1 of 1- tkihshbt
- Scott Rolen
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- Registered: 9/07/2010
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Some Help Please
This will probably seem like it's coming out of nowhere, but I was looking over the rosters of the Cardinals post-World Series teams in the 80s and stumbled upon something weird in '88.
I saw that Tom Herr, who was not great shakes, was traded that year after appearing in just 15 games with the Cardinals. Does anyone know the reason behind this? Was it the beginning of management getting cheap? Were they that committed to Luis Alicea?
Also, how did they let Clark get away after '87?
- alz
- Larry Walker
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- Registered: 9/23/2010
- Posts: 2,396
Re: Some Help Please
I really have no idea personally, but that went into trade reasoning.
- alz
- Larry Walker
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Re: Some Help Please
on Jack Clark, I don't know, 200K-700K more in salary even in the late 80's doesn't seem crazy, but that was his raise was (either 1.5M or 2M when he made 1.3M with the cardinals in 1987.
- forsberg_us
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Re: Some Help Please
I believe Clark was let go for a couple of reasons, one of which was money.
Also, if you go back to 1987, Herzog traded Andy Van Slyke (who Herzog was convinced would never hit left handers), Mike Lavalliere and Mike Dunne for Tony Pena and to make room for Jim Lindeman. I seem to remember Clark was deemed expendable because they were going to replace his production with a combination of Lindeman and Bob Horner who they signed after a season in Japan.
Lindeman generally sucked and Horner couldn't hit a home run at Busch. So they panicked and traded a serviceable player for Tom Brunansky to make up for the mistakes.
Or at least that's how I remember it. I was 19 at the time. I was paying much more attention to trying to get laid than I was the Cardinals.
- artie_fufkin
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- From: God's Little Acre
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Re: Some Help Please
"I saw that Tom Herr, who was not great shakes, was traded that year after appearing in just 15 games with the Cardinals. Does anyone know the reason behind this? Was it the beginning of management getting cheap? Were they that committed to Luis Alicea?"
Herr's wife gave birth, and it turned out the kid was fathered by Tito Landrum. One of them had to go, and the Cardinals thought Landrum was going to be a better player at that point in their respective careers.
I think Clark left for the Yankees as a free agent.
- artie_fufkin
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Re: Some Help Please
"Lindeman generally sucked"
Lindeman was an Anglo version of Pedro Cerrano. He could hit anyone's fastball, but he couldn't hit major league breaking stuff. Once everyone else in the league figured that out, he was headed for the pile.
Fors is right about Horner. He was great at ASU and Atlanta, but it was different story in St. Louis. Busch II was a pitcher's park when the fences were farther back in the '80s.