Oriole Trade Monitor: A Bit of Perspective

As you may know, I update the Oriole Trade Monitors throughout the season to show how certain trades are working out for Baltimore. I measure the values in terms of WAR (Wins Above Replacement) but I realize that is hard for most people to quantify in real life terms without a frame of reference.

So here's a frame of reference. The Glenn Davis trade of 1991, measured in WAR. Totals listed include all seasons played from the day the trade was made.

Glenn Davis: 0.1 WAR

Curt Schilling: 69.8 WAR
Pete Harnisch: 16.6 WAR
Steve Finley: 40.4 WAR

That's what a lopsided trade looks like. The Orioles gave up 126.8 WAR in talent and got just 0.1 in return. They gave up 1,268 times the value they got back!

On a happier note, the 1976 trade with the Yankees that netted Baltimore, among others, catcher Rick Dempsey. WAR is for years played with New York and Baltimore only.

Tippy Martinez: 6.0 WAR
Rudy May: 2.1 WAR
Scott McGregor: 17.5 WAR
Rick Dempsey: 20.1 WAR
Dave Pagan: -1.5 WAR

Doyle Alexander: 1.1 WAR
Jimmy Freeman: o.o WAR
Ellie Hendricks: 0.2 WAR
Ken Holtzman: -2.8 WAR
Grant Jackson: 1.6 WAR

The O's won this one 45.7 to 0.1. Yep, Rick Dempsey turned out to be the gem of that deal for Baltimore.

Hopefully, this exercise gives a bit of perspective to the Oriole Trade Monitors.

Historical WAR data taken from BaseballProjection.com. Trade data from Baseball-Reference.com.