| 02 February 2012
Over at Corey Brock’s blog, there is a new post in which he was chit chatting with Padres General Manager Kevin Towers yesterday and somehow the subject of, there almost was a deal for Mark McGwire, came up (McGwire was almost a Padre). Oh how I hate you Corey…now I must browse transactions, rosters & box scores from the wonderful years of 1995-1996 in which players such as Archi Cianfrocco, Andujar Cedeno & Jody Reed were roaming our fields, to see who might have been involved in that deal between KT and then Oakland A's General Manager Sandy Alderson. Thanks a lot. Anyways onto the research….
Towers was hired as GM of the Padres on November 17th, 1995. Less than 2 months on the job could be anytime around early January to January 16th 1996 but considering KT acquired first baseman Wally Joyner on December 21st, 1995, then the offer for McGwire had to have happened before then. So I’m gonna set my range at early December to December 20th, 1995….or basically a month on the job.
Here are all the players who were on our roster in 1995 and were not with us in 1996
Pitchers
Andy Benes——-Traded to Mariners July 31st, 1995
Donnie Elliot——Released October 12th, 1995
Bill Krueger——-Released May 16th, 1995
Tim Mauser——-Granted Free Agency October 16th, 1995
Jeff Tabaka——-Traded to Astros July 19th, 1995
Brian Williams—-Granted Free Agency December 21st, 1995
Infielders
Ray Holbert——-Traded to the Astros October 10th, 1995
Tim Hyers———Traded to the Tigers November 14th, 1995
Roberto Petagine–Traded to the Mets March 17th, 1996
Eddie Williams—–Granted Free Agency December 21st, 1995
Outfielders
Billy Bean———-Granted Free Agency October 16th, 1995
Phil Clark———-Released November 13th, 1995
Ray McDavid——Claimed on Waivers December 21st, 1995
Melvin Nieves—–Traded March 22nd, 1996
Phil Plantier——-Released November 20th, 1995
Bip Roberts——-Traded December 21st, 1995
Petagine, Nieves & Roberts were obviously all available for trade around that time. So let’s look at the A’s needs before we include some of these players in the deal. Also being that McGwire wasn't traded until 1997, the actual trade will have no merit on this post at all.
The A’s almost completely restructured their major league team in 1996 going young and letting 23 out of the 44 players that played for them in 1995 go (via FA, trade, release, waivers, etc.) with the majority being the pitching. At the time they still had Dennis Eckersley as their closer but he was traded to Cardinals on 2/13/96, so it seems as if he was already on his way out. Trevor Hoffman had already racked up 56 saves at the Major League level though, so I highly doubt he would have been included in any deal. My guess is the A's would have went younger. The Padres Minor League leaders were Todd Schmitt, who got rocked in AAA, 3 low level guys, who were nowhere near Major League ready and then Dustin Hermanson, a 22 year old top prospect who had already spent a little time in the majors. That is unless Sandy was taking crazy pills and was going to roll with Billy Taylor at closer all along, despite being 34, never having any Major League closing experiance and coming off injury (Taylor would go on to Save 100 games in the next 4 seasons with Oakland-crazy like a fox indeed). It seemed like the rest of the A’s bullpen was pretty set though with the exception of adding Aaron Small (via waivers 1/29/96) & acquiring Steve Montgomery (via trade 2/13/96) and Jay Witasick (via trade 1/9/96). So it’s possible 1 other reliever may have been included in the deal. My guess would be 25 year old Bryce Florie. He was coming off a solid season and was actually dealt during the season in ’96, so we know he wasn’t untouchable. Also when you have a staff that consists of Doug Johns, Ariel Prieto, John Wasdin, Don Wengert & Steve Wojciechowski, I tend to believe he may have wanted some starters in return as well. At the time we had a staff that consisted of Andy Ashby, Joey Hamilton, Scott Sanders, Fernando Valenzuela & Glenn Dishman. I pretty sure Sandy didn’t want Dishman and his over 5 ERA, nor did he want the ageless wonder known only as Fernando…so that leaves Ashby, Hamilton & Sanders to choose from.
Andy Ashby (Age 28 in ’95) 357 IP / 18-21 / 3.15 ERA / 6 CG / 271 K / 105 BB
Joey Hamilton (Age 25 in ’95) 313 IP / 15-15 / 3.05 ERA / 3 CG / 184 K / 85 BB
Scott Sanders (Age 26 in ’95) 201 IP / 9-13 / 4.57 ERA / 1 CG / 197 K / 79 BB
*Stats are the ’94 & ’95 seasons (previous 2) combined*
I personally wouldn’t have minded taking a shot on any of those 3 if I was Sandy back then. All were fairly young. All had fairly good control (k/bb of 2.58/2.16/2.49 respectively). Including 1 or possibly 2 (Sanders & Hamilton? or Sanders and Ashby?) in the deal is possible, but I would guess we’d only be willing to part with 1 starter if 4 other players were involved in the deal.
Now onto the field. With the signings of Rafael Bournigal & Torey Lovullo shortly after this proposed deal it was apparent that they needed depth in the INF. Obviously we know the Bipster was available via trade which leads me to believe he was also a part of the deal. The other weak point for the A’s was their OF. Marc Newfield was only 23 and coming off a pretty solid season in limited time. Plus he was dealt the following season for Greg Vaughn so he was available. Or the ever popular Nieves was a possibility as well. I also doubt they'd want top first base prospect Derek Lee in return because they had their own top prospect in Steve Cox there. They were close in age, close in level and close in stats overall. So here are my choices….without spending tooooo much time (IE: All the Minors) doing research on a trade that never happened.
1. Bip Roberts – they needed depth at 2B, SS & the OF and he was available via trade
2. Marc Newfield – they needed help in the OF, he was 23 and coming off a season in which he hit .309 with a .333 OBP & seemed to handle big league pitching better than Nieves
3. Scott Sanders – they badly needed starting pitching and he was 26 and coming off an OK year
4. Bryce Florie – he was dealt mid-season in ’96 and was coming off a solid season
5. Dustin Hermanson – the A's closer of the future
6. Joey Hamilton – he was possibly the player who killed the deal…1 of the young starters was OK but not 2….or it could have been flip flopped with Joey going and Scotty Sanders being the 6th guy. The world may never know.
Then again this could have been a KT set up to see if people like me would try to figure it out…..oh well.
(Originally Posted on January 25th, 2008)
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