The Greatest Baseball Trade of All Time?

[bob jones]

Jay Ward was a five tool great Reds player just like Scotti Madison, Eddie Williams and Tim Costo

[marcshoe]

Jay Ward was a five tool great Reds player just like Scotti Madison, Eddie Williams and Tim Costo

And he still found time to create Dudley Doright and George of the Jungle!

btw, the Colavito/Keunn trade was the first one I thought of, but it didn't come close to living up to its hype. I guess it mostly shocked people at the time it was made.

[bob jones]

yes he did, he was almost as good as Tim Belk and Crai Worthington

[RedsBaron]

they got the great JIm Merritt for Cardenas

Oh I know that, and getting Pappas for Robinson eventually helped the Reds get Carroll. The point of the Baseball Reference.com article was how much greater the Reds could have been. In 1969 the Reds could have had Cardenas, a much better shortstop than Woody Woodward, but with Cuellar and Osteen in the rotation more than making up for not having Merritt. The '69 Reds could have also had Robinson and Tovar to add to Rose, Bench, Perez, May, Tolan for a truly devastating starting 8.

[bob jones]

yes I am glad they kept Howie Nunn and Orlando Pena instead of Osteen and Cuellar

[BluegrassRedleg]

I found this site ranking trades based on Win Shares and Win Shares Above Bench:

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/ar...s-of-all-time/

It's an interesting read. I had forgotten about this one:

December 5th, 1984: The Yankees trade Stan Javier, Tim Birtsas, Jay Howell, Eric Plunk and Jose Rijo to the Oakland Athletics for Rickey Henderson, Bert Bradley, and cash.

That's a time period with Rickey Henderson that's almost completely wiped out of my memory bank. I had to do a double-take when I originally read it and check his BR page.

[MikeThierry]

I think MLB Network gave the Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio trade as the most lopsided trade in MLB history. Brock helped the Cardinals win the World Series that year and Broglio did nothing when he was with the Cubs. Cards fans still tease Baby Bears fans over this even after 4+ decades.