Hard to believe this really happened. The Florida Marlins and Detroit Tigers have agreed in principle on a trade that will send Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to Detroit for key prospects, sources told ESPN's Peter Gammons on Tuesday. The Tigers would send outfielder Cameron Maybin, pitcher Andrew Miller, catcher Mike Rabelo and minor league pitchers Eulogio De La Cruz, Dallas Trahern and Burke Badenhop to the Marlins. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3141703
Look back at how highly some of those kids from Detroit were thought of at the time though. Prospects...there's a lesson in there somewhere. But yeah, it was the Marlins shedding money and doing Marlin/Loria things. Selling Babe Ruth will never be topped. Ever.
Just goes to show that prospects, even the high end ones, are still a crap shoot. Maybin and Miller were supposed to be studs.
Keep in mind with that trade, Maybin was considered a 5 tool prospect and Miller was thought to have Verlander type stuff. Here in Detroit the trade was not fully supported as people were split on if the Tigers gave up too much. In addition to Maybin's and Miller's talent, they were also on the cusp of being full time MLB'ers at the time so it wasn't like there was a 3 year wait. Looking back now its absurd because Cabrerra is the best hitter in baseball and Maybin and Miller are at best average MLB'ers, but when it went down it wasn't quite as one sided.
No one thought it was lopsided at the time of the trade. Cabrera was seen as an all star hitter and nothing more. No one knew he would elevate himself to being an all-timer.
Damage Date Trade -38 wins Nov. 29, 1971 traded Joe Morgan to the Reds -31 wins Dec. 28, 1994 traded Ken Caminiti and Steve Finley to the Padres -24 wins Dec. 10, 1991 traded Kenny Lofton to the Indians -24 wins Jan. 22, 1969 traded Rusty Staub to the Expos -17 wins Apr. 2, 1992 traded Curt Schilling to the Phillies -10 wins Dec. 4, 1968 traded Mike Cuellar to the Orioles -10 wins Dec. 2, 1971 traded John Mayberry to the Royals
Not true. He had one of the best first 5 years of any player in baseball history... especially when you consider he made his debut at 20. If people thought he had already "peaked" by age 24... well, they all likely got fired from the job they were doing at the time.
Yeah, guy was in early 20's hitting .300 with 30 homers at third base. That's way more than just an all-star. As I recall, the Marlins just didnt want to pay him.
At the time, that was an All-star. Numbers in general were a lot higher back then. In 2007 (when he had 33 HRs), there were 5 guys over 40 HRs, 7 above 1.000 OPS, etc. He was around the 10th best player in the league - though he was certainly young. No one really used WAR at the time, but he wasn't even in the top 70 in WAR. In 2006, his 26 HRs didn't have him in the top 40 in the majors. However his OPS was still #9 and his WAR was much better (top 15). In 2005, he was #17 in HRs, #13 in OPS, #18 in WAR. Those are great numbers, especially since he was young. But it's not all-time-great type numbers like a Mike Trout or A-Rod had in their first few years - that's the level of what he is now, though. And there were concerns about his conditioning and work ethic.
Not really a fair comparison because ARod is a known PED crook but they're more in the same ballpark offensively in those seasons than you've insinuated. ARod 22 years old - .919 OPS 23 years old - .943 OPS 24 years old - 1.026 OPS Cabrera 22 years old - .947 OPS 23 years old - .998 OPS 24 years old - .965 OPS Also, the guys in 2007 that you've referenced include ARod, Ryan Howard, Jim Thome, David Ortiz. All guys in their primes who were pretty good themselves.
The deal seemed slightly bad at the time just because it's hard to get fair value for a young, established, team-controlled stud like Cabrera. But, as others have mentioned, Maybin and Miller were big-time prospects at the time. Maybin was the #6 prospect in baseball and Miller, who had just exhausted his rookie eligiblity, was the #10 overall prospect the year before the trade. Both were former first round picks. It just looks worse in retrospect cause Miller busted and Maybin was traded and hasn't quite lived up to expectations. It you want present day comparisons it would be like if the Astros traded Correa and Appel for Giancarlo Stanton. Doesn't seem on its face that unfair.
