long-term cost or even to whether he's not just being dazzled by someone else's shiny bauble that's not going to solve his team's problems even he he can manage to overpay and get his hands on it.