One of these became one of the worst deals in Cubs history.
The Cubs had a poor season in 1950, losing 89 games. It was their fourth straight losing season and third straight of 89 losses or more (roughly equivalent to a 94-loss year in a 162-game schedule).
They got off to a modestly good start in ‘51, and after defeating the Phillies 3-2 on June 5, they were 21-20, in fourth place just 5½ games out of first. Not bad, considering the four previous years.
Then they lost eight of their next nine and basically panicked, making a trade that turned out to be just awful. It was one of just four player-for-player deals they made in 1951.
March 7: Acquired Max West from the Indians for Clarence Maddern
Maddern, an outfielder, had played briefly for the Cubs in 1946 and 1948-49, batting .252/.307/.381 in 93 games. He spent all of 1950 in the minors, and went 2-for-12 in 11 games for Cleveland.
West, who had played reasonably well for the Braves from 1938-42, getting downballot MVP votes in three of those five years, missed three years in service in World War II and was not the same player when he returned. At the time of his acquisition he hadn’t played in the majors since 1948. And he never did play for the Cubs at all. It’s sort of a mystery as to why, because in 1951 at age 34 he hit .282/.414/.566 with 35 home runs for the Cubs top farm team in Los Angeles, and basically matched those numbers again in ‘52.
Why you wouldn’t want someone like that on your team is a mystery.
This trade did nothing for either team.
June 15: Acquired Bruce Edwards, Joe Hatten, Gene Hermanski and Eddie Miksis from the Dodgers for Andy Pafko, Johnny Schmitz, Wayne Terwilliger and Rube Walker
This was the Lou Brock trade of its time. No, there wasn’t a future Hall of Famer involved, but Andy Pafko had been an outstanding player for the Cubs for eight-plus seasons, a four-time All-Star who received downballot MVP votes four times. He’d been a key part of the 1945 NL pennant winners and had just completed a 1950 season in which he had batted .304/.397/.591 with 36 home runs, a 6.4 bWAR season. He had just turned 30. He would play well for both the Dodgers and Braves, and appeared in three more World Series (1952, 1957, 1958) and produced 9.8 bWAR after leaving the Cubs.
Schmitz had also been a good pitcher for the Cubs, a three-time All-Star, but the Cubs actually did get this one right — Schmitz wasn’t nearly that good after the deal, though he pitched in the majors as late as 1956.
Terwilliger also continued to be a decent second baseman, including a 4.0 bWAR season for the Senators in 1953.
Walker was part of four NL pennant winners with the Dodgers and a decent backup catcher. Eventually he became a longtime coach with the Mets in the 1960s and 1970s. His brother Verlon, also nicknamed “Rube,” was the Cubs pitching coach briefly in the 1960s before dying young of cancer in 1970.
As for the four guys the Cubs got in this deal? Edwards produced negative bWAR value in 105 games for the Cubs through 1953. Hatten, who had pitched well for a couple of Dodgers pennant winners in the 1940s, posted a 5.51 ERA in 36 games for the Cubs and was done after ‘52. Hermanski, also a good hitter on some Dodgers pennant winners, batted .258/.347/.335 in 192 games for the Cubs, good for 1.4 bWAR. The only player in the deal who produced any real value for the Cubs was Miksis, who was a regular second baseman/shortstop for the team from 1951-56, but even he overall produced negative bWAR value (-0.9).
The deal was not popular with Cubs fans, per Pafko’s SABR biography:
Pafko had become an icon in Chicago and was much admired due to his Midwestern work ethic. Wrigley Field fans reacted angrily to the deal that cost them their hero. The Dodgers were visiting Wrigley when the trade was made. Pafko joined the Brooklynites after the first game of a three-game series. It didn’t help the mood of the Chicago fans when Pafko, hitting in the six hole behind Jackie Robinson and Gil Hodges, hit a solo homer in the seventh inning of a 6-4 Cub win in his first game in Dodger blue.
This was a terrible trade. Can you imagine the Cubs later in the 1950s with Pafko and Ernie Banks on the same team? Or if Pafko and Hank Sauer had been teammates in 1952?
This is one of the worst deals in Cubs history. At least Pafko was brought back into the Cubs fold in his later years, making many appearances at the ballpark. Here he is leading the seventh-inning stretch on June 12, 2008:
October 4: Acquired Johnny Pramesa and Bob Usher from the Reds for Bob Borkowski and Smoky Burgess
Here is another terrible Cubs trade.
Pramesa went 13-for-46 with 1 (yes, one!) run scored in 22 games for the Cubs in ‘52 and never played in the majors again. Usher made exactly one appearance for the Cubs — a pinch-walk against the Cardinals April 26, 1952.
Borkowski spent four years in Cincinnati and had -1.5 bWAR for them.
So why is this a bad trade?
Because Burgess, who the Cubs never really gave a chance (140 games in 1949 and 1951), went on to play 16 more seasons and post 33.5 bWAR for the Phillies, Reds (the Reds traded him to Philadelphia in December 1951, then got him back four years later), Pirates and White Sox. He was the starting catcher for the 1960 Pirates World Series championship team, got downballot MVP votes that year, and was a six-time All-Star. When he couldn’t catch anymore he became a premier pinch-hitter for the White Sox, in 1966 batting .313/.413/.388, basically all as a PH (he caught only two games that year, starting neither).
The Cubs gave up a really good player here essentially for nothing.
October 11: Acquired Bob Addis from the Braves for Jack Cusick
Addis, an outfielder, had a decent year for the Cubs in ‘52, then went just 2-for-12 for them in ‘53 before being traded to the Pirates.
Cusick, an infielder, batted just .167/.226/.179 for the Braves in 1952, then never played in the majors again.
Addis provided marginal positive bWAR value (0.9) and Cusick was a -0.7 for the Braves, but overall this deal did nothing for either team.
For giving up two All-Star major-league players (Pafko and Burgess) and getting pretty much nothing in return, the Cubs’ 1951 trades get an F grade.