There’s an old baseball adage among GMs that the first two months of the season are for seeing what your team has and what it needs, the next two months are spent improving your team and fillings its gaps, and the last two are the final product fighting to the finish line.

Once upon a time there were two mid-market teams who hadn’t made the playoffs for a couple years and through two months of the season were competing for a playoff birth. Both were in the same position. Both have payrolls within $2.5 million of each other. One team traded a couple of prospects away for a big-name star that performed really well, while the other pretty much stood pat and slowly faded away into oblivion over the next few months. Sound familiar?

Last year, Milwaukee traded away prospects to get C.C. Sabathia, a deal that got them their first playoff birth in over 25 years. He started 17 games and had a 1.65 ERA (260 ERA+) and was the talk of all of baseball as he dominated his way through opposing lineups. He was a Type A free agent at the end of the season… meaning the Brewers were going to get (or, were supposed to get) supplemental draft picks at the end of the season. They ended up riding his back to the postseason, as other contenders in the NL Wild Card race eventually faded away.

This year, St. Louis traded away prospects to get Matt Holliday, a deal that will send them to the playoffs for the first time since they won the World Series in 2006. Since Holliday was acquired from the Oakland A’s he’s hit .379/.432/.702 with 12 HR in 161 AB… that’s incredible, and now the Cardinals have the largest division lead in the NL. It’s not a coincidence.

Holliday is also a Type A free agent, meaning St. Louis should get some draft picks for their trouble. Both teams gave up a pretty elite prospect (Matt LaPorta and Brett Wallace) for each stud, and each is benefiting from the transaction.

This year it looks like it’s St. Louis’ for the taking… last year Milwaukee did the exact same thing but they couldn’t take advantage of the Phillies while the Cardinals didn’t do anything at the deadline and slowly faded away. This year it’s the other way around. It’s their turn now, go figure.

Filed under:
milwaukee brewers by Cody