Trading Samardzija And/Or Hammel, Part 2

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Continuing on from the previous article, this one will look at the deadline deals for starting pitching in 2012.

2012 Trade Deadline Deals

Trade 1 (July 31)

Cubs send:

Ryan Dempster

Rangers send:

Christian Villanueva

Kyle Hendricks

At the time, this deal seemed a bit underwhelming. Villlanueva was on the fringe of being a top 100 guy and Hendricks was a soft tossing pitcher down in A+ ball with good results. However, Hendricks has shown the potential to be a good back of the rotation pitcher and Villanueva has a good chance of contributing in at least a backup role in the majors. Not a great return, but not a bad one in the end. It was a decent deal given the special considerations of the position in which Dempster put the Cubs.

Trade 2 (July 30)

Cubs send:

Reed Johnson

Paul Maholm

Braves send:

Arodys Vizcaino

Jaye Chapman

I think of this deal as Vizcaino for Maholm and Chapman for Reed. At the time of the deal, Vizcaino was a top 30 prospect who was out due to surgery. He is pitching again this year and looks to have his stuff back. It is extremely likely that the Cubs keep him in a back of the bullpen role. In the end, an injury-prone setup man for Maholm is a great deal for the Braves.

Trade 3 (July 28)

Twins send:

Francisco Liriano

White Sox send:

Eduardo Escobar

Pedro Hernandez

At the time of the trade, Liriano was a disaster on the mound. This was a pure salary dump and see-if-Don-Cooper-can-do-anything-with-him deal. It bears no real relation to the current deals.

Trade 4 (July 27)

Milwaukee sends:

Zack Greinke

Angels send:

Jean Segura

Johnny Hellweg

Ariel Pena

This is an interesting one for Samardzija. Greinke is easily the best pitcher that has been on the market for the past couple years. Brewers GM Doug Melvin reportedly had several deals on the table but chose the one with the least pitching return. Hellweg was the Angels top pitching prospect at the time (according to BA), but lacked the command to ever be anything special. Pena is just a guy. Instead, Melvin chose this deal because of Jean Segura. Segura played like a rising star in 2013 but has struggled this year.

Trade 5 (July 24)

Astros send:

Wandy Rodriguez

Pirates send:

Robbie Grossman

Rudy Owens

Colton Cain

Fun Fact: for a while, Wandy was nearly the highest paid player on both the Astros and Pirates. Wandy did not get a lot of respect the past few years on the mound, even though he was consistently posting mid-rotation results. At the time of the trade, he still had two-plus years of control at a good price (after Houston paid their share). However, Houston had a hard time finding a market for the lefty at the deadline in 2012 and settled on this deal from the Pirates. The prospects coming in return would be solid depth pieces, but nobody that projected to be much more than that. In the end, Pittsburgh did very well to get a year and a half of mid-3's ERA at a good cost.

Trade 6 (July 23)

Miami sends:

Anibal Sanchez

Omar Infante

Supplemental first round

Detroit sends:

Jacob Turner

Rob Brantly

Brian Flynn

Supplemental second round

This is a very tough deal to unravel for a number of reasons. First off, you have multiple major league starters going to Detroit. Then there is the swap of supplemental round picks. There is also Jacob Turner's mismatch of reputation to results. Brantly was viewed as a solid catching prospect and Flynn is a monster of a man (6'8", 240) with pretty solid results in the lower minors at the time of the trade. In the end, even if you can unravel what part of the deal is for Sanchez alone, it is a tough comparison to make to the current situations. Sanchez was younger, had less control than Samardzija, was much healthier than Hammel and was not pitching as well at the time of the trade as either Cub.

That's about it...six trades for starting pitching at the deadline in 2012 and six in 2013. In the next installment I'll take a look at which trades are the most pertinent and what we may be able to learn.