Friday, July 28, 2017

Who are Luhnow's favorite trade partners?

Trying to evaluate why teams make trades should really be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. That said, there's something to familiarity with another team's GM and their farm system, as Buster Olney wrote the other day. So let's take a look at Luhnow's trade partners. Note: the following numbers involve only trades, not when Team X purchases a player from the Astros (as happened a number of times since Luhnow took over).

First, Luhnow has never made a trade with the Reds, Indians, Twins, Mets, Giants, Mariners, Cardinals, or Nationals.

He has made four trades with two teams: Oakland and Toronto. Jed Lowrie was involved in two of the Oakland trades - one of which was Lowrie and Fernando Rodriguez for Brad Peacock, Chris Carter, and Max Stassi. But perhaps the most notable for our purposes today was the Jacob Nottingham/Daniel Menhaden for Scott Kazmir deal in 2015. The most notable trade with Toronto happened in 2012: the ten-player deal that sent away J.A. Happ, Brandon Lyon, and David Carpenter for a package that brought back Joe Musgrove, Carlos Perez (later traded for Hank Conger), David Rollins, Asher Wojciechowski, Kevin Comer, as well as Ben Francisco and Francisco Cordero.

Luhnow has made three trades with...
Arizona - notably Chris Johnson for Bobby Borchering and Marc Krauss.
Miami  - Not only did he get them to take Carlos Lee, but he fleeced them for Jake Marisnick, Colin Moran, Francis Martes, and the pick that turned into Daz Cameron.
New York Yankees - One of the most recent trade partners, Brian McCann came to the Astros for Albert Abreu and Jorge Guzman.
San Diego - Most notably trading the out-of-options Dan Straily for Opening Day Clown Erik Kratz.

Luhnow has made two trades with...
Boston - Mark Melancon for Jed Lowrie and Kyle Weiland
Colorado - Brandon Barnes and Jordan Lyles for Dexter Fowler
Kansas City - Notably Justin Maxwell for Kyle Smith
LA Dodgers - Josh Fields for Yordan Alvarez
Milwaukee - Josh Hader, Domingo Santana, Brett Phillips, and Adrian Houser for Mike F. Fiers and the Rangers' outfielder.
Philadelphia - Vince Velasquez, Brett Oberholtzer, Tom Eshelman, Mark Appel, and Harold Arauz for Ken Giles and Jonathan Arauz. Remember that the Phillies almost acquired Derek Fisher in that trade.
Texoma - Most notably Carlos Corporan for Akeem Bostick

And the one-night stand trade partners:
Atlanta - Mike Foltynewicz, Rio Ruiz, and Andrew Thurman for Evan Gattis and James Hoyt.
Baltimore - Bud Norris for Josh Hader, L.J. Hoes, and the comp pick that turned into Derek Fisher.
Chicago Cubs - Dexter Fowler for Dan Straily and Luis Valbuena
Chicago White Sox - Brett Myers for Matt Heidenreich, Blair Walters, and PTBNL Chris Devenski
Detroit - Jose Veras for Danry Vasquez and PTBNL David Paulino
Anaheim - Carlos Perez and Nick Tropeano for Folk Hero Hank Conger
Pittsburgh - Wandy Rodriguez for Robbie Grossman, Colton Cain, and Rudy Owens
Tampa Bay - Ben Francisco for PTBNL T.J. Geith.

Is there anything useful here in order to predict what could happen over the next four days? No. But lists are fun and I love generating #content.