Well, it's official and I'm sure most of you have heard by now. Weaver is a Mariner. I really don't get Weaver, he says he hates pitching in the American League, yet off he goes to an AL team. He says he wants to play for a winner and now he's on a perennial bottom feeder. All for more guaranteed chips. I have no idea what incentives the Cardinals offered, I'd imagine they were tied to starts. Weaver hasn't spent one day on the DL in his major league career, I don't understand how that was such an obstacle if playing for a contender was so important to him. Best of luck to him, I'll always love him for a Game 5, but I'm not feeling Spicoli on this one. Do we credit the Cardinals on this one for standing their ground? Was $9 million really that much to shell out for Weaver considering this market? And what happened to Weaver seeking a multi-year deal? Oh, well. The bottom line is while it would've been nice to have an innings muncher in this unproven rotation, I'm not sure passing on Jeff will hurt the Cards much in the standings.
Former Cardinal GM Bing Devine passed away at the ripe old age of 90. As a 27 year old, I don't have any memories of Devine, but I do know he was one of the best GM's of his time. Here's just a few trades he spearheaded:
- Dec. 5th, '57. Curt Flood from the Redlegs for Marty Kutyna, Ted Wieand and Willard Schmidt. Flood went on to be a 7 time Gold Glover and 3 time All Star and played 12 seasons in St. Louis. Flood was later flipped by Devine to the Phillies (the famous trade the Flood refused) for a full season's worth of Richie Allen, who posted a .937 OPS and was an All Star in 1970.
- March 25, '59. Bill White and Ray Jablonski from the Giants for Sad Sam Jones and Don Choate. Jones went on to have 2 good seasons for the Giants. White won 6 Gold Gloves at 1st base and made 5 All Star appearances for the Cardinals.
- Nov. 19, '62. Dick Groat and Diomedes Olivo for Julio Gotay and Don Cardwell. Cardwell went on to have a decent pitching career. Olivo and Gotay didn't pan out for either team. Groat was effective for 2 out of his 3 seasons as a Redbird, and came 2nd in the '63 MVP voting, hitting .319/.377/.450.
- May 28, 1960- Julian Javier and Ed Bauta to the Pirates for Vinegar Bend Mizell and Dick Gray. Mizell and Gray didn't really pan out for the Bucs. Javier however ended up as a two time All Star 2nd baseman and played 11 seasons for the el Birdos.
- June 15, 1964. Broglio for Brock!
- March 17, '69. Orlando Cepeda to the Braves for Joe Torre. Cepeda went on to have 1 good season with the Braves, Torre went on to have 6 seasons as a Cardinal where he appeared in 4 All Star games and had one monster season in 1971, in which he hit .363 and won the MVP.
- Feb. 25, '72. Under the directions of Auggie Busch, Devine traded Steve Carlton for Rick Wise. Wise was actually pretty good for his 2 seasons as a Cardinal, and was flipped to the Red Sox for a couple good seasons of the underrated Reggie Smith. It'll still be remembered as the worst trade in team history, but it wasn't Bing's fault.
From what little I know of Devine, he inherited somewhat of a mess. The Cardinals hadn't been in the World Series since '46 and were mediocre throughout the 50's. They were basically a one man show in Stan Musial, though it's not to say they didn't have some pretty good players in Boyer and Schoendiest, amongst others. Devine had to endure a lot of abuse from the ownership, and wasn't the GM by the end of the season when the team won it all in '64. Busch lost patience with Devine in August of that season and canned him, only to watch the Phillies collapse and the Cardinals go on to win it all. He got his job back in '67 after being the Mets' GM for a couple of seasons, the year the team won the World Series again.
A few years back lboros interviewed Devine, maybe he'll have more insights on him tomorrow.