The Futility Infielder

Not that I want to wipe this contest off the top of the page, but I've got an article up at Baseball Prospectus related to the Yankees and the trading deadline. It's my fifth Prospectus piece, a lengthy (and I mean lengthy) analysis of the prospects the Yankees have traded over the past decade, using BP's Wins Above Replacement measure as the currency.

I analyzed 76 trades over the stretch from the end of the 1993 season to Opening Day 2004 and focused on the deals in which the Yanks gave up "unproven talent," players who had less than 502 career plate appearances or 162 innings pitched (those numbers are equivalent to a qualifying for the batting or ERA crowns). No, Nick Johnson (P35 PA) and Ted Lilly (229 IP) don't qualify, nor does Rickey Ledee (587 PA). That left me 70 players to analyze, spread out from the majors to the minors to the Mexican leagues to sheer oblivion. I wasn't concerned so much with who they got in return or whether they "won" a trade. Rather, in thinking about last year's Brandon Claussen deal and other deadline moves, I wondered how good the players they traded went on to become.

The moral of the story is that the Yanks have done pretty well based on who they traded. You'll have to read the article to find out the details. It's a freebie, so please check it out.