Episode II - Attack of the Bad GMs...

Hello all!! I've been locked away for quite awhile, I'm surprised I am still listed as "Contributor" on the Blog and not "Deadbeat". I figured if another week went by DZ would put my face on a milk carton. Sorry for the delay, its been hectic here...you know rehabbing my ankle and all...

Without further ado I'd like to start the list of worst trades and signings evah by "my" teams. Again, I am going with the original rules of keeping things within the last 25 years or so.

• Red Sox -
  
• Trade: Larry Andersen for Jeff Bagwell. Even though Andersen pitched well for the Sox in this 1990 deadline deal, it still was an awful deal. Made worse by the fact that GM Lou Gorman admitted he never saw Bagwell (in AA) play at all and felt that Scott Cooper and Boggs were ahead of Bagwell. One item in defense of Lou (who famously said "What would we do with Willie McGee??" when the Sox failed to put a waiver claim on him in an August deal where McGee was dealt) was that he felt Bagwell would not be a power hitter and Bagwell never hit double digit HRs early on, perhaps he developed that power by some other means??? Sox fans always fret extra over this one because Bagwell was a "native New Englander" being a Connecticut guy and growing up dreaming of playing for the Sox. Plus, its one thing to give up prospects for difference makers, but a 38 year old middle reliever? Yeesh.
  
• Free Agent: Matt Young. Although there are so many options here Young takes the cake. I think he had a $4 million contract and got like 3 Red Sox wins. Other options were Jack Clark (one good year, then basically became a corpse and filed for Bankruptcy), Jose Offerman (one good year, then became fat and terrible), BK Kim (re-signed him but still) 10 mil over 2 years.
• Draft: None of the names will mean much but look at any of the Gorman drafts post 1992, or any of the Duquette drafts (as well as unsuccesful forays into International Waters - Robinson Cano, Sang Lee, etc getting multi-million dollar deals)
• Pats
• Draft - Any of the players taken by the pre-BB GM. They had all those extra picks from the Parcells and Curtis Martin "defections", yet they did nothing with them. Not only did the guys selected during that era not contributing, something like 75% were *out of the league* within three years. You would almost have to try to select that poorly. Before this entire era of futility it would be OG Eugene Chung, who was a disaster from the start.
• Trade - Football trades are so tough to recall since they usually involve draft picks.
  
• Free Agent - Donald Hayes and Antonio Langham were both exceptionally awful as Patriots. I guess Hayes gets the nod since he was decent before arriving whereas Langham was bad before arriving, but was still starting since that 2000 team was crappy.
• Celts
• Draft - Well, Len Bias turned out the worst no doubt. They were really counting on him to add needed youth and athleticism to that championship team. However, one could argue they would have been better off if Acie Earl just died after they drafted him as he made almost no impact anyway. Close calls were the trio of bad choices Kedrick Brown, Joe Johnson and Joe Forte. Johnson eventually came into his own although everyone looks better playing next to Nash. Forte is out of the league and Brown should be enjoying the NBDL very soon.
• Free Agent - Pretty much anyone signed by GM ML Carr ("This train is bound for glory!!!!"). Lets see Nique, Pervis Ellison, Dana Barros, etc. But of course Rick Pitino also had some great ones Travis Knight, Vitaly Potopenko to name a few.
  
• Trade - Vin Baker. I mean Vin Freaking Baker!!!!!! The best thing about the Vin Baker trade is that it makes the Kenny Anderson for Chuancy Billups trade look like an excellent deal in comparison. Yes, Baker is STILL on the celtics cap this year :(

Thats a wrap!! I am getting pissed just thinking about Vin Baker again. Fortunately, the Sox are pounding the Royals and the NYY are losing. Crap, Matsui just jacked one and Jeter is doing his best to be an annoying a-hole as always. Damn Yankees.

Last thing, I think the Red Sox are smart to be pulling out their last card in the deck and calling on their rookies to help their pen (Hansen and Papelbon mostly). What do they have to lose? Can they be worse than Remlinger's 18.56 ERA, lets face it the bar is pretty low. Pray Foulke can come back and maybe the two rookies can be enough of a band-aid that Timlin's are doesn't fall off by September.