Revisiting 1995 trade deadline deal Hackensack-Phoenix

[felipe]

1995 Trade deadline

Phoenix deals 29 year-old SS Carl ‘Talk the’ Tawk to Hackensack for 27 year-old IF Brett Barberie, 19 year-old AA (#59 prospect) SP David Klopp, and Hackensack’s #1 1996 draft choice.

At the time, this trade was easy to understand; Hackensack, (now Carolina), was chasing an elusive MBBA championship, and Tawk was just the sort of player to help them get it. They finished the 1995 season at an incredible 114-48 but did not ultimately capture the MBBA championship until 1997.

Phoenix was in the midst of a 74-88 season, far behind the division front running Chicago Black Sox, (wow, never thought I’d say that!), and were having trouble re-signing the upcoming 29 year-old free-agent.

It was a good time to dump.

Talk the Tawk was an extremely good second baseman of the time; while never winning a Yogi Zimmer Diamond Glove, he was consistently above +4 Zone Rating with a range consistently + 5 with an def eff usually over 1.000. While (outside of 1997) he never showed prodigious ability at the plate, he was a consistent table-setter who hovered around the .375 OBP much of his career.

GM Hopkins was looking to get anything better than the first round pick he would reasonably expect to acquire when the Type A star hit the open market.

Brett Barberie came in the deal, designed to become a short-time replacement for Tawk at shortstop (where Tawk had played for Phoenix), but never really worked out.

A change in Phoenix managers in 1996 saw Barberie spend most of 1996 in AAA Flagstaff, and thirty-five year-old Porfirio Garza parachuted into Phoenix to play shortstop. Garza’s statline of .253/.303/.434/.736 with 7.9 VORP and a +2.0 ZR, 1.012 def eff, and 3.47 RNG compared favourably to what the club had got from Tawk in 1995: .279/.360/.361/.721 with 11.8 VORP, -4.3 RF, .974 def eff, and 3.37 RF.

So Barberie became a throwaway part of the deal that never worked out. He amassed a -20 VORP over his MBBA career, and was out of the league by the end of 2000.

Astonishingly, so was deal centerpiece thirty-three year-old Carl Tawk. Tawk had put up as astonishing +104 VORP in the four and a half seasons since leaving Phoenix, and had played very good defence at second and third base for first Hackensack and then California. He had won the 1997 MBBA championship with Hackensack.

The story of Tawk the Talk goes cold after the 1999 season; Tawk had played very well at third base in 1999 for California, amassing a +14.4 VORP and a +15 ZR; yet inexplicably his career ended abruptly. We don’t know if he suffered a CEI or if he just abruptly lost his skills over the winter. Going through the (all too brief) California news logs of the time shed no light on the Tawk situation – just noting that he was to be replaced by the forgettable Jason Grass for 2000.

The other main component of the deadline deal was young pitching prospect David Klopp, Hackensack GM Matt Bornac (currently GM of Buffalo), knew he’d have to give up something good to get Tawk, but one wonders if anyone realised, (besides GM Hopkins), just how good Klopp would become.

Klopp became an MBBA all-star in 2002, 04, and 05; winning the Steve Nebraska award as the best pitcher in 2004. He has amassed an incredible 335.5 VORP over the years since the deal. He is still pitching strongly in his twelth MBBA season at the tender age of thirty-two.

But he has not won an MBBA championship…yet.

The number one pick? Well, that’s another part of the murky MBBA history that no one seems to have an answer for. There was no draft in 1996…and Hackensack’s pick never went to Phoenix in 1997.
With the Phoenix managerial change in 1996 (Hopkins to Poppe) and again in 1997 (Poppe to Hopkins), no one seemed to notice that the pick had not been transferred to its rightful owner. Hackensack’s GM, Matt Bornac, left the league midway through 1996 – (never enjoying his team’s 1997 triumph) so he was not on hand to remind the league of the deal. Then the entire franchise shifted to Carolina.

Looks like one slipped through the cracks. Perhaps it’s not too late to remedy the situation…will Carolina’s 2009 first rounder go to Phoenix?

[nerfHerder]

Nice write up. To clear up any confusion, I'll gladly accept the pick.

[jpoppe0219]

thats must be why i bailed (no #1 pick)

[recte44]

Well, since there's no Draft Pick trading in this league nor has there ever been, that IS a mystery.

[felipe]

that is weird...the trade is on page one of approved trades...

[recte44]

Once upon a time "Talk the Tawk" was considered a future star.