Every now and then I get reminded about how certain trades from years past worked out in the long run. Or when I had so-and-so ahead of so-and-so on my minor league draft board, only to switch them at the last minute and select the latter instead. Or when I waited too long to finally bench the guy with all-star real-life numbers who DMB absolutely hated. Or... well, I'm guessing you're picking up what I'm putting down.
So on the heels of trading #1 catching prospect and top ten overall hitter Gabriel Moreno to the Kraken a few weeks ago, I thought I'd start a thread asking the question, "What has been your worst MSB decision to date?"
I'll go first, cuz there are many. I mean, since I perpetually impose a "win now" philosophy on my team, I've done some pretty ballsy trades. Some have won me championships, so I call that a win. But others haven't, and I call those HUGE losses. One such loss: Trading then-minor leaguer (and rather unsung at that - at the time) Aaron Judge to former owner Chris Longo and the Data City Cache Hogs. Someone's gonna have to remind me which team that is currently, because I can't seem to access the archives.
Now, I drafted Judge in the 3rd round in 2015. He was seen as a big strike out guy and probably just too tall for baseball. Chris actually approached me about him. And for the life of me, I don't remember who I got for Judge, but I know it was power hitter at the end of his MSB contract with a good price tag. And yes, I won the championship later that year, due in part to that pick-up. But Judge wasn't hyped up, and I knew it'd come back to bite me. Sure enough, I go into the 2018 World Series against the Cache Hogs and we were seen by the league as very evenly matched. But I got swept, and Judge tore it up.
Honorable Mentions to my list:
- I traded Pete Alonso to the Bums in 2019. Won the Championship, tho.
- While they were minors, I traded away Corey Seager, Cody Bellinger, Rafael Devers, and Alex Verdugo
- And a few guys yet to be judged: Royce Lewis, Carter Keiboom, (Gabriel Moreno), and Jeter Downs.
But the Aaron Judge give-away will haunt me forever.
How about you?
By far my biggest “what if” was deciding between Anderson Espinosa and Shane Bieber in the expansion draft several years ago. At the time Bieber was an extremely low BB/9 control guy that the scouts were kinda meh on. While Espinosa was constantly injured but all over the prospect rankings.
There were several other guys that looking back I would have loved to have protected Bieber over. But at the time my thought process was I had one spot left for either Espinosa or Bieber. And man did I blow that decision.
My 1335-1417 career record in MSB proves that I've never made a bad decision.
If you go 121-38 this season you’ll be lifetime over .500!
No way it's my worst decision in MSB, but I have been kicking myself a little bit the last few days for signing Griffin Jax to a one year contract last year instead of 3 years for $250K. I'm not even sure what my actual thinking was at the time beyond saving $250K this year, but I'd love to have him at $250K right now.
Many years ago when I was the Isotopes GM, I got impatient and traded a young minor leaguer by the name of Andrew McCutchen to Matt Buland for an "OK" reliever. I don't even remember the reliever's name.
I haven't been around this go round long enough to make a horrible mistake, and I don't remember my previous stint in the league well enough to recall a truly bad mistake, but I'd say trading Shane McClanahan before his breakout to the Miners was a pretty glaring mistake. I did receive Zach Greinke in the deal and he led my staff as I won the first of my back to back division titles two years ago so I don't count it as a huge mistake, but man do I wish I had that arm in my rotation now!