Big Giant Massive Honkin' Blockbuster Earth-Shattering Trades

The little trade of Albert Pujols and Robinson Cano for Carl Crawford, Chase Utley, LVI #1, ILL#2, and GRK #4 made me think of former NASBL blockbuster trades. It's not too often that any owner has the nads to either trade one of the undisputed best players in the game or to give up the whole farm for one player.

In my 19 years in NASBL I can recall only two trades of this magnitude.

In the early 1990s, Ken Griffey was the undisputed future of baseball. Juan Gonzalez and David Cone were a little older but were two of the best players in baseball and best cards in the Strat-O-Matic set. Young Willoughby Fighting Monkees manager Mike "Digger" Hutter had Griffey but was looking for more immediate rewards. NASBL founder and Dallas Fort Worth Spurs manager Red Robbins had Cone and Gonzalez. A marriage was made and Juan Gone and Cone were traded for Griffey. All three players dominated baseball for several years. Griffey lost more time to injuries, but Cone and Gonzalez were out of baseball well before Griffey so I would call this trade a draw.

In January of 1997 "trader" Mike Johnson owned the first pick of the NASBL draft. Oklahoma City manager Dave Covert had the 2nd or 3rd pick and coveted a young shortstop by the name of Alex Rodriguez, who Dave knew would go first. I don't remember the exact details but Covert gave up the farm to move up to the first pick in that draft. In fact I remember trader Mike telling me that he had told another owner to "get your own farm team" when that owner complained about how much Mike had gotten for that pick. History has been kind to Dave and ARod has been the kind of franchise player worth trading the farm for.