MLB Trade Deadline Deals Won't Win You the World Series

We are just a few days from the 2011 MLB July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, and as usual we are drowning in trade rumors.

The trade deadline is kind of like Christmas for baseball teams. Buyers like the Yankees, Rangers and Phillies are eyeing shiny new toys like Ubaldo Jimenez and Carlos Beltran, while sellers (like my Mariners) try to flip assets for prospects that will make Christmas better for their fans in two or three years.

Also like Christmas, it feels like we start hearing about the trade deadline earlier and earlier every year. Hell, I've been hearing Felix Hernandez rumors since before Opening Day—and sorry Yankees fans, he's not going anywhere...I hope.

The more I hear about the trade deadline, the more I realize that it is not that big of a deal. If you're hoping that some big acquisition is going to bump your team from title hopeful to World Series lock, I have some bad news for you: it won't.

He might get you as far as the playoffs, and he might even get you to the big dance, but at the end of the day, you're not walking away with the trophy.

Don't believe me? Let's look back over the last decade at the best—and in most cases, only—deadline deal that the eventual World Series champions made the year they won it all. The only criteria is that the player had be acquired on the July 31st deadline or as close to it as possible. 

2002 Anaheim Angels Acquire OF Alex Ochoa and C Sal Fasano from the Milwaukee Brewers for Jorge Fabregas and Players to be Named Later

Back before they were the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the 2002 Anaheim Angels earned their first wild-card birth and eventually the franchise's first World Series title.

The Angels pitching staff had the second-best ERA in the league, and their offense led the league in hits, so there was little to improve when the July 31 deadline arrived. With that in mind, Anaheim's lone trade came in a five-player deal with Milwaukee that brought them Alex Ochoa and Sal Fasano.

Fasano only appeared in two games for the Halos, but Ochoa made it into 37, hitting .277 in 75 plate appearances while playing left and right field. In the postseason, Ochoa did not manage a hit, striking out in three of his five total at-bats. Those would prove to be Ochoa's last major league appearances, though he was eventually named as an assistant coach for the Boston Red Sox. 

2003 Florida Marlins Acquire RP Ugueth Urbina from the Texas Rangers for Will Smith, Adrian Gonzalez and Ryan Snare

After starting the season 16-22, the Florida Marlins replaced incumbent manager Jeff Torborg with Jack McKeon, and then went 75-49 the rest of the season.

Looking to bolster their bullpen, the Marlins traded a trio of prospects to Texas—including future MVP candidate Adrian Gonzalez—for flamethrower Ugueth Urbina.

Urbina anchored the Marlins bullpen for the rest of the year, posting a 1.41 ERA and a 1.9 WAR—the highest WAR of his career. He followed that up with solid performances over 10 innings in the first two rounds of the playoffs, then earned two saves against the Yankees in the World Series despite a 6.00 ERA.

After the season, Urbina signed with the Tigers as a free agent. Gonzalez, meanwhile, spent two-and-a-half seasons in Texas before being traded to San Diego, where he emerged as a perennial All-Star and Gold Glove winner.  

2004 Boston Red Sox Acquire SS Orlando Cabrera and 1B Doug Mientkiewicz for Nomar Garciaparra and Matt Murton in Four-Team Trade

A dark year for Red Sox Nation, 2004 began as the wounds of a blown Game 7 to their archrival Yankees in last year's ALCS were still fresh, and the streak of consecutive titleless seasons had run to 86. Sensing the need for a shakeup, Boston general manager Theo Epstein swung a four-team deal at the deadline that proves the lone exception to the premise of this article.

Epstein shipped out disgruntled superstar shortstop Nomar Garciaparra and former first-round pick Matt Murton, receiving Gold Glover Orlando Cabrera from Montreal and Doug Mientkiewicz from Minnesota in the return. The move was met with immediate skepticism, especially considering that Cabrera was hitting just .246 at the time of the trade, but Epstein hoped that the fresh blood would provide a spark.

In the end, Epstein's moves paid huge dividends. Cabrera would hit .296 and post a 1.2 WAR in 58 games for Boston, and then hit .379 during the Red Sox's dramatic seven-game comeback series against the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS.

Another deadline addition, Dave Roberts provided the key stolen base against Mariano Rivera in the bottom of the ninth of Game 4 to begin the improbable turnaround.  

2005 Chicago White Sox Acquire IF Geoff Blum from the San Diego Padres for Ryan Meaux

The ChiSox's lone midseason acquisition didn't turn many heads at the time and turned even fewer for the rest of the regular season. Geoff Blum came to Chicago on a deadline deal for minor leaguer Ryan Meaux and promptly hit .200 in just under 100 plate appearances over the next two months.

By the time the White Sox reached the World Series, Blum had received just one postseason at-bat and was an afterthought for most fans. That is, until Blum connected with the eventual game-winning home run in the top of the 14th inning of Game 3.

That huge hit would be the last hit of Blum's White Sox career, and he re-signed with the Padres during the offseason. 

2006 St. Louis Cardinals Acquire P Jorge Sosa from the Atlanta Braves for Rich Scalamandre

Despite an 83-78 record, the St. Louis Cardinals took advantage of a wide-open NL Central and proved that if you can find a way to sneak into the playoffs, anything can happen.

Their lineup featured multiple-time MVP Albert Pujols, but the Cardinals pitching staff was in need of some help, so they traded for Braves pitcher Jorge Sosa hoping that he could recapture what made him a 13-game winner with a sub-three ERA in 2005.

Instead, the Sosa that came to St. Louis was the same Sosa that we had seen for the first three years of his career and for the first half of the 2006 season: a pitcher incapable of posting an ERA below five. Sosa did lower his ERA—from 5.46 in Atlanta to 5.28 in St. Louis—but still ended up posting a negative WAR for the second time in his career.

Sosa never saw action in the postseason that year, and signed with the Mets that offseason. After brief stints with five more teams, Sosa has yet to be signed in 2011.

2007 Boston Red Sox Acquire RP Eric Gagne and Cash from the Texas Rangers for Kason Gabbard, David Murphy and Engel Beltre

Three years after winning their first World Series in 86 years, the Red Sox thought that they were adding more firepower to their already potent bullpen when they sent three players to Texas to acquire former Cy Young winner Eric Gagne at the 2007 deadline.

Gagne looked to have returned to form after missing all of 2006, posting a 2.16 ERA in just over 33 innings for the Rangers. Instead of anchoring the bullpen with Jonathan Papelbon, Hideki Okajima, Mike Timlin and Javier Lopez, Gagne imploded.

His ERA as a Red Sox ballooned to 6.75, and opposing batters hit a robust .325 against him—more than 100 points better than the .192 clip he put up in Texas. He was used sparingly in the playoffs, but still managed to give up three earned runs in 4.1 scattered innings. Two years later, Gagne was out of the league. 

2008 Philadelphia Phillies Acquire SP Joe Blanton from Oakland Athletics for Josh Outman, Adrian Cardenas and Matt Spencer

In need of some starting pitching help, the Philadelphia Phillies swung a deal for Athletics pitcher Joe Blanton two weeks before the 2008 deadline, sending three players to Oakland in the process.

Blanton had thrown a career-high 230 innings the previous year and had struggled the first half of the season with a 4.96 ERA and a 5-12 record. A move to the National League helped Blanton regain some form, and he went 4-0 with a 4.20 ERA for the Phils.

He also pitched well in the playoffs, going 2-0 in three starts and earned the win in Game 4 of the World Series. 

2009 New York Yankees Acquire Jerry Hairston from Cincinnati Reds for Chase Weems

The 2009 New York Yankees featured a lineup that led all of baseball in home runs and a pitching staff anchored by CC Sabathia. Despite some questions about the rest of their starting pitchers, the Yankees' lone deadline move came when they traded minor league catcher Chase Weems for utility player Jerry Hairston Jr.

Hairston didn't impress in his brief stint in pinstripes, posting a .237 AVG, .352 OBP, .382 SLG line with two home runs in 45 games. He didn't fare much better in the postseason, collecting just two hits in eight at-bats over a six-game span and was not re-signed after the season.

2010 San Francisco Giants Acquire RP Ramon Ramirez from Boston Red Sox for Daniel Turpen

Despite a patchwork lineup that ranked below league average in just about every statistical category, the San Francisco Giants rode a dynamic pitching staff led by two-time Cy Young winner Tin Lincecum to the 2010 title. They made two moves at the deadline to bolster their bullpen, dealing for right-hander Ramon Ramirez and left-hander Javier Lopez in separate deals.

Ramirez, acquired from Boston, thrived in his return to the National League, posting a minuscule 0.67 ERA in 27 innings to the tune of a 0.9 WAR. His postseason was another story, though, as he was touched up for six earned runs in just four innings over five appearances, including two runs in his only inning pitched in the World Series against the Texas Rangers.

So, what does it all mean? In short, it means that if a team needs a savior to ride into town on a white horse and carry them to a title, they probably are not good enough to win a title in the first place.

The teams that win the big one add complimentary players to an existing framework of talent, and sometimes those role players come through in a big way. Really, the beauty of baseball is that anything is possible, so this year could be the one where the big deadline deal pushes someone over the edge.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go check the latest news on the Hunter Pence trade front.