Deal or Shit Deal

On February 3, 1979, 28 years ago today, the Minnesota Twins dealt Rod Carew to the Angels for four players, Ken Landreaux, Dave Engle, Paul Hartzell and Brad Havens.

Carew had demanded the trade, wanting to go to a winner. Still, the deal is remarkable for how crappy it is. Rod Carew was one of the best players in baseball at the time, just a season removed from his MVP year in '77 when he hit .388, and coming off a year where he won his second consecutive batting title. A pure hitter, his production would diminish only slightly over the next seven seasons in Anaheim.

Meanwhile, of the four players the Twins got for him, only Landreaux is worth mentioning. He became a serviceable major league outfielder, put up good numbers for Minnesota in '79. The other three guys were pretty much worthless. It's a shit deal any way you slice it, one that can be easily assessed once you look at their baseball cards. I mean, Jesus - would you ever consider trading the Carew card above for the four cards below? You could give me every Kenny Landreaux card ever run in mint triplicate I wouldn't make that deal. Christ, you could just offer me Kenny Landreaux in the flesh as an indentured servant, I'm still not turning over a '71 Carew.