Top 10 Braves blunders
05/25/2009 at 1:01 pm | In nostalgia, the braintrust | 11 CommentsThree years ago Office contributor JGraham offered a countdown of Atlanta Braves blunders. Unfortunately, recent events neccesitate an edit, though much of the list was lifted straight from JG’s original post.
10. Signing Nick Esasky to a three year, $5.6 million contract. Not so much a blunder as just bad luck. Esasky gets in all of six at-bats and is never able to play again because of vertigo.
Don't touch the hair!
9. Trading Andre Thornton for Joe Pepitone. The colorful Pepitone was traded to the Braves in 1973 and managed to wear out his welcome after only 11 at-bats. He was released after one month. Thornton went on to have a steady 14-year career in which he amassed 253 homers with the Cubs and Indians.
8. Trading Dave Justice and Marquis Grissom for Kenny Lofton and Alan Embree. The trade on paper wasn’t a disaster; after all, the Braves have won nine straight division titles since this “blunder.” And the trade arguably freed up the cash to sign Maddux, Glavine, and Smotlz to another round of contracts. What the trade did do, though, was give up a team leader in Justice and a character guy in Grissom for a clubhouse cancer in Lofton. That the team weathered it was yet another testament to Bobby Cox.
The Mediocre Hungarian
7. Signing Al Hrabosky. Sure, Bruce Sutter never measured up to his contract in a Braves uniform, but the Hrabosky signing in 1980 was a bigger bust. The tone was set early. The Braves were shellacked in the first two games of the season by the Reds 9-0 and 6-0, but have the lead in Game Three. Hrabosky, in to nail down the game, gives up a two-run homer to Dave Concepcion to lose the game. Hrabosky didn’t get the save that day, but he would manage to get seven saves over the next three seasons (after having 90 in the previous seven).
6. Trading Adam Wainwright for J.D. Drew. Wainwright was easily the team’s best pitching prospect at the time. Pending free agent Drew was an oft-injured underachiever who would either A.) underwhelm to the point where the Braves could afford to re-sign him or b.) meet his potential and flee for greener pastures. Ol’ J.D. had a good year, though he was a non-factor in the postseason. Then he was gone. Wainwright, meanwhile, has a career 3.45 ERA with the Cardinals, and has proven effective both in relief and as a starter.
5. Releasing Luis Tiant. In 1971 a 30-year-old Tiant was thought to be washed up when he was released by Minnesota. The Braves gave him a 30-day tryout at Richmond to see if he could regain the All-Star form he had achieved with Cleveland in the 60s. After 30 days, the Braves let him go. He signed with the Red Sox’s AAA affiliate and was recalled to the Show a few weeks later. He went on to eat another 2,100 innings over the next 10 seasons.
4. The Eddie Haas experiment. Haas was the choice of Turner’s baseball people to replace Cox after Cox was fired after the 1981 season, but Turner went with Joe Torre instead. Though Torre finished first, second, and second in his three years in Atlanta, he and Bob Gibson were always clashing with the front office (Al Thornwell, John Mullen) and minor league pitching instructor Johnny Sain. When Tommie Aaron, a coach on Torre’s staff, entered the final weeks of his battle with leukemia in 1984, Eddie Haas was plucked from Richmond by the front office to replace Aaron, which created even more friction. Torre would eventually be fired after the 1984, and was replaced by Haas, whose tenure as manager would last all of 121 games. The Braves would finish either 5th or 6th in the NL West each of the next six seasons.
If I had stayed a Brave the Oberkfell trade would've been unnecessary
3. Trading Brett Butler, Brook Jacoby, and Rick Behenna for Len Barker. In the throes of a pennant race for the second straight year in 1983, the Braves panicked. Just before the roster freeze, they traded three players to be named later to Cleveland for Len Barker. The trade itself was bad – Barker was never effective for the Braves, Butler and Jacoby had decent careers (three All-Star appearances between the two). The blunder was in how the trade was handled. Word leaked out that crowd-favorite Butler was one of the PTBNLs during the September pennant race. The Braves’ brass later admitted that he was one of the PTBNLs, though the commissioner’s office let him finish the year with the Braves. The damage was done. The trade cast a pall over the team, which finished second to the Dodgers. Barker was never welcome in Atlanta, and the home team made matters worse by then signing him to a five-year deal. He was released 2/5 of the way through the contract as part of the April Fools Day Massacre in 1986.
2. The Tex trade. Pure ego by JS. Tex is a mercenary who would never stay in Atlanta. You don’t trade special players like Andrus and Feliz for a guy like that. The 20-year-old Andrus is hitting .291 in his rookie campaign, with 3 homers and 6 steals. Salty and Matt Harrison have also been key contributors to the Rangers’ surprising start. Tex, meanwhile, is clubbing 4th inning homers aplenty for the Yankees.
Seaver and Niekro has a nice ring to it
1. Botching the signing of Tom Seaver. In 1966, the Braves signed USC standout Tom Seaver to a $40,000 signing bonus, only to have Commissioner Spike Eckert void the contract because USC’s baseball season had begun when the contract was signed. Every other team was offered the opportunity to match the Braves’ offer and get Tom Terrific. Three teams were interested, and the Mets were awarded the rights to Seaver by lottery. 311 wins, 3,600 strikeouts, and three Cy Young Awards later, Seaver was a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
–JG and CB
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I see why I am not considered a blunder per se, yet my absence on this list is noteworthy.
Also: a post this depressing is Un-American for today. At least wait until Smoltzie clinches the pennant for the Red Sox…
Comment by bradkomminskwastedyouth — 05/25/2009 #
Even though the Hrabosky signing was a bust, the Sutter signing was much more hurtful to the Braves. In fact, the Sutter signing led to a blunder that didn’t make the list.
With Sutter in the fold, Eddie Haas decided that reliever Steve Bedrosian would be more useful as a starter. The result of this was that Sutter had an off year, Haas resigned/was fired in August, and Bedrosian became the first pitcher in history to throw 200 innings and not pitch a complete game. Feeling that Sutter would make a comeback, Bedrock and a young underused reserve OF Milt Thompson, were traded to Philly for Pete Smith and the beloved Ozzie Virgil. Two years later, Bedrosian wins the Cy Young. Thompson was never a star but he was definitely a more useful player than the Dion James, Albert Halls, and Terry Blockers who helped to populate the Braves outfield until 1990.
Oh, and Pepitone? He wasn’t released, hairpiece boy skipped the team within a week after he finally reported. A couple of weeks later, he’d signed to play in Japan.
Comment by clete boyer fan — 05/25/2009 #
The Dye for Tucker/Lockhart swap was another contender. Sutter was an understandable blunder, as he was the game’s most dominant closer at the time. Would’ve been like signing Mariano Rivera five years ago — a no-brainer. But the reprecussions were definitely severe.
Comment by atlmalcontent — 05/25/2009 #
Jeez, that’s been three years already? Ten years from now, it’s going to be interesting to see how many All-Star games have been accumulated by players we gave up in the Teishowmethemoney trade. I’ll put the over/under at five.
Comment by JGraham — 05/25/2009 #
Sain was a fine pitching coach for several teams and his principles were the basis of Leo’s wildly successful program but he was just fucking poison to our team in the mid-80’s. He and that tumor Haas misjudged Bedrosian (who could never pace himself as a starter, something a five year old Uzbekh could have seen), thought Ken Daley was swell and completely undid all of Gibson’s good work with Pascual Perez.
In the whole time I’ve been a Braves fan, ‘85 hurt the worst of any year, even over ‘88.
Comment by PepeFreeUs — 05/25/2009 #
I’ll take “Over”
Andrus is going to be a perennial AS, all by himself.
Comment by PepeFreeUs — 05/25/2009 #
This post has given me a rash. I think the Texeira trade will prove to be the worst, although we might’ve won another World Series if we’d kept Justice on the roster. All he did was get clutch post-season hits. Who needed that around?
Comment by rankinrob — 05/25/2009 #
Pepe, you mentioned Ken Dayley. Remember, the fact that the powers that be wanted him to have a spot in the rotation was given as one of the reasons for dumping Phil Niekro. So what happens? The “over the hill” Knucksie wins 32 games in ‘84 and ‘85, and the powers that be give up on Dayley, sending him down to Richmond before sending him to St Louis in the middle of ‘84 for the beloved Ken Oberkfell. And then Dayley turns around and becomes a good middle reliever for the Cards while we’re stuck with the Ackers and Dedmons of the world.
Comment by clete boyer fan — 05/25/2009 #
Yeah, I remember that all too well. I doubt he would have done the same thing here, largely because they seemed hell-bent on having him be a starter or bust, like Steve.
It’s probably not fair, but his lackluster performance and eventual role in getting us stuck with that fat fuzzy twat Oberkfell, especially as Phil was thumbing his nose at our management by putting in those years in NYC, have always made me dislike Daley.
Comment by PepeFreeUs — 05/25/2009 #
At least everyone can agree that Joe Pepitone’s hair sure is dreamy.
Comment by atlpaddy — 05/26/2009 #
These are some bad moments, I would actually rate the Butler/Jacoby trade the worst, with possibly the Tex debacle over taking it eventually, but I agree with Pepe, I have been a Braves fan for 40 years but the only time I was embarrassed to be a Brave fan was when Haas was managing. Brutal just to think about it.
Comment by Randy — 05/26/2009 #