Thursday, April 10, 2008

#343 Greg Gagne



Why this card is awesome: Because the trade mentioned on the back reminds us that this is one of those bad Yankees trades that people forget. They remember Fred McGriff, Doug Drabek, and sometimes even Willie McGee, but Gagne was a pretty good shortstop. Current fans should know that his last name is not pronounced like that of current pitcher Eric Gagne, but rather with two hard g's, hence my own Bermanism for this guy: Greg Gagne "with a spoon."

Cool stat: Gagne has one of the worst BB/K ratios for any batter in history, especially considering he wasn't all that much of a slugger. He's tied for second all-time with 8 seasons having 30 or fewer walks and 70 or more strikeouts.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I dunno if it was a bad trade for the Yanks. They got a decent SS in return in Roy Smalley.

And then 2 years later, coincidentally, traded Smalley to the ChiSox for Doug Drabek.

MMayes said...

And then landed Brian Fisher for Doug Drabek....

Unknown said...

Clearly the Drabek-Fisher trade was a mistake. But they made a trade of equal value in Gagne-Smalley, and set themselves up to get Drabek in the first place.