2002 - Bartolo Colon to the Expos for Cliff Lee, Brandon Phillips and Grady Sizemore.

!!!

Is that worse than the Kazmir trade?  His skills are even more questionable than I thought unless I'm missing something...

Jayson Stark (under point #4)

4. Even the right moves can turn out wrong
We've been studying some of the biggest trades made at the deadline over the past half-dozen years -- those trades we all labeled "winners" at the time. What did they accomplish, in retrospect? Not what anybody figured. That's for sure.

Remember last year's blockbusters? Mark Teixeira to the Braves? The Braves were 3½ games out of first when he arrived. They finished five games out. Eric Gagne to the Red Sox? All he delivered was a 6.75 ERA.

Want some others, from previous years? Carlos Lee to Texas in 2006? The Rangers went from 1½ games back to 13 back. Bartolo Colon to the Expos in 2002? They played sub-.500 ball the rest of the season and finished 19 games behind -- and the three prospects traded for him (Cliff Lee, Brandon Phillips and Grady Sizemore) all turned into stars.