Worst Deals Ever?

[DaveW]

Those of us in the SF area might say that the Giants signing Barry Zito for 7 years and $126million was a pretty bad deal. That tied up a lot of money for a mediocre 5th starter. He did OK this year, but for the first 5 years of the deal, he was awful.

[Mikehealer]

Not baseball, but the Cowboys trading Herschel Walker for what turned out to be one HOFer(E. Smith) and most likely another(D. Woodson) as well as several other starters/contributors on three Super Bowl teams.

[steve B]

Varitek and Lowe for Heathcliff Slocumb. Lousy deal for the Mariners great for the Red Sox.

Steve B

[bbcarddan]

I`m surprised no one has mentioned the Larry Anderson for Jeff Bagwell deal or steal depending on your perspective.

[chaddurbin]

the dodgers gave out a few bad deals recently (andruw jones, jason schmidt), but their all-time nomination is getting delino deshields for pedro martinez, prolly the greatest 4-5 year stretch of any pitcher in history when you factor in how juiced up the hitters were and how overwhelmingly dominant he was.

[novakjr]

I know Sosa's a rough name to throw out there because of the PED's, but you can't argue with production...I'll ignore when the Rangers traded him, but instead look at when the White Sox sent him to the Cubs in exchange for George Bell.

Padres sending Ozzie Smith to the Cardinals for Sixto Lezcano and Gary Templeton.

Reds sent Paul Konerko to the White Sox for Mike Cameron.

Dodgers sent Pedro Martinez to the Expos for Delino Deshields.

[EvilKing00]

a few that werent mentioned:

Jeff Kent - for carlos biarga

Lenny Dykstra and Mcdowel - for juan samuel

mark langston for - randy johnson

[novakjr]

Originally Posted by EvilKing00

Jeff Kent - for carlos biarga

I'd thought about that one. Both players were somewhat mirror images of each other up 'til that point(aside from Baerga hitting for better avg), and both appeared to be sliding that year. Who'd have predicted one player was completely done, while the other would go on to play another 12 pretty dominant years?

Combined with the Roberto Alomar trade. I think it'll be a while before the Mets trade for a 2B from the Indians..

Let's not forget that the Indians also got Vizcaino in that deal.. And a few months later the Indians traded both players plus Julian Tavarez to the Giants for Matt Williams. I could've lived with the equivalent of getting Matt Williams for Carlos Baerga and Tavarez through a series of trades. But then Williams was traded to the Dbacks for Travis Fryman.. Keeping Kent would've clearly been better.

[scooter729]

Originally Posted by novakjr

Dodgers sent Pedro Martinez to the Expos for Delino Deshields.

Pedro was then sent by the Expos to the Red Sox, in exchange for Carl Pavano and Tony Armas Jr, where Pedro only went on to have seven of the most dominating years. Not bad when a player can twice be involved in extremely lopsided trades!

[novakjr]

Originally Posted by scooter729

Pedro was then sent by the Expos to the Red Sox, in exchange for Carl Pavano and Tony Armas Jr, where Pedro only went on to have seven of the most dominating years. Not bad when a player can twice be involved in extremely lopsided trades!

Oh, if the Indians had just been willing to part with Jaret Wright..

[David W]

Originally Posted by DaveW

Those of us in the SF area might say that the Giants signing Barry Zito for 7 years and $126million was a pretty bad deal. That tied up a lot of money for a mediocre 5th starter. He did OK this year, but for the first 5 years of the deal, he was awful.

As a Cardinal fan I was ecstatic when Zito was set to start game 5. Cards up 3 to 1 and one of the all time worst free agent signings ever in Zito having to pitch for San Fran...... We should have lit him up but somehow he turned the clock back 6 years.

The first big time free agent bomb was Wayne Garland way back in the 70's, 10 year deal for $2/3 million after a 20 win season with Baltimore. Led league in losses his first year, and that was his best year before injuries ended his career early in the contract.

And Mike Hampton never lived up to his contract due to injuries.

I think the Pujols deal will rival the A Rod mistake soon.