Trade Tracker Thursday: Milwaukee Brewers. Boom-Boom, K-Rod, TT, and another Next Seaver.

Baseball trades are often about organizational philosphy, market size, and the front office. No pairing illustrates this dynamic more than the Mets and Brewers. Milwaukee, operating as a hyper-efficient small market club and the Mets, with their financial flexibility to secure win-now talent. GM David Stearns has been at the center of both teams, with a fascinating blueprint of how modern rosters are built.

Stearns tried something this off-season, acquiring pitching ace Freddy Peralta (and Tobias Myers) from his old employers - building a team that has only October on it's mind. Stearns gave up two of the Mets' top prospects, Brandon Sproat and Jett Williams - signifying to Brewers fans that their team could not afford to keep the soon to be free agent Peralta. This trade isn't quite ripe to analyze yet. Peralta has just been ok, with a few bright spots. Myers and Williams are in the minors and Sproat has a 6.17 ERA. Looking at the records of the two teams seems to declare a winner, but we'll get back to you on this one in about 5 years!

January 18, 1985. Mets get RHP Frank Wills for RHP Tim Leary.

This was part of a 4-team trade that featured names like Don Slaught, Jim Sundberg, and Danny Darwin. Guess which was the only team to walk away with nothing while giving up eventual value? Our Mets, of course.

Wills wound up pitching 9 years in the bigs, pitching to an inflated 5.06 ERA. He never appeared in a game for the Mets. Leary was a college star for UCLA and helped lead the United States National baseball team to a silver medal in the World Cup played in Italy. The World Cup lasted from 1938 to 2011. He was selected by the Mets as the second overall pick of the 1979 draft. Often called "The Next Seaver" (aren't they all?), Leary went 15-8 with a 2.76 ERA in his first pro season in the minors. The Mets, desperate for hope in the post-Seaver years, allowed him to debut in the majors on April 12, 1981 on a frozen, windy day at Wrigley. He faced 7 Cubs batters, leaving after two innings with a strained elbow. He didn't return until September of 1983, leaving in the second inning, in part due to two errors by George Foster in left field. What? Foster struggling in the outfield? Can't be!

Leary was up-and-down on the majors-minors pipeline in 1984, pitching in 20 games (7 starts). In 1986 for the Brewers, Leary finally started to show promise, winning 12 games, although with a high 4.21 ERA. He later surfaced with the 1988 World Champion Dodgers (Gut punch by Mike Scioscia), going 17-11 with a 2.91 ERA and a Silver Slugger Award! Leary wound up pitching in parts of 13 seasons, going 78-105. But maybe if Frank Cashen decides to hold him off until warmer weather, we wouldn't be so leary about what happened.

TEACHER SAYS F. Leary really had one good season, but the Mets received nothing. Even the clutch "Sluggo" Slaught, defensive whiz Sundberg, or the crafty Darwin who pitched forever, would have been better. (Are we allowed to call right-handers crafty?)

November 30, 1994. Mets get RHP Doug Henry for INF Fernando Vina.

Henry saved 61 games for Milwaukee in the early 1990's, although a 4.00 ERA showed that he might have given Brewer fans some agita along the way. As a Met, it was full blown nausea. Looking at his numbers, 1995 looked solid. BUT ONLY IF YOU WEREN'T THERE! He lost 14 games out of the pen in two seasons.

Is there a pattern here? When he left the Mets, Henry helped the Giants win the 1997 and 2000 NL West and the Astros win the 1998 and 1999 NL Central. In 11.1 post season innings, he pitched to a 1.59 ERA.

Vina only played in 79 games for the Mets in 1995. He wound up as an All-Star in Milwaukee scoring 101 runs on 198 hits in 1998! He also had 4 good years in St. Louis, hitting .285 for them and winning two Gold Gloves. One way Vina found to get on base was being hit by pitch. He led the league twice, including his 12 as a Met. His lifetime total of 157 bruises places him 21st all-time. Six of the players in front of him played in the 1800s.

TEACHER SAYS F. The Mets need to be patient with players sometimes (but not Mark Vientos! Argh!). Vina was a "scrappy" winning player for many years.

October 26, 1979. Mets get RHP Mark Bomback for RHP Dwight Bernard.

Sorry, but my love for the late 70s, early 80s losers pops up its ugly head again. Bomback only made the team due to an injury to Pat Zachry. Tom Hausman was moved into Zach's rotation spot. After a few poor relief outings, "Boom Boom" Bomback was given a start. If you are a pitcher that gives up enough homers to be nicknamed "Boom Boom," you're not doing very well.

Bomback held the Phillies to one run in seven innings. In his next start, he pitched a two-hit shutout! (Side personal note - I predicted he would throw a shutout that afternoon. Ask my High School friend MK - not you, Kraus).

Bomback actually led the Mets in victories in 1980 with 10. His 4.09 ERA was third behind Craig Swan and Ray Burris. In the off-season, with the acquisition of former Cy Young winner Randy Jones ( sometimes fans think they could hit major league pitching. Trust me, we could have hit Jones as a Met) and the return to health by Swan, Bomback was traded to Toronto for Charlie Puleo. Puleo was eventually in the second Tom Seaver trade. (two Franchise references!)

Dwight Bernard pitched in 115 games in his career. He is still coaching in the San Francisco Giants organization. Now that's impressive. Over 50 years in baseball.

TEACHER SAYS B. Anyone who leads your team in victories has value. Does anyone else remember Boom-Boom? Write about him in the comments.

July 12, 2011. Mets get LHP Danny Herrera for RHP Francisco Rodriguez.

Herrera is listed as 5 foot 6 inches. That is in his most hopeful dreams. He is one of the shortest pitchers in the last 100 years. But, good for him....he wound up pitching in 131 Major Laegue games with a 3.72 ERA. He pitched 16 games as a Met in 2011, pitching 8 innings to a 1.13 ERA. Nice job, Danny. Big heart.

Rodriguez, forever known as K-Rod, had 437 saves. That mark is SIXTH all time. (Behind Mariano Rivera, Trevor Hoffman, Kenley Jansen, Lee Smith, and Craig Kimbrel). Don't judge Kimbrel by his time with the Mets. He's an eventual Hall of Famer.

After only pitching in 5 September games with the Angels in 2002, he pitched in 11 post-season games (almost 20 innings). He was a key reason why the Angels won their first and only World Championship.

Rodriguez holds the all-time single season record with 62 in 2008 with the Angels. Incredibly, he only pitched in 76 games all season. Since you know I'm a math teacher, KRod earned a save in over 81 % of the games he appeared in!

When the Mets signed him as a free agent in December of 2008, paired with Johan Santana, even Sports Illustrated was impressed. They picked the Mets to win it all. The 2009 Mets lost 92 games. Daniel Murphy led them in homers with 12. After KRod earned 35 and 25 saves in his first two Mets years, things imploded. Supposedly he had a fist fight with his girlfriend's father outside the Mets Clubhouse and was arrested. That precipitated his trade to Wisconsin. He later was arrested again in 2012 in a domestic dispute. Chill out, Frankie!

Here's that pattern again, Rodriguez found his stuff again after leaving the Mets. From 2014 to 2016, he saved 44, 38, and 44 games with Milwaukee and Detroit.

TEACHER SAYS....IDK! Purely from a baseball standpoint, KRod saved a ton of games after the trade and Herrera pitched 8 innings. But this case had a lot more to it from a social aspect. What do you think? Leave your grade in the comment section.

December 20, 2023. Mets get RHP Adrian Houser and OF Tyrone Taylor for RHP Coleman Crow.

Crow finally received the call to the majors this year. He has started 4 games with a 5.94 ERA. Houser went 1-5 with the 2024 Mets in 23 games before being released in July. He has hung on to start numerous games with the White Sox, Rays, and now Giants.

Taylor (known as T.T.) has been a terrific 4th outfielder over three seasons. He has only hit .229 as a Met, but it seems like he does something to win a game every time he has been given the opportunity. Gold Glove caliber defense in all three outfield positions, great speed and the ability to run the bases correctly, and clutch hits are part of his game. His three-run bomb over the foul pole with two out in the ninth against David Bednar and the Yankees will long be remembered.

He doesn't hit enough to be a regular, but every team needs a bench piece like him.

TEACHER SAYS A. Speed and defense wins games!

I will do a separate piece on insane multi-team, multi-player trades and the Mets and Brewers had one including Jeromy Burnitz, Jeff D'Amico, Alex Ochoa, Benny Agbayani, Todd Zeile, Lenny Harris, and Glendon Rusch!

Other trade names in Mets- Brewers history: Jack Heidemann, Kevin Kobel, Charlie O'Brien, Julio Machado, Josias Manzanillo (lost a testicle being hit with a line drive), Kelly Stinnett, Cory Lidle, Mike Kinkade, Bill Pulsipher, Luis Lopez, Keon Broxton, and Mark Cahna.