The Dog Days of MacPhail

Hi all, thought I'd revive this blog with this post. I've done a little research courtsey of Baseball-Reference.com and have come up with all the trades that were made while Andy MacPhail was the GM of the Twins, Cubs and Orioles. I've also listed the record, place and how many games back they were in the division and WC race (post 1993). So here you go:

MacPhail’s July and August Deals

1985 (1)
August 1, 1985 (46-53, 6th place, 10 G back)
Traded a player to be named later, Curt Wardle, Jay Bell, and Jim Weaver to the Cleveland Indians. Received Bert Blyleven. The Minnesota Twins sent Rich Yett (September 17, 1985) to the Cleveland Indians to complete the trade.

1986 (1)
August 13, 1986 (50-64, 6th place, 12 G back)
Traded Ron Davis and Dewayne Coleman (minors) to the Chicago Cubs. Received George Frazier, Ray Fontenot, and Julius McDougal (minors).

1987 (1)
July 31, 1987 (56-48, 1st place, 0 G back)
Traded a player to be named later to the Cleveland Indians. Received Steve Carlton. The Minnesota Twins sent Jeff Perry (minors) (August 18, 1987) to the Cleveland Indians to complete the trade.

1988 (2)
August 16, 1988 (67-51, 2nd place, 8 G back)
Traded Karl Best to the San Francisco Giants. Received Alan Cockrell.

August 29, 1988 (73-57, 2nd place, 8 G back)
Traded a player to be named later to the Baltimore Orioles. Received Jim Dwyer. The Minnesota Twins sent Doug Kline (minors) (August 31, 1988) to the Baltimore Orioles to complete the trade.

1989 (3)
July 31, 1989 (51-53, 5th place, 12 G back)
Traded Frank Viola to the New York Mets. Received a player to be named later, Rick Aguilera, David West, Kevin Tapani, and Tim Drummond. The New York Mets sent Jack Savage (October 16, 1989) to the Minnesota Twins to complete the trade.

August 1, 1989 (52-53, 5th place, 11.5 G back)
Sold Manny Hernandez to the New York Mets.

August 28, 1989 (66-64, 5th place, 13 G back)
Traded Jim Dwyer to the Montreal Expos. Received a player to be named later. The Montreal Expos sent Alonzo Powell (September 16, 1989) to the Minnesota Twins to complete the trade.

1990 (1)
July 27, 1990 (47-52, 6th place, 15 G back)
Traded John Candelaria to the Toronto Blue Jays. Received Nelson Liriano and Pedro Munoz.

1991 (0)
No trades

1992 (1)
August 31, 1992 (73-59, 2nd place, 6.5 G back)
Traded Bill Krueger to the Montreal Expos. Received Darren Reed.

1993 (3)
August 10, 1993 (47-62, 6th place, 13.5 G back)
Traded Steve Ontiveros to the Seattle Mariners. Received Greg Shockey (minors).

August 15, 1993 (52-63, 6th place, 11 G back)
Traded Mike Pagliarulo to the Baltimore Orioles. Received a player to be named later. The Baltimore Orioles sent Erik Schullstrom (August 16, 1993) to the Minnesota Twins to complete the trade.

August 28, 1993 (55-73, 6th place, 16 G back)
Traded Jim Deshaies to the San Francisco Giants. Received a player to be named later, Aaron Fultz, and Andres Duncan (minors). The San Francisco Giants sent Greg Brummett (September 1, 1993) to the Minnesota Twins to complete the trade.

2000 (6)
July 21, 2000 (43-54, 3rd place, D 13.5 G back, WC 17 G back)
Traded Glenallen Hill to the New York Yankees. Received Ben Ford and Oswaldo Mairena.

July 26, 2000 (45-54, 3rd place, D 11.5 G back, WC 16 G back)
Traded Ismael Valdez to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Received Jamie Arnold, Jorge Piedra, and cash.

July 28, 2000 (46-55, 3rd place, D 10.5 G back, WC 16 G back)
Traded Chris Hatcher, Mike Heathcott, and Brett King (minors) to the Anaheim Angels. Received Brett Hinchliffe and Keith Luuloa.

July 31, 2000 (49-55, 3rd place, D 8.5 G back, WC 15.5 G back)
Traded Scott Downs to the Montreal Expos. Received Rondell White.

Traded Henry Rodriguez to the Florida Marlins. Received Ross Gload and Dave Noyce (minors).

August 23, 2000 (55-70, 3rd place, D 14.5 G back, WC 21.5 G back)
Sent Alan Zinter to the Arizona Diamondbacks as part of a conditional deal.

2001 (3)
July 20, 2001 (55-40, 1st place, D 0 G back, WC 0 G back)
Traded Chris Booker and Ben Shaffar (minors) to the Cincinnati Reds. Received Michael Tucker.

July 27, 2001 (60-42, 1st place, D 0 G back, WC 0 G back)
Traded a player to be named later and Manuel Aybar to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Received Fred McGriff. The Chicago Cubs sent Jason Smith (August 6, 2001) to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays to complete the trade.

July 30, 2001 (61-43, 1st place, D 0 G back, WC 0 G back)
Traded Ruben Quevedo and Pete Zoccolillo to the Milwaukee Brewers. Received Dave Weathers and Roberto Miniel (minors).

2007 (2)
August 9, 2007 (48-68, 4th place, D 21.5 G back, WC 35.5 G back)
Traded John Parrish to the Seattle Mariners. Received Sebastien Boucher (minors).

August 31, 2007 (55-79, 4th place, D 23.5 G back, WC 40.5 G back)
Traded Steve Trachsel to the Chicago Cubs. Received Rocky Cherry, Scott Moore and Jake Renshaw.


So what can we learn from this history. Well first lets tally up the trades for each month:

July: 11 , August 13

That looks pretty even but now let's take a closer look. In 2000 and 2001 that accounts for 8 of the July deals that MacPhail has made. 2000 seemed like a firesale similar to that of the Orioles where MacPhail did not get premium talent back for the talent he shipped away. In 2001 the Cubs were buyers as they added Michael Tucker, Fred McGriff and David Weathers. In most of the trades that were done in August the teams that MacPhail was running were all out of the race by a substantial margin and with the exception of the Viola trade in 1989 and the firesale of 2000, MacPhail seems to like August the most as the month to wheel and deal.

I'd expect no different in 2008. My prediction: 1 July trade and 2-3 August trades.