While the Tigers have made a lot of big trades in their day (Rocky Colavito for Harvey Kuenn probably being the biggest), probably the one that rankles the fur of Tiger fans the most in the last 20 years is the deal that sent John Smoltz to the Braves for Doyle Alexander. I still contend the Tigers made the right move at the time, but when it comes to the long term implications of the trade, there’s little to haggle about.
In an interesting prospect retro, John Sickels takes a look at John Smoltz’ minor league career (mostly with the Tigers) in a prospect retro. Nice write up and a nice blast from the past.
People who say that Smoltz shouldn’t have been traded probably aren’t aware of what his stats were like in the Tigers system. Not very good, as the article reminds us.
The fact that he got into an organization that was able to develop some pitching really helped him. Had he stayed in Detroit, he might have just ended up as another Kurt Knudsen.
--Posted by ozz on March 12th, 2007 at 3:24 pm