Remembering the Time the Giants Almost Traded Will Clark for Don Mattingly

[Tiger Fan]

That title is of an article on The Athletic that I read today and becomes the subject for a quick little dynasty I am going to run.

WILL THE THRILL FOR DONNIE BASEBALL?

In The Athletic there is a great story by writer Grant Brisbee detailing the ripple effects of what might have happened had a rumoured deal before the 1989 season occurred. The trade, originally reported by Peter Gammons in Sports Illustrated confirmed the Yankees and Giants were very close to a deal that would have sent 24 year old Will Clark along with left handed pitchers Atlee Hammaker and Craig Lefferts to the Bronx in exchange for Don Mattingly and pitcher Rick Rhoden. According to the original story by Gammons the deal only fell through because Dave Dravecky had a tumor on his pitching arm. Losing Dravecky had the Giants back off dealing the two lefthanded pitchers.

The Brisbee article, which I won't link because it is behind a subscriber wall (if you don't subscribe to TheAthletic.com I highly recommend you consider it because of great writing like this article), talks about all kinds of possible ripple effects, from saving lives as the timing of the San Francisco earthquake could have made the death toll for commuters much higher had the Giants not been playing a World Series game at that moment, to Barry Bonds maybe never becoming a Giant and Mattingly perhaps being their skipper now.

So I thought why not see what would have happened by creating that very trade prior to a 1989 start in OOTP21. I am using default settings (so 3 year recalc for ratings) and will sim ahead until all parties involved in the deal have retired and then look back at what happened in this alternative scenario.

[Tiger Fan]

THE TRADE

We are just coming off the 1988 World Series - remember Kirk Gibson pumping his arm as he limped around the bases after taking Eck deep - and the Los Angeles Dodgers are defending champions after knocking off the Bash Brothers and the rest of the Oakland Athletics in the Series. The Yankees are coming off a 5th place finish in the AL East, but it isn't really that bad for Yankee fans.

New York was just 3.5 games back of first place Boston in a tight race that had Detroit, Milwaukee and Toronto all right in the mix. Mattingly, who will turn 28 shortly after opening day, slashed .311/.353/.462 in his worst season in each of those categories since becoming a regular in 1984. Mattingly would win his fourth straight Gold Glove in '88 and had a 3.4 WAR - his lowest total in that category as well. Rhoden, who in real life would be off to Houston for the 1989 season, is 35 years old and coming off a 12-12, 4.29 year in which he made 30 starts for the Yankees. His ERA+ was 92.

The Giants finished 1988 with an 83-79 record, good for fourth in the NL West, 11 games back of the Dodgers. Clark, who will turn 25 in spring training, slashed .282/.386/.508 in 1988 and had a 4.9 WAR in making his first all-star game appearance. He is young and controllable with just 3 years of major league service time. The 31 year old Hammaker went 9-9 with a 3.73 ERA and 92 ERA+ in 43 appearances, including 17 starts, last season. Lefferts is also 31 and was 3-8 with 11 saves in 64 relief appearances, posting a 118 ERA+.
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The deal looks very lobsided and that was something The Athletic writer pointed out and he had a hard time justifying the deal from the Giants point of view. In the game, I had to force the trade as the Giants response was "You have to be kidding me."

So the deal is done and we begin the 1989 season.

[Tiger Fan]

SPRING TRAINING 1989

Biggest news occurs just prior to spring training when ex-Toronto Blue Jay 1B Cecil Fielder signs a free agent contract with the Chicago Cubs. Fielder batted just .230 but hit 9 homers in 190 plate appearances in Toronto last season.

The Royals got bad news in learning pitcher Tom Gordon was done for the year with arm troubles. The defending champion Dodgers resigned both Kirk Gibson and catcher Mike Scioscia while also trading 28 year old OF Franklin Stubbs to St Louis in exchange for 30 year old Willie McGee. Finally the Yankees made another deal following the Will Clark trade, acquiring 3B Darnell Coles from Seattle in exchange for P Andy Hawkins and minor league arm Dave Burba.

The preseason predictions are not kind to either of our trade partners. The Red Sox are heavy favourites to repeat as AL champ with the Yankees pegged to finish in 3rd, 11 games back. Clark is tabbed to have a monster year in his new park after a big spring that saw him sock 6 homers and bat .397 in 77 plate appearances. Mattingly did not fare to badly in spring either, batting .311 with 4 homers. The Giants will finish third in the NL 12 games back of Cincinnati with the Dodgers in second place, at least according to the prognosticators.

[Tiger Fan]

MAY 1, 1989

I was going to sim until the all-star break before an update but the Yankees awful start needs to be mentioned. The Bombers beat Minnesota 5-4 on the road on Opening Day but then proceeded to lose 12 of their next 13 and by the end of April were dead last in the entire MLB with a 5-19 record.

It is due to no fault of Clark as he slashed .311/.370/.544 with 5 homers in April. It was the pitching that was awful but Hammaker and Lefferts were both acceptable coming out of the pen.

San Francisco finished April at 11-14, and fourth in the NL with 16-10 San Diego leading the way. Mattingly is off to a slow start .250/.305/.344 while Rhoden is 2-2, 3.75 as the fifth starter.

The big surpise that jumps out at me is Fred Lynn is enjoying a resurgence in Detroit. The 37 year old who was acquired from Baltimore last season, has 9 homers already - tied with the Mets Darryl Strawberry for the MLB lead.

[Tiger Fan]

1989 ALL-STAR BREAK

Quite a turnaround for the Yankees with Will Clark leading the way. After a 5-19 opening month, New York went 37-28 up to the break. The Yankees are still in fourth place in the AL East, 12 games back of Boston but it was a nice climb back to respectability.

Will Clark is tearing it up. He is tied for second in homers with 23, one back of Bo Jackson and Clark is the MLB leader in rbi's at the break with 79. New York is also getting decent production from Rickey Henderson (.312/.395/.498 with 44 stolen bases) but the starting pitching, aside from rookie Mark Leiter's (9-1, 1.97) incredible start, is very bad. Hammaker and Lefferts remain in the pen and doing okay.

In San Francisco it is looking more and more unlikely the Giants will not be in the World Series this year like they were in real life. At 40-47 they sit in the NL West basement, 13.5 games back of the Dodgers. Mattingly does not seem to be adapting to the NL well, slashing .255/.295/.405 with a 0.6 WAR at the break and will miss the all-star game for the first time since 1983. Rick Rhoden (5-6, 4.89) is now on the DL but will be back right after the break, but it appears he has lost his spot in the rotation and will work out of the San Francisco pen when he returns.

[Tiger Fan]

Pretty entertaining all-star game as the NL Stars prevail 4-3 in 10 innings as Eck has another tough day. Pitching the 10th, the Oakland closer allowed a lead-off single to Roberto Alomar and then after getting Benito Santiago to pop out to second, Eck uncorked a wild pitch allowing Alomar to scamper to second base. Mark Grace was intentionally walked to face Barry Larkin. On the first pitch to Larkin, Alomar stole third and then scored what would be the winning run when he beat the tag on a close play at the plate after Larkin hit a sac fly to Ken Griffey Jr.

Larkin played the whole game and was named MVP. In addition to driving in the winning run with a sac fly, he had 3 hits on the day.

Oh, and not much surprise but Mark McGwire won the homerun derby.

[Tiger Fan]

1989 END OF SEASON

SAN FRANCISCO (REAL LIFE 92-70 Won NL Pennant - SIM 75-87 6th In NL West)
Well, our first big ripple in the time-space continuum as there will be no World Series in San Francisco this year. The Giants finished the real 1989 season 3 games up on San Diego with a 92-70 record before beating the Cubs in the NLCS and then being swept by Oakland in the World Series. This time around San Francisco was dead last in the NL West at 75-87. Hard to believe the loss of Clark alone would make that much of a difference and there were certainly other factors.

However, Mattingly was terrible in San Francisco - slashing just .249/.287/.389 with 19 homers and 92 rbi's but just a 0.4 WAR. In comparison the real-life Will Clark slashed .333/.407/.546 with 23 homers, 111 rbi's and an 8.6 WAR.

Kevin Mitchell still had a good year in the sim (.299/.367 and an NL leading .536 slugging percentage with 32 homers and 109 rbi's but his 4.6 sim WAR was 2.3 lower then real life. The sim Giants did add Ivan Calderon (.365/.324/.430) but the 27 year old's numbers were better before the trade from the White Sox than they were after the July deal.

Rick Rhoden was 8-12 with a 4.85 ERA and a 79 ERA+ primarily as a starter. He lost his job in the rotation in mid-season but got it back when 40 year old Rick Reuschel suffered a season, and possibly career, ending back injury in July. The real life Reuschel was a huge piece for the '89 Giants, going 17-8 with a 2.94 era while our sim version was just 4-10, 4.49 before being shut down for the year.

I won't change things in this replay, but without the 1989 Pennant could that have been the tipping point to send the Giants to Tampa in 1992?


NEW YORK YANKEES (REAL LIFE 74-87 5th In AL East - SIM 75-87 4th in AL East)
In just looking at 1989 the trade really had no effect on the Yankees but you have to think they are much better positioned going forward with a 26 year old Will Clark coming off a career year then they would have been with an apparently fading Don Mattingly. Clark slashed .287/.378/.527 with 38 homers and 133 rbi's, placing him second in the AL in each of those final two categories.

Sim 1989 had more of an impact on the Boston Red Sox as this replay saw Boston finish 4 games ahead of second place Toronto (the real-life 1989 division winner). The Red Sox got a career year in this sim out of Nick Esasky (.288/.359/.521 with 36 homers and an MLB best 153 RBI's. In real-life Esasky was good (.277/.355/.500 30HR 108 RBI) in his first year since leaving Cincinnati but not as good as the sim Esasky season. Roger Clemens (24-9, 2.68) and Wade Boggs (.342/5/101) were also very good this season.

The post-season marked a second straight playoff disappointment for the Oakland A's, who won an AL best 104 games but lost Game Seven of the ALCS to Boston by a 3-2 score.

The Mets dominated the NL during the regular season in this sim thanks to a rotation of David Cone (22-8, 2.35), Dwight Gooden (15-11, 2.77), Sid Fernandez (20-9, 2.12), Bob Ojeda (15-10, 3.22) and Ron Darling (13-7, 3.89). The defending champion Dodgers were not match for the Mets in the NLCS and we had a repeat of 1986 with a Mets-Red Sox World Series.

1989 WORLD SERIES

Clemens would out pitch David Cone in Game 1 as an Ellis Burks homer helped propel the Red Sox to a 6-2 win at Fenway.

Oil Can Boyd got rocked in Game 2 as the Mets evened the series with a 10-0 victory. Kevin Elster, Howard Johnson and Kevin McReynolds all went deep for the visitors while Doc Gooden tossed a complete game 2-hitter.

With Boddicker and Fernandez on the hill a pitching duel was figured a good possibility for Game Three but this one was anything but. Boston scored 4 runs in the top of the first but by the bottom of the second inning trailed 6-4. In the end a 9th inning two-run double off the bat of Kevin Romine gave Boston a 9-8 victory.

Dave Magaden had 3 hits, an rbi and a run scored as the Mets evened the Series once again with a 4-1 victory in Game Four behind 7 strong innings from ex-Red Sox Bob Ojeda.

Boston staked Clemens to an early 3-0 lead in Game Five but the Mets tied the game in the 5th with a Magadan rbi triple and a Tom O'Malley two run homer. Mets catcher Mackey Sasser was the hero with a 3-hit game including the game winning rbi on an 8th inning single to make a winner of David Cone. The 4-3 score put the Mets ahead in the series for the first time, leading 3 games to two.

Dwight Gooden was not great, but did enough to win his second game of the series, pitching the Mets to an 11-7 victory and their second World Series win over Boston in 4 years. Gregg Jefferies had 5 hits and 5 rbi's in the game.

[Tiger Fan]

OFF-SEASON WINTER 1989-90

DECEMBER 1989
A busy winter of free agent signing with the Twins and the Angels looking to be the most improved. Minnesota adds Bruce Hurst, who was 21-8 in his one season in San Diego while the Angels lure Jack Clark and Tony Gwynn away from San Diego, convince Alan Trammell to leave Detroit for his native Southern California and with the addition of Clark the Angels are able to deal 1B Wally Joyner to Houston for pitcher Mike Scott. The Padres are decimated by free agency with the only notable newcomer to San Diego so far being 3B Brook Jacoby, acquired in a trade with Cleveland.

As for the Yankees and Giants. Well, New York loses Rickey Henderson, Catcher Don Slaught and 2B Steve Sax to free agency. Atlee Hammaker is also gone but none of those players will be greatly missed because the Yankees added Darryl Strawberry from the Mets, Ozzie Smith from the Cards and ex-Pirates pitcher Bob Walk in free agency.

No additions for the Giants but a few subtractions with veteran closer Rich Gossage retiring, Rick Rhoden, Ivan Calderon, Candy Maldanado and Jose Uribe all filing for free agency. Only the Padres took a bigger hit in WAR over this off-season than the Giants.

THE DRAFT
Oh boy. This might go down as one of the worst draft moves ever. With Chipper Jones, Vinny Castilla, Pedro Martinez and Mike Mussina among plenty of others available the Philadelphia Phillies take OF Matt Mieske first overall. Jones goes second to Detroit with the Tigers hoping he can replace the recently departed Alan Trammell in a few years. Nice draft for Detroit as they also get a reliever by the name of Mariano Rivera with their supplemental pick. Pedro Martinez goes 5th to the Cubs but signing him and Jones may be tricky.

Our two teams first round picks are 18 year old Ray Durham for the Giants at 10th overall while the Yankees get 2B Brian Raabe with the 22nd pick and also add catcher Jayhawk Owens and reliever Darryl Scott as supplemental picks.


JANUARY 1990
The Yankees have officially lost Lefferts and Hammaker as both signed elsewhere as free agents. Lefferts went to Oakland while Hammaker inked a deal with the California Angels. Ex-Giant Rick Rhoden remains unsigned but seems unlikely to return to San Francisco so only the two principals remain from the deal.

By the way, the Yankees also signed Ivan Calderon, who had been dealt at the deadline last season from the White Sox to San Francisco.

HALL OF FAME CLASS
A large group heads to Cooperstown this year with six players (all in their first year on the ballot) getting the call. Johnny Bench and Joe Morgan of the Big Red Machine go in together, along with Carl Yastremski and pitchers Jim Palmer, Gaylord Perry and Fergie Jenkins.

All of the first round draft picks with the exception of #7 Carl Everett (Pit) and #25 Gregg Zaun (OAK) have signed. Both have elected to play college ball and will be eligible for the draft again in 2 years.


SPRING TRAINING
As spring training begins Rhoden signs a minor league deal with Houston.

The Yankees go 19-11 in spring action with Will Clark slashing a torrid .403/.500/.731 with 6 homers in 80 plate appearances.

The Giants are 15-15 behind a big spring from Kevin Mitchell but Mattingly still looks lost at the plate, slashing .222/.271/.444 in 23 spring games.

The preseason predictions have the Yankees second in the AL East with 89 wins, 2 less than Toronto. They are calling for a huge year from both Clark and Darryl Strawberry, who will bat 3-4 in New York.

The Braves are the team to beat in the NL West followed by Cincinnati. San Francisco is pegged to finish third, 6 games back with an 83-79 record. Kevin Mitchell and 24 year old Matt Williams are projected to have strong years but no mention of Mattingly.

[Tiger Fan]

1990

Will Clark continued to pay dividends for the Yankees as he won his first batting title and helped New York stay in contention all season long only to fall just short, finishing in third place in the AL East, three games back of Baltimore. Clark's power numbers went down- just 19 homers after 38 the previous season- but he slashed .332/.403/.503 with a 6.1 WAR and made the All-Star team for the third straight season.

It was another terrible year in San Francisco, with the Giants finishing last in the NL West again while winning just 66 games. Mattingly improved from last season with a slash line of .280/.307/.403 with 11 homers but it was a far cry from the numbers the 29 year old used to put up for the Yankees.

At age 37 Rick Rhoden had a solid season with Houston, going 12-12 with a 3.67 ERA and a 108 ERA+. Craig Lefferts was effective out of the pen for Oakland, heping the A's win yet another AL West. Lefferts was 7-3 with 6 saves and a 145 ERA+ in 60 relief appearances. Atlee Hammaker, on the other hand, had a rough spring for the Angels and spent the entire year in AAA Edmonton where he was 2-11 but did have a 102 ERA+.

[Tiger Fan]

1990 PLAYOFFS

We get a rematch of the 1973 World Series as the defending champion New York Mets face Oakland. The A's survived Baltimore in the ALCS but just barely, winning game seven 6-5 after allowing the Orioles to score 3 runs in the top of the ninth and leave the tying run stranded on third base. Despite 3 homers from Mark McGwire, who hit a major league best 45 during the season, the series MVP went to 25 year old Oakland rookie Felix Jose, who had 12 hits in the series.

No Darryl Strawberry this time around for the Mets but they did not seem to mind in the NLCS, taking Houston in 5 games.

WORLD SERIES

Dwight Gooden improved to 5-3 all-time in post-season (with each of his 3 losses coming in 1986) by pitching the Mets to a 5-3 win in the Series opener at Shea Stadium. Dave Magaden had a pair of hits and 2 rbi's to lead the New York offense.

Despite homers from both McGwire and Canseco the A's dropped Game Two by a 4-3 score. Howard Johnson went deep for New York. Little known Phil Lombardi, who's only real life MLB experience was a cup of coffee with the Yankees in both 1986 and 1987 was the hero for the Mets, delivering a 3-run double in the sixth inning. David Cone got the win.

The Series shifts west but the Mets keep winning, taking a second straight 4-3 decision to go up 3 games to none. Kevin McReynolds delivered a sac fly in the top of the ninth for the margin of victory as Ron Darling beat Dave Stewart.

Oakland does stay alive with a 4-2 victory in Game Four but the Series ends the following night as the Mets successfully defend their title with a 6-3 victory in Game Five. Dwight Gooden gets his second win of the series for the second year in a row. Mark McGwire hits two more homers- both solo shots- to give him 3 for the series but his partner in crime Jose Canseco was M.I.A in the series, going just 3-for-18. McGwire and Luis Polonia were the only A's to hit over .211 in the series.

[Tiger Fan]

WINTER 1990-91

The Giants lost their best player from 1990 as Kevin Mitchell (.282,29,89)signed with Detroit as a free agent. Pitcher Rick Resuchel, who moderately rebounded from an injury plagued 1989 to go 12-17 with a 5.07 era was also a free agent but had failed to sign anywhere as of the start of spring training. Meanwhile Dion James (.260,3,52) also left as a free agent to the Mets and Brett Butler (.265,3,39) was traded to the Dodgers for 4 young players including a 24 year old John Wetteland. Off-season movement dropped the Giants another 8.2 in WAR based on last season's numbers and it did not seen like their string of two straight last place finishes would end anytime soon.

As for Mattingly, he and his $1.5 million contract still had two seasons remaining. Only SS Spike Owen at $1.6 million made more as the Giants payroll was 21st in the league.

In New York, the Yankees decided to raid the Mets again. A year after signing Darryl Strawberry the Yanks took another icon from their cross-city rivals inking 27 year old Lenny Dykstra (.279.6.64) and his 6.7 WAR to an 8 year contract. The signing allowed the Yanks to send 26 year old Roberto Kelly (.258,17,83) west to California in exchange for 3B Jeff Manto, a 26 year old who could challenge Randy Velarde (.239,13,66) for playing time.

Will Clark remains the cornerstone of the Yankee offense but opted to sign just a 1 year extension (for $1.68 million) and this could be his final year in New York.

Rick Rhoden remains in Houston but will be 38 by opening day although he is coming off a decent 12-12 season. After a year in Oakland, Craig Lefferts was on the move again as he signed a 1 year deal with Cincinnati while Atlee Hammaker remains in the Angels system but signed another minor league deal and appears ticketed for Edmonton once again.

DRAFT

The top pick in the draft was 18 year old pitcher Salomon Torres who signed with the Cubs. The Phillies rebounded from a questionable first overall selection last season to take (and sign) Manny Ramirez at #2. The Giants picked third and selected catcher Jorge Posada and the 19 year old will begin his pro career in the Midwest League. The Yankees did not have a first round pick and their top selection was Creighton Gubanich.

HALL OF FAME

A couple of former teammates with the Twins were added to the Hall of Fame this season with Rod Carew and Jim Kaat getting the call. Rollie Fingers, in his first year of eligibility, and Joe Torre, in his second, both fell just short of the necessary votes.

SPRING TRAINING

Will Clark hit .366 in spring training as the Yankees had a solid 18-12 finish. Perhaps some good news for San Francisco as Mattingly had his best spring in Arizona to date, slashing .362/.410/.536.

The Yankees don't get much love in the preseason prediction as they are pegged to finish with an 82-80 record and in 4th place in the AL with Boston and Toronto duking it out for top spot. San Francisco, on the other hand, is predicted to win 86 games and be in a fight all year with Atlanta and San Diego for the NL West crown with defending division champ Houston expected to fall from first to last in the division.

[Tiger Fan]

1991

The big news through the summer of 1991 came from Oakland where Mark McGwire chased Roger Maris' homerun mark all season before ending up two dingers shy with 59. Of course, later on this number would certainly be tainted but at the time it was greeted with great fanfare when McGwire hit 2 homers in his final 3 games but ultimately fell short. His Athletics did not fall short in the AL West, winning their fourth straight division title.

The Yankees won 92 games, their highest total since a 103 win season in 1980, but it was not enough as a dominant Baltimore team, led by Cal Ripken (.289,24,103) and a career year out of Pete Harnisch (21-7, 2.67) won an MLB best 106 games to finish 14 ahead of second place New York.

New York did secure a long term committment from Will Clark, as the 27 year old first basemen avoided free agency by agreeing to a 6-year, $16.9 million extension. Clark would win his second straight American League batting title, slashing .351/.405/.600 and leading the AL in hits with 221. New York's 3-4-5 of Clark (.331,34,134), Strawberry (.286,36,122) and Calderon (.279,25,109) rivalled any team in the league. Their pitching was also solid thanks in a big part to an otherworldly season from Ken Hill (21-6, 1.98). The 25 year old Hill was acquired from St Louis just before Opening Day in exchange for 1B Hal Morris.

The Cardinals would have loved to have Hill back as he might have been the difference to finally push them past the Mets, but the two-time defending World Champions won 102 games- one more then St Louis- to claim the NL East. Despite losing Strawberry and Dykstra in successive seasons to the Yankees, the Mets kept on winning with deadline pickup Rob Deer (.206,37,83) plus free agent signings Carlton Fisk (.264,14,56) and Jose Rijo (18-10, 2.50) playing important roles.

The NL West went to the Reds with a 2-game bulge on the second place Padres, who had the three top hitters in the National League in John Kruk (.345), Shane Mack (.329) and Roberto Alomar (.328). The Giants finished 5th, 11 games out with a 77-85 record. After a solid spring, the now 30 year old Mattingly struggled at the plate once again, slashing .265/.300/.367 although he did appear in all 162 games and his .265 batting average led their anemic offense.

[bigsmooth]

I love this!!! I grew up falling in love with baseball starting in 1976 --- when I was 7 years old, watching the World Series from my room, sneaking to see it, and these names are so familiar to my childhood and early adulthood. Great to see a different spin.

[Tiger Fan]

1991 POST-SEASON

Despite finishing with the best record in baseball the Baltimore Orioles were no match for Oakland. The A's won in 6 games as Dave Stewart tossed 2 fantastic outings, allowing just one Baltimore run in 15 innings of work. Meanwhile Mike Bordick was on fire, batting .652 in the series and Mark McGwire homered twice and drove in 6 runs.

The Mets returned to the World Series for the third straight year with a 6 game win over Cincinnati in the NLCS. It was deja vu all over again for Dennis Eckersley as Eck, now the Reds closer perhaps had flashbacks to the '88 World Series, as he allowed a Rob Deer a 2-run walk-off homerun in the bottom of the ninth of Game Six to give the Mets a 2-1 victory and the pennant.

The World Series, a rematch of last year, started with the Mets winning Game One by a 3-2 score despite a pair of homers from McGwire off New York starter Jose Rijo. An Ozzie Guillen rbi double in the top of the ninth proved the difference and lifted the Mets to victory.

Game Two was all Dwight Gooden as the Mets ace held Oakland to 3 hits over 7 innings in a 7-1 victory. Kevin McReynolds delivered a 3-run homer in the top of the 6th to put the Mets in the driver's seat with a 2-0 Series lead.

Oakland sent it's best in Dave Stewart to the mound in Game Three but it still wasn't enough. Stewart and Mets starter David Cone were long gone when the game was settled in the bottom of the 10th inning as Jeff Gardner singled in McReynolds to give New York a 4-3 victory and a commanding 3-0 Series lead.

Ron Darling completed the sweep with a dominant 2-hit comple game shutout as the Mets won their third straight World Championship following a 5-0 victory. Free agent pick-ups Ozzie Guillen and Carlton Fisk led the New York offense with 2 hits and 2 rbi's each and Guillen was named the Series MVP.

With three straight titles the Mets are clearly a dynasty with the core group of Gooden, Darling, Cone, Jefferies, McReynolds, Madagan and Howard Johnson around for all 3 titles.

[Tiger Fan]

Three years after the 'deal' it is very clear that trading Clark for Mattingly would have set the Giants back a long ways, and perhaps even caused them to move to Tampa instead of being sold to a new group that kept them in San Francisco.

So let's fast forward and see how the careers of Clark and Mattingly played out and how it affected each of their franchises:

WILL CLARK

Clark spent nearly all of the remainder of his career in New York, following up that 6 year extension with another deal that kept him in pinstripes for a total of 12 years. He did not win another batting title and his production could not match what he accomplished in 1990 and 1991 but he was still a solid player throughout his Yankee days.

The Yankees would win the American League East in 1992,1996 and from 1998 to 2000 with Clark on the team but failed to win a World Series. In fact, with Clark the Yankees only made the series once, losing to the Florida Marlins in 2000. Following the 2000 season, Clark signed with Houston for his age 37 season and then ended his career as a spare part for the 2002 Detroit Tigers. Clark hit just .186 in 43 at bats for that Tiger team and was 0-for-3 in the postseason but he did finally earn a World Series ring with that Detroit team and then promptly retired at the age of 38.

                      WILL CLARK CAREER STATS
       G     AB    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI   R   AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS+  WAR
REAL 1976  7173  2176 440  47 284 1205 1186 .303 .384 .497  137   56.5
SIM  2447  8821  2586 497  49 320 1458 1377 .293 .370 .489  125   43.6


                     DON MATTINGLY CAREER STATS
       G    AB    H   2B  3B  HR  RBI   R   AVG  OBP  SLG  OPS+  WAR
REAL 1785  7003 2153 442  20 222 1099 1007 .307 .358 .471  127  42.4 
SIM  2121  7893 2392 499  21 229 1215 1059 .303 .346 .459  120  33.9

DON MATTINGLY

The Giants failed to make the playoffs with Mattingly but did finish second in the NL West in 1992. Mattingly enjoyed his best season as a Giant that year, slashing .290/.326/.428 with a 2.9 WAR and earning the final trip to the all-star game of his career. He would move on to California as a free agent that off-season and spent 3 years as an everyday player for the Angels which including a 1994 line of .337/.391/.515 and his best WAR as a non-Yankee of 3.5. He helped the Angels to the post-season twice including 1995 when they lost the World Series in 6 games to Atlanta. It would be the only World Series appearance of Mattingly's career.

He signed with the Mets in 1996 but was restricted to a back-up role, hitting just .215 in 99 plate appearances. 1997 he was off to Cincinnati at the age of 36 but he only appeared in 45 games and had just 48 plate appearances for what was one of the worst teams in baseball. Mattingly spent 1998 in Pacific Coast League with the Salt Lake City Buzz and hit .314 in 92 games as a 37 year old before retiring from the game at the end of the season.

SUMMARY

It was interesting to see how this played out and, if anything, doing that deal in this sim actually hurt both franchises when compared to real-life (of course that is really impossible to pin on Clark or Mattingly as every other move made in the sim would also heavily factor in the results).

The Yankees had a long string of playoff appearances starting in 1996 and including 1998-2002 as well as 2004 but there only Series win came in 2004 (I simmed through the 2008 season).

The Giants endured a terrible post-season slump - even much worse then real-life as it stretched from 1963 to 2004 when they finally won a division. They missed the playoffs from 2005-07 but in 2008 finally won their first World Series based in San Francisco and the first for the franchise since 1954.

As a side note, Barry Bonds never did become a Giant in this universe. He left Pittsburgh following the 1991 season for Kansas City and would also play for the Mets, Tigers and White Sox in a career that continued until age 43 and saw him retire with 821 Home Runs. Ken Griffey Jr was second all-time with 766 and Aaron's 755 placed him third. Bonds won just one MVP - with the Pirates in 1990 and never played in a World Series.