The good GM will not trade away the future great player to get the player he needed. One need only to look at Billy Beane for proof of that. And if he must trade good prospect, he won’t trade TWO of them for a reliever, who was at best, a good reliever. Not a great one. He may have had decent ERAs, but, didn’t have the ERA+ that I’d say a great reliever makes. For example his three season streach was not as good as, say, Mike Fetters from 1994-96, but I never heard such high praise for Fetters.
And Seattle dealt away two future All-Stars for him. I think they undervalued the talent they sent the other way.
So wouldn’t that mean he was undervalued ;). Oh, and that’s incorrect. In 1995 with Boston he had an ERA of 2.95 and an ERA+ of 163 (which is good for a starter). He was also 3rd in Cy Young voting that year. And in '97, he had an ERA of 4.25, which is below 4.50.
Totally Wrong! In 2002 with the Cubs, Bellhorn had a higher OBP (.374 compared to .373) and higher SLG (.512 to .444) than this year. His OP+ in 2002 was 133 compared to 107 this year. He had a much better year in 2002, which is only two years removed from his ‘lucky’ season.
Chicago did not appreciate Bellhorn and picked up Grudzielanek in the offseason to take his place.
I don’t particularly care too much one way or the other about the Sox or the Yankees, but I’ll chime in my agreement with what Quercus is saying. I’m a Clevelander born and bred, and when I was in undergrad (95-99), you saw Indians hats and T-shirts everywhere. But those weren’t the real fans. You knew you were dealing with a real Cleveland fan when you saw someone wearing a Browns T-shirt.
As for resentment of the Yankees, it seems to me that a very large part of that has to be that they’re so successful. I mean, the Yankees have won something like a third of all World Series in history. I can see how some folks might therefore want to see them take a fall. But you can hardly say the same about the Red Sox, who have gone the better part of a century without a single Series under their belt.