A Tale of Two Troys

On July 11, 2009 Chows GM/owner Brad Sherlag made what in hindsight is the worst trade in franchise history. However, if we go back in time to that date, a little perspective could be added. Below is the Troy Tulowitzki story as it relates to the Chows.

Why draft a SS with Hanley – When Tulo was drafted by the Chows, they already had budding superstar Hanley Ramirez manning SS. Faced with a chance to make the play-offs and a 4 fielding rating, Sherlag went ahead and took Tulo who he considered the best player available. “Troy had a fine season for us and really was a key to us winning 87 games. Unfortunately 87 wins was last place in our division so the nice season we had was pretty much forgotten. His 2 at SS solidified our defense and he 31 HR and drove in 85.”

Offseason Trade Attempts – With Troy being hurt a good portion of his sophomore season and Hanley becoming a better defender, the Chows really did not need Tulo too much. Unfortunately his trade value was not very high and the offers coming in just weren’t enough to tempt Sherlag. “We couldn’t get a first rounder or any significant players for Tulo before the 2009 season began. We even offered to package Troy and our first pick to move up in the first round but found no takers. It wasn’t as if the league was clamoring to trade for him.”

Tulos rough start in MLB in 2010 – Troy had an OPS of .724 in April and .710 in May. He was off to a rough start and then caught fire in June. Was June’s hot streak a sign of things to come or just a good month? “On July 1st Troy had an OPS of about .800 when we started trade talks. We wanted to get a good young pitcher or a high draft pick in return. It wasn’t going to make sense to have Troy on the bench next season. We thought an .800 OPS was Troy’s true level at the plate and were afraid he would have a 2nd half with more months like April and May. We targeted a few teams and sent out feelers. Our primary target was Clayton Kershaw from LCC but he would not budge. We were offered a 2nd from one club and then a pretty low 1st from another. After it was apparent we could not get Kershaw we countered to LCC with an offer for his 1st. LCC jumped on the deal and we felt we did OK getting back roughly the same pick that we used to take Troy in the first place.”

Troy Explodes – Maybe it was leaving Hanley’s shadow, maybe it was the hope from leaving the perennial last place Chows or maybe it was just finally maturing as a ballplayer – but from July 11 until the end of the season Tulo was one of the very best players in the major leagues.

July 1.013 OPS 7 HR
August 1.005 OPS 5 HR
September 1.037 OPS 7HR
October 1.136 OPS 1 HR

Overall Troy finished with an OPS of .929 raising it over by over 120 points after becoming a Cannibal. Factor in his defense and he is probably a top 10 overall player next season.

Bad Deal – “Looking at our draft analysis it is almost impossible to get full value for Troy with that pick. The guy we draft will not be as meaningful this season and then must outpace Troy the rest of his career. If we were to deal Tulo today we would be getting back a frontline SP, 3B or a bevy of draft picks. Even if we had gotten Kershaw, the deal would look like a bad one now. But on July 11th, we made what we believed was a fair deal at the time. We just couldn’t see having Troy on our bench again and a bad second half would have made him unmovable again this offseason.”