Can't believe no one had mentioned that before. You're right! In my defense, McGwire didn't lead either the NL or AL in home runs that year since he was traded halfway through. Incredibly short-sited of the A's to trade McGwire. At that point in his career he was almost a lock to break Roger Maris's record as long as he could stay healthy.
I believe the A's traded him thinking his trade value was at its highest because his injury history showed he could always break down and he was 33 years old.
Of course, the A's have always had a shoestring budget and he was due for a raise from his $7,000,000 and the A's owners ordered Sandy Alderson to slash payroll
But the return was terrible. So Alderson moved to the MLB headquarters and his protege, Billy Beane took over.
The Mark McGwire and Jeff Bagwell trades illustrate the two sides of trading for prospects. The players the Cardinals traded to the Athletics did not develop into useful major leaguers. The Astros traded Larry Andersen to the Red Sox, and got a Hall of Famer in return. Jeff Bagwell had not played above Class A when he went to Houston.
Although they'd like a do-over, the Red Sox got exactly what they wanted in the Bagwell trade.....until the ALCS. They needed to shore up their bullpen and Larry Andersen was outstanding the rest of the season.
22 innings in 15 games, a WHIP of 0.955, an ERA+ of 338.
They had a terrible September, but Andersen helped salvage the AL East.
However, he coughed it up in the ALCS against the A's Bash Brothers.
Amazing how obscure the War era (1943-45) players are. 6 all star game appearances and only one top 10 finish in the MVP voting outside of the the time period.
Andruw Jones is from Curacao, so the spelling of his name might owe to some Dutch origin (or maybe some other language in Curacao of which I'm unaware). There was also a player active until a few years ago named Jhonny (not a misspelling) Peralta.
Khris Davis is also interesting in that he batted .247 four years in a row. He might be the only player ever to have the same batting average four years in a row with so many at bats.
Of course, the A's have always had a shoestring budget and he was due for a raise from his $7,000,000 and the A's owners ordered Sandy Alderson to slash payroll
But the return was terrible. So Alderson moved to the MLB headquarters and his protege, Billy Beane took over.
22 innings in 15 games, a WHIP of 0.955, an ERA+ of 338.
They had a terrible September, but Andersen helped salvage the AL East.
However, he coughed it up in the ALCS against the A's Bash Brothers.