Previous posts in this series:
1: 1984-1987
2: 2001
3: 2002
Today, we’re going to hop back a bit, and revisit the trade deadlines for 1998 and 1999.
1998
Trade Deadline: August 4 (first Tuesday after July 31)
Number of Teams / Number of Trades: 5 teams, 4 trades
Number of Players Changing Hands: 12
Busiest Teams: Six Packs (3 trades)
Contenders: Eric’s Lambchops, David’s Ruffins
Rebuilders: Six Packs, Steve’s Slackers
The 1998 trade deadline didn’t see a whole lot of action – only four deals – which is surprising because a month before the deadline only 12 points separated the top four teams in the league. Of those four teams, the Lambchops and Ruffins each completed trades, while the Copperfields and FlatFeet remained inactive.
That in activity may have been especially costly for the Copperfields, who fell from first to second, and missed the championship by 1.5 points.
Let’s take a look at the teams that were smart enough to actually do something…
SIX PACKS
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Acquired
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Traded
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Results
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Ruben Rivera
Bret Boone JD Drew 1st round pick 3rd round pick 10th round pick |
Raul Mondesi
Mike Lansing Tony Eusebio Carlos Hernandez Hideo Nomo Jose Mesa 5th round pick |
A month before the 1998 trading deadline, the Six Packs found
themselves in 8th place and spent set to work, trying to reset for
the following year. They completed a
7-player deal with the Ruffins early in July, then made a couple
player-for-Rotation Draft pick deals at the deadline.
All three players the Six Packs acquired remained with the team the
following season, and all three contributed double digits in HR and SB.
Rivera had the best season of his career power- and speed-wise,
slugging 23 HR and stealing 18 bases, but struggled with the batting average
and finished with a .195 mark.
Boone provided good power for a middle infielder, hitting 20 HR and
adding 14 SB.
Drew, in his first full season, hit 13 HR and stole 19 bases.
It’s a good thing Rivera, Boone, and Drew all paid off, because the
draft picks didn’t turn out so well.
With the first-rounder, the Six Packs selected Kevin Orie, who went
on to hit .181 (the Six Packs had apparently forgotten their experience with
Gary Scott, another Cub 3B phenom – see The Brett Barberie Incident ). They used the third round pick to select
Jesus Sanchez, who put up a 6.01 ERA, and passed when it came to use the 10th
rounder. I think the 10th
round pick worked out best for them.
Despite the struggles in the Rotation rounds, the Six Packs’
rebuilding plan has to be considered a success – they went from worst to
first and captured the 1999 CFCL Championship.
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Acquired
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Traded
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Results
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Tyler Green
John Frascatore |
Shane Reynolds
2nd round pick |
The Slackers weren’t quite as successful in their rebuilding efforts
as the Six Packs were.
Frascatore didn’t make it through Winter Waivers – he was cut in
order to make room for Lou Collier, a player the Slackers released prior to
Draft Day 1999.
The Slackers kept Green going into the 1999 Draft, but he was a late
cut by the Phillies in spring training and he never threw another pitch in
the major leagues.
Perhaps predictably enough, the Slackers finished in last in 1999.
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Acquired
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Traded
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Results
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Shane Reynolds
Jose Mesa 2nd round pick |
Tyler Green
John Frascatore 3rd round pick |
Heading into July 1998, the Lambchops sat atop the CFCL’s
standings. Three weeks into the month,
and with just two weeks left before the trading deadline, they had fallen to
third, so made two deals to try and regain their advantage.
Reynolds won 7 games for them, with a 3.46 ERA.
Mesa is an interesting story.
He had been traded to the National League only a week or so before the
CFCL trade deadline and acquired by the Six Packs, who outbid the Lambchops
for his services, .11 to .06. The
Chops, hoping Mesa might score a few saves, sent a draft pick to the Six
Packs to acquire him at the trade deadline.
Unfortunately, Mesa didn’t make it out of a middle relief role, and
he didn’t save a single game.
The Lambchops were never able to reclaim their lead, and finished
1998 in third place.
Things didn’t get much better when it came time to use the 2nd
round Rotation Draft pick they had acquired.
They selected Manny Aybar, who posted a 5.47 ERA in 1999.
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Acquired
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Traded
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Results
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Raul Mondesi
Mike Lansing Carlos Hernandez Hideo Nomo 5th round pick |
Ruben Rivera
Bret Boone JD Drew 1st round pick |
At the beginning of July, the Ruffins sat in third place, 10 points
behind the league leading Copperfields.
A deal with the Six Packs gave them some a boost heading into the
second half.
Mondesi was a power/speed threat, hitting 11 HR and stealing 10
bases, while also driving in 38 runs.
Lansing drove in 40 after the deal, hitting 8 HR and stealing 6 bases.
Nomo wasn’t quite as effective, winning just 4 games for the Ruffins
with a 4.95 ERA.
The contributions of Mondesi and Lansing, though, helped the Ruffins
pick up over 12 points in the offensive categories, which carried them past
the Copperfields to the 1998 CFCL Championship.
In 1999, the Ruffins used the 5th round pick to select
Greg Myers.
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1999 Trade Deadline: August 3 (first Tuesday after July 31)
Number of Teams / Number of Trades: 2 teams, 1 trade
Number of Players Changing Hands: 4 players, 2 Rotation Draft picks
Busiest Teams: David’s Copperfields, DoorMatts (1 trade each)
Contenders: DoorMatts, David’s Copperfields
Rebuilders: none
Wow – talk about a snoozer of a trade deadline. The 1999 season had become a two-team race fairly quickly, with the Six Packs and Copperfields jumping out to a double-digit lead over the rest of the field by mid-May, and it never shrank to less than that the rest of the season.
Things were tight between first and second all year long, though, which makes the lack of trading activity in the month before the deadline a bit puzzling.
The Six Packs had set themselves up well with three trades earlier in the season, including two with the Ruffins in consecutive weeks in May when they acquired Ryan Klesko, Ray Lankford, Ellis Burks, Barry Larkin, Omar Daal, Francisco Cordova, Dave Veres, and Matt Mantei.
It’s not just the lack of activity that’s surprising. The one trade that was made is fascinating in its own right … a deal made on the day of the trade deadline between two teams who were playing for the current season.
DOORMATTS
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Acquired
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Traded
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Results
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Eric Karros
Mark Grudzeilanek Kevin Millar |
Roger Cedeno
2nd round pick 7th round pick |
The DoorMatts were in 6th place at the trading deadline,
but this was very much a play-for-this-year move. They had speed to spare and dealt their
best SB guy for help in the other offensive categories.
The move paid off, as Karros and Grudzeilanek both hit over .320 and
combined for 12 HR and 68 RBI the rest of the way.
Their contributions help the DoorMatts climb into the money, as they finished
the season in 4th place.
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Acquired
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Traded
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Results
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Roger Cedeno
2nd round pick 7th round pick |
Eric Karros
Mark Grudzeilanek Kevin Millar |
At first glance, this looks like it might have been a rebuilding
trade for the Copperfields, however a closer look at the category rankings
shows that it was anything but.
On the day of the trade deadline, the Copperfields were in second
place, trailing the Six Packs. They
led the league in every offensive category except Stolen Bases, where they
ranked in the middle of the pack.
Seeing the potential for upward movement in SB, they acquired Roger
Cedeno, who was leading the league at the time with 52 steals.
Unfortunately for the Copperfields, Cedeno promptly stopped stealing
bases. Despite starting nearly every
game the rest of the season and getting on base at a .380 clip, Cedeno nabbed
only 14 bases the rest of the way, which wasn’t enough to gain the Coppers
even one additional point in the category, let alone rise to the top.
To make matters, worse, the deal had much darker implications for the
Copperfields. The race between them
and the Six Packs remained tight the rest of the year, and after the final
game had been played the Six Packs and Copperfields were knotted at 67 points
each.
Despite giving up Karros and Grudzeilanek, the Copperfields had
maintained their lead in BA, HR, and RBI, so did not lose a single point
there. The Six Packs, however, had
picked up a key point – they edged the DoorMatts for the top spot in SB by
just 13 steals – which is a point the Six Packs might not have gotten if the
DoorMatts still had Cedeno and the 14 bases he stole after the Matts dealt
him to the Copperfields. That in
itself might have been enough to break the tie.
As it was the Copperfields and Six Packs remained tied after the
first tie breaker (each team out-ranked the other in 4 scoring categories),
so it came down to comparing the sum of the total AB and IP for the two
teams. The Six Packs came out on top,
edging the Copperfields by less than 200.
If the Copperfields had kept Karros and Grudzielanek, they would have
accrued an additional 270+ at-bats – more than enough to sway the tie breaker
their way.
Despite the deal making all the sense in the world at the time, if
the Copperfields DON’T make it, they probably win the 1999 Championship.
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1999 Standings at Trade Deadline and End of Season (click to embiggen)
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