I’m still furious Dana didn’t do everything possible to get Brett “the Walrus” Wallace back at 1B this off-season. That guy is a sure thing!
A little revisionist, no?… Biggio was fast-tracked and was quickly moved away from C as soon as his hitting and speed played up. Berkman was a sound pick. Went to 17th because the 97 draft was fairly stacked and he was out of college (and not a pitcher). Bagwell made a huge leap that year…. But only seen as a sign of things to come in hindsight. Of course we’re talking about guys who were still expected to make the big league one day…. Altuve/Yordan were barely considered for that option, let alone being stalwarts for a dynasty.
Biggio was a little above average hitting catcher who could never stay at catcher because he was not MLB quality there, but he had speed. His offense exploded a couple of years after he moved to 2B. That was never a sure thing, either the hitting or the fielding.
agreed. He became a HOF player with that move (never expected). But just to clarify… he was always expected to be a MLB player, which was my original point. Altuve barely was allowed to tryout. Yordan wasn’t expected to make it off the island… also didn’t know what a trade was apparently (till he was traded, lol).
Sort of almost correct: The Dodgers needed help with their bullpen and asked about Fields, a reliever who was putting up good numbers in AAA, but had struggled with the big league club, posting a 6.89 ERA in 15 appearances. Then president of baseball operations, Jeff Luhnow, asked for "Y. Alvarez" in return. LA initially shot down the deal, believing Houston was asking for Yadier Alvarez, a pitcher they had just signed out of Cuba for $16 million. Luhnow instead wanted the little known first basemen who had just signed out of Cuba for $2 million a month prior. ------------------ Jeff Luhnow, the Astros’ president of baseball operations at the time, sent a text to Farhan Zaidi, then the Dodgers’ general manager, asking whether “Y. Alvarez” was on the table, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. Zaidi thought Luhnow meant Yadier Álvarez, a pitcher from Cuba they had signed for $16 million less than a year earlier. The reply was a resounding no. But Luhnow was asking about Yordan, not Yadier. via Crawfish Boxes & LA Times
https://www.latimes.com/sports/dodg...-signings-mistakes-astros-20190706-story.html Luhnow had been haggling with several clubs over the return for Astros reliever Josh Fields, a pitcher teams coveted despite his near 7.00 earned-run average. The Dodgers had already rejected requests for “several players” in return and the two sides stood at “an impasse,” Luhnow said. Then Luhnow recalled a prospect who had entranced one of his scouts that year. So he asked about Alvarez. The answer from Zaidi was swift: No, the Dodgers would not trade Yadier Alvarez. The misunderstanding adds a punchline to what may become one of the most lopsided trades in recent baseball memory because Luhnow was not trying to acquire Yadier Alvarez, a Cuban pitcher signed by the Dodgers for $16 million in 2015 who has a 14.73 ERA in the minors in 2019. He sought Yordan Alvarez, a lightly touted, teenage position player with questionable power, a relative unknown who has developed into one of the sport’s most promising young sluggers and a fixture in Houston’s lineup. Alvarez, now 22, had been signed by the Dodgers less than two months before Luhnow asked about him. He had yet to play a game in the Dodgers organization. He never would. The Dodgers agreed to trade him for Fields. They have watched from afar as Alvarez has blossomed into a 6-foot-5, 225-pound force. Fields was cut by the Dodgers this spring after 2 1/2 seasons. “Looking back on it now,” Friedman said recently with a rueful smile earlier, “we obviously wish we would have said yes to other names they asked for before him. It’s pretty special watching what he’s doing in the batter’s box.”
Yes, it gets confabulated into how the dodgers got confused and may have sent the wrong Alvarez. they knew who they were giving up… there’s also the theory that this was all pre-arranged as the Astros had reached their limit and couldn’t sign him outright, thus the dodgers agreed to sign him to be traded later. (highly against the rules for both sides if true).
