I have a feeling the Angels will reap benefits from the Dan Haren trade for years to come, even if not this season, but since it just happened it can't crack the top five trade deadline deals of the past decade by the Dodgers and Angels.
5) Angels trade Jorge Fabregas, Johnny Raburn, and Pedro Liriano to the Brewers for Alex Ochoa and Sal Fasano on July 31, 2002
The Angels would go on to win the World Series in 2002. Ochoa hit .277/.373/.477 in 75 plate appearances and filled in defensively at times in the outfield, but the key to the deal was Fasano. He may have only caught two games, and amassed all of one plate appearance, but it's hard to deny the power of the best mustache in the game:
4) The Dodgers traded Cesar Izturis to the Cubs for Greg Maddux and cash on July 31, 2006
The light-hitting Izturis had already lost his starting shortstop job to Rafael Furcal, and was under contract for $4.45 million in guaranteed money after 2006. The Dodgers turned him into Greg Maddux, who was owed roughly $3 million for the remainder of the season, and got the Cubs to pay $2 million of that. Maddux didn't allow a hit in his first game as a Dodger (in a rain-shortened, six-inning start), and went 6-3 down the stretch, including winning the playoff-berth-clinching game in San Francisco on the penultimate day of the season.
3) The Angels traded Casey Kotchman and Steve Marek to Atlanta for Mark Teixeira on July 29, 2008
Kotchman was long an Angels top prospect, and his dad was a long-time coach in the organization, but it was an easy choice to trade him for Teixeira, at a much smaller price than Atlanta paid to Texas for Teixeira one year earlier (Elvis Andrus, Neftali Feliz, Matt Harrison, Jarrod Saltalamacchai). The Angels were already 11½ games up in the division, and in a sense didn't need Tex, but his performance was so great in Anaheim (.358/.449/.632 with 13 home runs in 54 games) that this trade deserved mention.
2) The Dodgers traded Koyie Hill and Billy Murphy to Arizona for Steve Finley and Brent Mayne on July 31, 2004
Finley stabilized the Dodger outfield, taking over in center field and starting the final 52 games of the season. In 58 games as a Dodger, Finley hit 13 home runs (giving him a career-high 36 on the season) and drove in 46 runs, hitting .263/.324/.491. However, Finley makes this list because on October 2, he hit a division-clinching walk-off grand slam against the Giants.
1) The Dodgers traded Andy LaRoche and Bryan Morris to Pittsburgh in a three-way trade, and received Manny Ramirez and cash from Boston on July 31, 2008
Ramirez, who wore out his welcome after seven and a half years with the Red Sox, was the perfect addition for the Dodgers in that he didn't cost a lot in prospects or money (all the Dodgers had to pay was the $1 million bonus Manny received for being traded). The Dodgers were two games behind Arizona at the time of the trade, and with Manny they won the division by two games. Ramirez had the best two-month stretch of his career, hitting .396/.489/.743 with 17 home runs and 53 RBI in 53 games. He became the first Dodger to have as many RBI as games played since Oyster Burns in 1890. With Ramirez, the Dodgers swept the Cubs in the NLDS, winning their first playoff series in 20 years, before succumbing to the Phillies in the NLCS. Ramirez continued his hot hitting in October, hitting .520/.667/1.080 with four home runs in eight playoff games.
We have five days until this year's trade deadline. Aside from the Haren deal, will the Angels or Dodgers make a deal as good as these?
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