October 28th, 1903 is a day that will not soon be forgotten by fans of the New York Highlanders and the Philadelphia Athletics. That would be the day that New York dealt 3-time All-Star and 1901 Walter Johnson Award winner SP Cliff P Lee to the Athletics for 2-time All-Star, 2-time Brooks Robinson Award winner, 1-time Ted Williams Award winner 1B Steve Garvey. That takes some brass ones right there. Holy moley!!!
Lee is heading into his age 34 season, while Garvey is just hitting his prime, going into his age 27 season. Oof! I was scanning the transactions log looking for various and sundry things when I came across that doozy.
Geez! I think the Highlanders won this one because of how much younger they got, but can their pitching staff take the hit? Scott T Baker moves up to the #1 spot and behind him are Earl Francis, Bucky Walters, Jim Barr, and Allan Anderson. The two through six spots in their lineup are looking quite murderous now. Dustin Pedroia, Steve Garvey, Minnie Minoso, Joe Lefebvre, and Dayan Viciedo. They definitely needed a boost in offense, as they scored 675 runs in 1903, second last only to the Chicago White Sox, who were quite abysmal. With SP Todd Ritchie, and the recently drafted SP Chris Short in the fold, they may have enough depth to get through the grind of 162, and they certainly addressed a need as Scott Livingstone was their primary 1B last year.
As for the Athletics, they gave up 1,036 runs last year and still managed to finish 71-91 thanks to the best offense in baseball (858 runs). This is a team that desperately, desperately, desparately needed pitching and they got some with Lee. I have no earthly clue who they're gonna play at 1B, but they do have some pretty good internal options on the team. They could move Boog Powell, or Ed Delahanty from corner OF spots to cover it off and go with an OF that features Powell or Delahanty to go with Jim Fridley, recent ROY Ben Chapman, and Mark Whiten. Certainly their depth took a hit, but they may be able to cover this off after all. What. A. Trade.
