The winning trades, from worst to best:
Cards get: | Ozzie Smith, Mura, Olmsted |
Cards lost: | Templeton, Lezcano, Luis DeLeon |
Other Team: | San Diego |
Year: | 1981 |
Net WS: | 17.5 (6 wins) |
#Cards’ players: | 3 |
#Other team’s players | 13 |
Comments: | I would have guessed the Cards would win this one big time, but besides Templeton, Lezcano was great for SD, and Lezcano eventually turned into Lance McCullers, who turned into Jack Clark. Also, at the end of his career Templeton was traded to the Mets and SD got a couple of good years from Tim Teufel in return. |
Cards get: | Jack Clark |
Cards lost: | Green, LaPoint, Uribe, Gary Rajsich |
Other Team: | San Francisco |
Year: | 1985 |
Net WS: | 54.9 (approx. 18 wins) |
#Cards’ players: | 1 |
#Other team’s players | 12 |
Comments: | This one is odd. Uribe actually trumps Clark here, since Clark left St. Louis as a free agent. Plus, the Giants eventually ended up with a couple of good seasons each from Terry Kennedy and Rick Reuschel at the end of their careers. Trouble is, the Giants had to give up Jeff Robinson, Eric King and, importantly, Matt Nokes as throw-ins. |
Cards get: | Frisch, Ring |
Cards lost: | Hornsby |
Other Team: | New York (N) |
Year: | 1926 |
Net WS: | 60.6 (approx. 20 wins) |
#Cards’ players: | 6 |
#Other team’s players | 6 |
Comments: | Hornsby had a great season for the Giants and left, but the Giants got Shanty Hogan in return, and he contributed 75 WS over 5 seasons. Frisch, of course, was outstanding. |
Cards get: | Bill White, Jablonski |
Cards lost: | Sam Jones, Choate |
Other Team: | San Francisco |
Year: | 1959 |
Net WS: | 72.1 (approx. 24 wins) |
#Cards’ players: | 26 |
#Other team’s players | 2 |
Comments: | Giants got a couple of good seasons from Jones, but turned it into nothing. Cards did well with Bill White, but then made a bunch of nickel and dime moves that cost them more in throw-ins than it gained them |
Cards get: | McGwire |
Cards lost: | Stein, Mathews, Ludwick |
Other Team: | Oakland |
Year: | 1997 |
Net WS: | 77.5 (approx. 26 wins) |
#Cards’ players: | 1 (just McGwire) |
#Other team’s players | 7 |
Comments: | Too bad McGwire retired, because the net WS in this trade would have just kept growing. |
Cards get: | Cepeda |
Cards lost: | Sadecki |
Other Team: | San Francisco |
Year: | 1966 |
Net WS: | 156 (approx. 52 wins) |
#Cards’ players: | 8 |
#Other team’s players | 5 |
Comments: | You think Cepeda was good? The Cards ended up with Joe Torre too! Meanwhile, neither Sadecki nor his trade progeny produced much for the Giants. |
Cards get: | Flood, Joe Taylor |
Cards lost: | Schmidt, Kutyna,Wieand |
Other Team: | Cincinnati |
Year: | 1957 |
Net WS: | 211.6 (approx. 71 wins) |
#Cards’ players: | 2 |
#Other team’s players | 3 |
Comments: | Flood was fantastic. Everyone else was horrible. |
Cards get: | Hendrick |
Cards lost: | Rasmussen |
Other Team: | San Diego |
Year: | 1978 |
Net WS: | 230.6 (approx. 77 wins) |
#Cards’ players: | 4 |
#Other team’s players | 1 |
Comments: | Seven good seasons for Hendrick, and then he turned into John Tudor. Rasmussen never produced and SD never got anything for him. |
Cards get: | McGee |
Cards lost: | Sykes |
Other Team: | New York (A) |
Year: | 1981 |
Net WS: | 239.6 (approx. 80 wins) |
#Cards’ players: | 5 |
#Other team’s players | 1 |
Comments: | Sykes never pitched again. McGee was the center of the great Cards teams in the 1980s, then he turned into Felix Jose (who was pretty good), and Jose turned into Greg Jefferies (a fantastic hitter). |
Cards get: | Del Greco, Littlefield |
Cards lost: | Virdon |
Other Team: | Pittsburgh |
Year: | 1956 |
Net WS: | 246.8 (approx. 82 wins) |
#Cards’ players: | 58 |
#Other team’s players | 1 |
Comments: | This is probably the most shocking of the analyses. Virdon was good for the Pirates, but not a star. Then he retired. Meanwhile the Cards managed to get 58 players in this lineage. Del Greco and Littlefield did absolutely nothing, and along the way the Cards had throw-ins like Jackie Brandt and Red Schoendienst. So how did the Cards come out so far ahead? Two other trades on this list are connected. Littlefield (and others) became Ray Katt, who became Sam Jones, who became Bill White! More importantly, Littlefield (and others) became Ray Katt, who became Hobie Landrith, who became Ernie Broglio, who became Lou Brock. What a segue to the top trade! |
Cards get: | Lou Brock, Spring, Toth |
Cards lost: | Broglio, Shantz, Clemens |
Other Team: | Chicago |
Year: | 1964 |
Net WS: | 310.8 (approx. 104 wins) |
#Cards’ players: | 3 |
#Other team’s players | 4 |
Comments: | This one is self-explanatory. |
