Looking back at trades: Taylor Teagarden for Randy Henry

[Jordan Tuwiner]

On December 1, 2011, the Orioles dealt RHP Randy Henry to the Rangers for C Taylor Teagarden.

Here were some reactions at the time of the trade:
Tucker - viewtopic.php?t=618&p=4888#p4865

Not terribly impressed with the trade. I love Teagarden as the backup C, but did not like giving up Randy Henry for him. He throws 97, and Don mentioned that he has potential to be in the back end of the bullpen at some point in 2012.
The Orioles did have a surplus in the low minors of guys like this but I still think it's a little much to give up for a backup C. Maybe this shows how heated the market is though. A lot of team are in the hunt for a C.

ofahn - viewtopic.php?t=618&p=4888#p4866

Teagarden is a solid low cost backup that we have control over for years. Henry was just a prospect but I think he was a good one and, obviously, the Rangers agreed. That being said, we have many more like Henry in our system including Ashur Tolliver, Ryan Berry, Cameron Coffey, and Clayton Schrader.

I always thought that we picked up a lot potential trade chips in the 2009 draft. Over the next few years we may see some of these guys on the ML roster as well as few other players that we acquired because we had some trade bait. Now if we would have just chosen Mike Leake with the first pick...........................

Me - viewtopic.php?t=618&p=4888#p4869

Not a fan of this deal. I guess if they felt he was the best backup catcher available, it's fine. But Henry's a solid prospect but I'm not sure it was worth it to deal a potential setup man, possibly a closer, for a backup C.

Shorebirdfan - viewtopic.php?t=618&p=4888#p4869

Have to chime in here. This is not a good deal. Dime a dozen? Not even close. Henry has EXCEPTIONAL stuff. Throws 97 with a nasty slider that sits around 88-90 and simply breaks off the table. Dime a dozen? For an organization that simply cannot find a closer without spending $8 million on re-treads that cannot get anyone out? I don't think so. (Has that closer snarl on the mound too).
Additionally, (and I cannot say enough about this), Randy is one of the nicest young men I've met. I remember late in the 2010 season when injuries had ended his year and he stopped back at Delmarva before heading home he took the time to stop and spend a lengthy amount of time speaking with my wife and daughter (who are huge fans) just to update them on how he was feeling. In this day of Penn State and Syracuse and NBA and NFL lockouts, we need players with character (and talent) and Randy has more than enough of both to go around.

Lastly, Randy is a fan of this site. Best wishes young man, my family and I wil certainly look forward to rooting you on as the Rangers closer in 2013.

At the time, most were against the trade.

Teagarden came up with some clutch hits this past year but I am not sure he was worth Randy Henry. Of course we can't judge the trade really until Henry is well into his career.

Henry put up a .98 ERA with 25 strikeouts and 7 walks in 27 innings as a reliever in High-A. As a starter he struck out 40 and walked 25 in 55.2 IP. His GO/AO on the year was 1.53.

Looking back, I am still not a fan of this trade. What are your thoughts on one of Duquette's first moves?

[Old Sneakers]

I think he saw that the team's situation at back up C was weak. He pulled the trigger on what he could get with what he could part with. Not great, nor thrilling. It was likely what had to be done at the time. Sadly Henry was a pretty solid prospect and we lost a valuable arm.

[ofahn]

I understood it

Teagarden is a solid low cost backup that we have control over for years. Henry was just a prospect but I think he was a good one and, obviously, the Rangers agreed. That being said, we have many more like Henry in our system including Ashur Tolliver, Ryan Berry, Cameron Coffey, and Clayton Schrader.

but didn't like it. We simply didn't have a legit backup C in our system and had to look for one somewhere else. Teagarden is a young, affordable, controllable, solid defender. It was a thin market last winter and remains one this winter. Clearly, we didn't see Taylor at his best this season; however, I think the team traded from the only surplus we had to get something we needed.

If you want a villain to blame for why we had to give up Randy, look at Peter Angelos who couldn't understand WHY we needed to out spend the rest of baseball in the draft and International signings from about 2003 until last year in order stock a farm system that was so barren it couldn't even produce one lousy backup C.

[Old Sneakers]

A huge era of being able to amass talent via the draft is forever lost. Yes, we could have spent a great deal more and loaded our system with players with more talent and upside. Taking the risk in money some certainly would've been busts regardless. But all in all we missed a big opportunity as well.

I always wondered was it totally Peter Angelos at the root of it though. Andy McPhail did some good things as well as Joe Jordan. But the 2005, 2006 and 2009 drafts have really hurt this team.

Internationally no excuses for anyone. Talent has been out there and it was mostly ignored for too long.

[ofahn]

I always wondered was it totally Peter Angelos at the root of it though. Andy McPhail did some good things as well as Joe Jordan. But the 2005, 2006 and 2009 drafts have really hurt this team.

As I understand it PA was FURIOUS that he spent a BUNCH of money on the 1999 draft and everyone but Roberts was a bust, and some never made it past AA. By the time it became obvious that the farm system was incapable of resupplying the team, we started buying "free" agents in 2004 or so. Of course, THAT didn't work because it was patching the tires on an old and tired team. PA was simply unwilling to admit that 1) HE was wrong; 2) HE had hired MORONS to run his farm system; 3) he needed to start all over again with prospects and build a winner.

When MacPhail was hired he finally allowed more money to be spent on the draft, but no where NEAR enough to fill all the holes in the ML roster, much less build a farm system that could produce a steady amount of talent. Apparently, even MacPhail couldn't get PA to see the benefit of investing in International talent. When the only thing we could call a prospect in our farm system was a tough looking bat boy with an HGH needle in his arm the Twins (YES, the FREAKIN TWINS) out bid us for Miguel Sano, now considered one of the best hitting prospects in the game. I'm STILL shaking my head over that one.

Yes, PA has pulled a large portion of his head out of his behind over the last few years and actually allowed (kind of) baseball people that know what they're doing to run his team, BUT remember how badly he wrecked this club as he worked SO DAMN HARD inserting his cranium into his rectal orifice.

[Old Sneakers]

Yep! Word for word the truth!

I just find it remarkably odd it took him so long to learn that the team could have improved greatly had he just put the right people in place and invested in the draft.

Not so much here on this forum, but many have suggested the stocksills (sp?) have done a fair share of mismanagement as well.

The entire minor league system suffered immeasurably for a long time. Really the past two years it's been better. However, each year I am irked by the Orioles own press articles regarding the minor league system just flowing with talent. It's not true at all. We've got two good looking prospects and a gigantic drop off after that.

[ofahn]

Not so much here on this forum, but many have suggested the stocksills (sp?) have done a fair share of mismanagement as well.

I've always included hiring and protecting INCOMPETENTS as part of Angelos' destructive meddling.

[osforlife]

Didn't this trade include Greg Miclat too?

[mikezpen]

I don't like the trade either, despite Teagarden's occasional transformation into Roy Hobbs and the fact that he won something like 11 games w/those 9 hits of his.

I never saw the need to make this trade because backup catchers are a dime a dozen,and they could have simply signed one. They gave up a lot here; Henry in particular could come back to haunt them.

[ofahn]

To update this trade, Teagarden was resigned for 2013 and Randy Henry was left unprotected for today's Rule 5 Draft by Texas. Jarret Martin, who we traded for Eveland, was left unprotected by LA.

While these moves don't validate my opinion that we traded two "spare parts" to get pieces that would help us in 2012, you have to wonder if WE would have protected them if they were still on our roster. Maybe this was Duquette looking several moves ahead again.

[LA Detective]

I think if we dont have a full time DH then I think you will see Weiters do more DHing. I think Weiters offensive numbers would take a big jump if we could get him catching for 125 games and DH for 25 or so. It could only be done with a good Defensive catcher because of what Weiters does behind the plate. Teagarden looks like he gives us that option.