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Not to toot my own horn, but...

After the Oakland Athletics traded slugger Yoenis Cespedes to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for ace Jon Lester while most ESPN talking heads were lauding the move, I immediately criticized it, as I posted this blog on August 1st - http://thekind-heartedsmartaleck.blogspot.com/2014/08/why-detroits-trade-was-better-than.html. In the writing, I also said that I felt the Detroit Tigers trading Austin Jackson and Drew Smyly for Cy Young award winner David Price would wind up being a better move than Oakland's.

On August 1st, the Oakland Athletics had the best record in the Major Leagues at 66-42 (.611). They were a game up on the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the American League West division. The Detroit Tigers, meanwhile, were 59-47 (.557) and four games ahead of Kansas City in the AL Central. Fast-forward two months and Oakland finished 88-74 (.543) and ten games behind the Angels. Detroit finished 90-72 (.556) and a game ahead of Kansas City. The Athletics then lost to the Royals in the Wild Card game last night, which prevented them from advancing to the divisional round. Detroit will start their divisional series against Baltimore tomorrow night. 

So, since the trade, Oakland went 22-32 (.407), 22-33 (.400) if you include their Wild Card game against Kansas City. Detroit went 31-25 (.554) and will still be playing after that Wild Card game. Oakland's pitching numbers remained near the top in all of baseball after the trade, but their hitting dropped from near the top to near the bottom in the league.

Yeah, I hate to toot my own horn, but... 

http://espn.go.com/mlb/standings/_/date/20140801

http://espn.go.com/mlb/standings/_/date/20140930
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