[Willie Bee]

Not sure how many of you may have already seen some of this and are following it at ESPN.com. But Rob Neyer has a new book out titled Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Blunders, a title that alone is worth consideration for the Alliteration Hall of Fame

They are printing excerpts currently at ESPN.com, and the latest excerpt has to do with the Reds dealing Frank Robinson away to the Orioles during the 1965-66 offseason LINK. Cincinnati received right-handers Milt Pappas and Jack Baldschun and minor league outfielder Dick Simpson from Baltimore in the deal.

This turned out to be one of those deals that went sour in hindsight only, in my opinion. Neyer does a good job explaining some of that in the excerpt, noting that Pappas was considered by many to be solid 26-yr-old pitcher, Baldschun hand been an above average reliever, and Simpson "was a pretty hot prospect in 1965" who was only 22 and was "a speedy center fielder, had batted .301, hit twenty-four home runs, and led the Pacific Coast League with twelve triples" that season.

Neyer even points out that, at first, Baltimore was not all that keen on giving up those three players and only getting Robinson in return.

The trade certainly worked out to be a blunder, but assigning a blunder tag in hindsight really doesn't make it a blunder from the start. This is a little like the deal Houston made before the 1969 season when they traded Rusty Staub to Montreal for Donn Clendenon and Jesus Alou. Certainly the Astros would NOT have made this deal had they known that: A) Clendenon was going to refuse to report to Houston, and; B) then-commish Bowie Kuhn was going to uphold the trade anyway and force the Astros to take Jack Billingham and Skip Guinn instead.

What baseball trades or moves do y'all think were truly blunders from the get-go? Just from the Houston side, I rank letting Bobby Abreu go in the 1997 expansion draft and protecting Derek Bell instead. What's the worst move your team has made that you knew was a horrible move at the time it went down?

[peznt]

Red Sox failing to meet deadlines during contract negeotions with Fred Lynn and Carlton Fisk in the 80's. Fisk became a free agent, Lynn went to the Angels.

No 1 Blunder for the Red Sox of course is the Babe Ruth trade.

Jeff Bagwell to the Astros for Larry Anderson.........

[BuddyBear]

Tigers let John Smoltz get away for Doyle Alexander in 1987....Doyle went 11-1 or 11-0 en route to the pennant (they won by only 2 games over Toronto that year) so it worked out well....

However...Smoltz turned out to be a hall of fame pitcher...

Not sure how you would rank this.....hindsight 20/20 I am sure the tigers would have hung onto smoltz. Right?

[daystrom]

Expos dealing Big Unit, Harris & Holman for 1/2 year rental of Mark Langston. That hurt almost as much as the 1994 strike.

[bigboydan]

what about this one...

Curt Schilling, Pete Harnisch and Steve Finley to the Astros for Glenn Davis.

[Willie Bee]

Peznt, my opinion is the Jeff Bagwell for Larry Andersen trade falls more into the 'hindsight' category and not necessarily one that was a blunder from the start. Bagwell was playing 3B in the BoSox system and was blocked by a guy named Wade Boggs. He also was not seen as a power hitter at all, but more of a line drive, gap-average hitter.

This, to me, is the same kind of deal that Houston would make a few years later when they dealt Kenny Lofton to the Indians for Eddie Taubensee (couple of others involved, but this was the meat of the deal). Lofton was blocked to CF with the Astros by Steve Finley at the time, and Houston was in need of a catcher since they were shifting Craig Biggio to 2B. In hindsight, the better deal for Houston to make might have been to see how good a backstop they might have gotten for Finley and moved Lofton into CF instead. But at the time, nobody in Houston really thought that Lofton was going to have the career he has and just about everyone in Houston was expecting more out of Texas native Taubensee.

Now, the Finley-Schilling-Harnisch deal the Orioles made with Houston for Glenn 'Long Out' Davis, yeah, that was a bonehead move for Baltimore from the start. Anyone that had been following Davis' career up to then should've known he wasn't worth the amount of potential Baltimore dealt for him.

[Chi_archie]

1 David Price Tampa Bay Devil Rays LHP Vanderbilt University 2 Mike Moustakas Kansas City Royals SS Chatsworth High School 3 Josh Vitters Chicago Cubs 3B Cypress High School 4 Daniel Moskos Pittsburgh Pirates LHP Clemson 5 Matt Wieters Baltimore Orioles C Georgia Tech 6 Ross Detwiler Washington Nationals LHP Missouri St. 7 Matthew LaPorta Milwaukee Brewers LF Florida 8 Casey Weathers Colorado Rockies RHP Vanderbilt University 9 Jarrod Parker Arizona Diamondbacks RHP Norwell High School 10 Madison Bumgarner San Francisco Giants LHP South Caldwell High School (NC) 11 Phillippe Aumont Seattle Mariners RHP École secondaire du Versant 12 Matt Dominguez Florida Marlins 3B Chatsworth High School 13 Beau Mills Cleveland Indians 1B Lewis-Clark State College 14 Jason Heyward Atlanta Braves OF Henry County High School (GA) 15 Devin Mesoraco Cincinnati Reds C Punxsutawney Area High School (PA) 16 Kevin Ahrens Toronto Blue Jays[Compensation 1] SS Memorial High School (TX) 17 Blake Beavan Texas Rangers[Compensation 2] RHP Irving High School 18 Peter Kozma St. Louis Cardinals SS Owasso High School (OK) 19 Joe Savery Philadelphia Phillies LHP Rice 20 Chris Withrow Los Angeles Dodgers[Compensation 3] RHP Midland Christian High School 21 J. P. Arencibia Toronto Blue Jays C Tennessee 22 Tim Alderson San Francisco Giants[Compensation 4] RHP Horizon High School 23 Nick Schmidt San Diego Padres LHP Arkansas 24 Michael Main Texas Rangers[Compensation 5] RHP DeLand High School 25 Aaron Poreda Chicago White Sox LHP University of San Francisco 26 James Simmons Oakland Athletics RHP California-Riverside 27 Rick Porcello Detroit Tigers RHP Seton Hall Preparatory School 28 Ben Revere Minnesota Twins CF Lexington Catholic High School 29 Wendell Fairley San Francisco Giants[Compensation 6] CF George County High School (MS) 30 Andrew Brackman