SB Nation - Julio Santana

Rays Family Tree: Dead Trade Strings of 1999

FreeZorilla — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:00:38 -0000

Steve Slowinski wrote a piece a week ago about the importance of developing trade strings, particularly for the teams in small to mid-markets. I'll let Steve explain:

To lead off this series (no pun intended), I want to look at a concept that has always fascinated me: trade strings. I'm pretty sure I just made that phrase up, so let me explain what I mean. "Trade strings" are trades that eventually result in future trades. And then those trades beget future trades. And so on and so forth down the road until eventually, a prospect or two doesn't pan out and the trade string fades. Theoretically, if a team was exceptionally good at evaluating talent and got lucky in some trades, a team could keep one player's peak talent within their system for decades, even long after that original player had declined and fallen out of baseball.

This gave me the idea of looking at every major league transaction on the Rays major league tree. I'm going to divide the Rays history into 3 groups. The Live Trade Strings involve strings of players that are still paying dividends today. The Dead Trade Strings were attempts at parlaying assets into others which have since faded into oblivion. The One and Dones involve Free Agents, Waiver Claims, Draftees, and Players purchased who spent part of one or more seasons with the Rays but eventually left the team with nothing in return.

For Part I, we will look back at the Dead Trade Strings in order from the first string to die to the most recent. Our very first Dead Trade String was touched on by Eric Hahmann earlier this week.

1997 trade: Dmitri Young for Mike Kelly (Released in 1999)

1997 Trade	Acquired	Trade Salary	PT- OPS	NT-OPS	Original Draft
Dmitri Young	1997 Expansion Draft	$215K	.690/2yrs	.842/4yrs	1st 1991
for
Mike Kelly	Released 1999	$235K	.823/2yrs	.696/1 yr	1st 1991

The first trade was really a phantom one. On November 11, 1997 the Rays acquired Mike Kelly from the Redsfor a Player to Be Named Later. A week later, the Rays acquired Da Meat Hook, the older brother of Delmon Youngin the expansion draft from the Reds and returned him to Cincinnati as the Player to Be Named Later. Kelly would start 67 games in the corner outfield spots for the Rays in their inaugural season posting a slash of .240/.295/.401. The former first round pick would be released prior to the start of the following season and would only get to see 2 future Major League plate appearances with Colorado before his sun set for good.

Dmitri Young started 87 games for the Reds in 1998 mostly in the outfield corners with a slash of .310/.364/.481. Young would continue to post an OPS north of .830 for his tenure with the Reds prior to being traded to the Tigers for Juan Encarnacion and Luis Pineda. Young continued to play in the majors through 2008 posting a career slash of .292/.351/.475. Meanwhile Encarnacion would be packaged with Wilton Guerrero and Ryan Snare to the Marlins for Ryan Dempsterin 2002. Sadly for the Reds, they released Dempster in 2003, thus ending their Mike Kelly string prior to Dempster's success with the Cubbies. Nonetheless, the Reds won the day in this one quite handily.

1999 Trade: Julio Santanafor Will Silverthorn (Released 1999)

Julio Santana was acquired via waiver claim from Texas in April 1998 where he had spent two years splitting his time between the rotation and the bullpen. Santana did not do much for the Rays posting a FIPs of 5.29 and 6.37 with a K:BB hovering around 1 in 1998 and 1999. In July 1999, Santana was traded to the Red for cash and a Player to Be Named later (Will Silverthorn). Santana was granted free agency by the Red Sox following the season. He made 3 more dips in the majors in relief roles, his most recent being in 2006 with the Phillies.

I was unable to find much on Silverthorn. As a 19 year southpaw he fared well in rookie ball for Boston striking out 39 while walking 13 in 44.2 IP. In, 1999 after being acquired by the Rays, he made 7 relief appearances in Princeton striking out 8 and walking 7 in 9.2 innings pitched. I would speculate he had arm troubles as he did not reappear in the minors until 2001 when he surfaced with the independent Tyler Roughnecks. He only lasted 12 games and was never heard from again. Given that Santana was less than a replacement player, this deal saved the Rays money, I suppose that is a moral victory. Hurrah!

Mr. Melvin's Rangers

TheJay — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 04:45:51 -0000

An ongoing joke these days goes that whenever the Brewers sign a free agent or pick up a player on waivers, there's some connection between that player and Doug Melvin's time as the GM of the Texas Rangers. The latest example of this connection can be found in the minor league contract given to outfielder Jason Bourgeois. Bourgeois was selected by the Rangers in the 2nd round of the 2000 draft while Melvin was GM and spent five seasons in the Texas system. After bouncing around the minors for a couple more years he finally got a taste of the majors with the White Sox last season. He's been signed to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training.

The Brewers have had Melvin-era Rangers contribute greatly since Melvin joined the Brewers after the 2002 season. Consider Gabe Kapler last year, Doug Davis, Dan Kolb, Francisco Cordero, and so on. So this begs the question, how many ex-Rangers has Doug Melvin picked up while in Milwaukee? Luckily, it's possible to use minor league rosters, draft reports, and other transactions information to put together a list.

Doug Melvin was hired as the General Manager of the Texas Rangers on October 10, 1994. He remained in that role until October 7, 2001. During that time he guided the team to three division championships, oversaw seven drafts, and was part of the massive Alex Rodriguez free agent signing. After spending much of the 2002 season with the Red Sox as a consultant, Melvin was hired as the 8th General Manager in Brewers history on September 25, 2002. I trust we're all sufficiently aware of his accomplishments in that role.

Of all the Rangers and Brewers to come and go under Melvin's leadership, it turns out only twenty-nine overlap. Of those, fifteen have played in the major leagues for the Brewers, no doubt increasing the perception of Melvin favoring Rangers re-treads. Here are the lucky twenty-nine, with those who reached the majors for Milwaukee in bold:

Name	Position	Years with Rangers	Years with Brewers
Justin Backsmeyer	RHP	1998-2001	2003
Jason Bourgeois	2B/OF	2000-2004	2009
Royce Clayton	SS	1998-2000	2003
Jason Conti*	OF	1998	2003
Francisco Cordero	RHP	2000-2006	2006-2007
Tim Crabtree	RHP	1998-2001	2003
Doug Davis	LHP	1996-2003	2003-2006
R.A. Dickey	RHP	1996-2006	2007
Richie Gardner	RHP	2001 draft, did not sign	2008
Rick Helling	RHP	1992-2001	2005-2006
Gabe Kapler	OF	2000-2002	2008
Dan Kolb	RHP	1995-2002	2003-2004, 2006
Mike Lamb	3B	1997-2003	2008
Chris Magruder	OF	2001	2004-2005
David Manning	LHP	1992-1998	2003
Ruben Mateo	OF	1994-2001	2007
Kevin Mench	OF	1999-2006	2006-2007
Chris Michalak*	LHP	1998, 2001-2002	2004
Warren Morris	RHP	1996-1998	2005
Laynce Nix	OF	2000-2006	2006-2008
Scott Podsednik	OF	1994-1995, 1998-2000	2003-2004
Andy Pratt	LHP	1998-2001	2004-2006
Erasmo Ramirez	LHP	2001-2006	2008
Reggie Rivard	RHP	2000-2003	2004
Julio Santana	RHP	1990-1998	2005
Scott Sheldon	IF	1998-2001	2004
Junior Spivey*	2B	1998	2004-2005
Keith Stamler	RHP	2000-2005	2005
Lee Stevens	1B	1996-1999	2003
Justin Thompson	LHP	2000-2005	2006

* - Conti, Michalak, and Spivey spent 1998 playing for the Rangers' AA affiliate even though they were Diamondbacks prospects. Arizona, as an expansion team, did not have an AA affiliate that season.

Okay, so maybe Conti and Spivey shouldn't count because they weren't ever truly Rangers farmhands despite spending a season with the Texas staff. Ditto for Gardner since Melvin probably only got a cursory report on him after the draft. Still, though, it's quite a list of Melvin-era Rangers turned Brewers.

For those interested in how Melvin acquired these guys while in Texas, here's the breakdown:

Thirteen of the players listed were drafted or signed their first contract while Melvin was the Rangers GM.
Seven (Clayton, Cordero, Crabtree, Kapler, Magruder, Ramirez, and Thompson) were acquired via trade.
Four (Helling, Manning, Podsednik, and Santana) were already with the Rangers when he took over.
As mentioned, Conti and Spivey were really Arizona prospects who were loaned to the Rangers system.
Scott Sheldon and Lee Stevens were signed as free agents.
Chris Michalak was a waiver claim.

Since drafting players from your previous organization isn't possible, naturally you begin to focus more on other ways to acquire them. Here's how Doug Melvin acquired his ex-Rangers as Brewers GM:

A full nineteen of the twenty-nine players were signed as free agents.
Six (Conti, Cordero, Mench, Nix, Pratt, and Spivey) were picked up through trades.
Richie Gardner, Mike Lamb, and Scott Podsednik were waiver claims.
David Manning was a Rule 5 pick in 2003.

So there you have it. Over ten percent (15 of 144) of the players to appear in the majors with Milwaukee since 2003 spent time under Melvin in Texas. Jason Bourgeois will attempt to continue the tradition next year. Looking at the list of minor league free agents, I get the feeling he won't be alone...