This is a not a great quote by you:
And Andersen's 1990 Postseason line was three games, three innings, three hits, three walks, two runs, 2.00 WHIP and a 6.00 ERA. He was not good.
Yes, you admitted that it was bad, but even if Andersen threw five scoreless innings every time he pitched for the Red Sox, it was only for one month. There was nothing significant about it.Bagwell/Anderson gets thrown out there a lot as the worst modern trade for the Sox, but while bad, people forget that Anderson significantly contributed and Bagwell's entire career wasn't irrevocably controlled by the Sox.
And Andersen's 1990 Postseason line was three games, three innings, three hits, three walks, two runs, 2.00 WHIP and a 6.00 ERA. He was not good.
I'm sorry, but these are barely arguments. Larry Andersen came to the Red Sox on August 30, 1990. In two days, the Major League rosters expanded--I would wager that there probably wasn't even a corresponding move that the Sox had to make to get someone off the 24-man roster. Andersen didn't take anyone's place. He didn't move anyone down the totem pole. Andersen was added, nothing was taken away. And like I wrote above, he got into four out of eight high leveraged game and pitched poorly in half those games.Secondly, the quote by Neyer does not address the two specific issues I raised about: a) replacing Anderson with the pitcher in the system that was just not good enough to make the cut otherwise (i.e., the one who would become the worst man in the pen), and b) the effect of Anderson on other pitcher usage, including resting other relievers.
So Neyer just made this whole argument up to sell books? You're being pedantic, this was a bad move that didn't sew up the AL East for the Red Sox. They probably would have won the league anyway and had a very average pitcher to show for a Hall of Famer.Neyer (whom I generally enjoy reading) has a job - to write articles with hooks. But, asserted in an article or not, some things are just too speculative to have a definitive answer, as much as we might like to arrive at some particular conclusion.