I start main board threads almost never, so apologies in advance if this is a terrible idea for a thread or posted in the wrong place. But I figure we all have more time to discuss things like this than we had hoped for five months ago.
I'm 41. The first baseball season I recall was the 1981 strike-shortened year, when I was 7. But the first season I followed closely was 1984. Therefore I have either non-existent or only fleeting knowledge of things like the '78 playoff game, the jettisoning of Lynn, Fisk & Burleson, the failed ownership coup attempt by Buddy LeRoux, and the hiring of Ralph Houk, among others.
Today I was talking about Don Mattingly with a friend, which led me down the rabbit hole of Baseball Reference to comparing his walk rates to Wade Boggs, which reminded me that Boggs took over 3B for Carney Lansford after his rookie year. And this led me to wonder "why the hell did we trade Carney Lansford for Tony Armas when we (a) could have moved Lansford to 1B to take over for the unremarkable Dave Stapleton, and (b) why did we feel the need to acquire a strike out-prone, slugging CF when we already had Rice in LF and a CF prospect in Reid Nichols in the pipeline?"
Now, I have no idea if Reid Nichols was really a prospect or if that was just my 8 year old imagination at work because I saw him play in Pawtucket. I also don't recall any background on the Lansford trade, or the deal that shipped John Tudor out of town for Mike Easler a year later. But I figured there are folks here who are well versed in this history and can explain.
And if everyone thinks these are stupid questions not worth answering then I welcome the quick death of this thread.
I'm 41. The first baseball season I recall was the 1981 strike-shortened year, when I was 7. But the first season I followed closely was 1984. Therefore I have either non-existent or only fleeting knowledge of things like the '78 playoff game, the jettisoning of Lynn, Fisk & Burleson, the failed ownership coup attempt by Buddy LeRoux, and the hiring of Ralph Houk, among others.
Today I was talking about Don Mattingly with a friend, which led me down the rabbit hole of Baseball Reference to comparing his walk rates to Wade Boggs, which reminded me that Boggs took over 3B for Carney Lansford after his rookie year. And this led me to wonder "why the hell did we trade Carney Lansford for Tony Armas when we (a) could have moved Lansford to 1B to take over for the unremarkable Dave Stapleton, and (b) why did we feel the need to acquire a strike out-prone, slugging CF when we already had Rice in LF and a CF prospect in Reid Nichols in the pipeline?"
Now, I have no idea if Reid Nichols was really a prospect or if that was just my 8 year old imagination at work because I saw him play in Pawtucket. I also don't recall any background on the Lansford trade, or the deal that shipped John Tudor out of town for Mike Easler a year later. But I figured there are folks here who are well versed in this history and can explain.
And if everyone thinks these are stupid questions not worth answering then I welcome the quick death of this thread.