Willie Randolph!

In the fall of 1975, Randolph was 21 years old. He had played in 30 so-so games for the Pirates that year, but had hit .339/.405/.478 in 91 games for AAA Charleston.

In December, apparently desperate to acquire 27 year old pitcher Doc Medich, the Pirates packaged Randolph with another Doc(k), Ellis of the famous LSD no-hitter, and Ken Brett, and shipped the three off to the Yankees in return for Medich and...that was it. Just Doc Medich.

Had the trade happened today (can you see the Pirates sending a prospect to the Yankees today, rather than the other way around? But anyway), the Pirates would be absolutely torn apart in the blogosphere. Medich had gone 14-9, 19-15 and 16-16 over the preceding years, averaging 262 innings a year, but had put up ERA+es of just 99 and 106 in the preceding two years. Ellis, 31 before the next season started, was almost certainly a better pitcher all by himself, but was injury prone and had had an off-year in 1975; Brett, similarly, was about as effective as Medich, but had never thrown as many innings.

The Yankees didn't quite get full value out of their robbery, as they traded Brett a month into his Yankee tenure to the White Sox for Carlos May, who didn't give them much. On the other hand, it wasn't good for the Pirates at all. Randolph's replacement, Ronnie Stennett, put up just 1.2 WAR (per BBREF); Medich threw just 179 innings and was the Pirates' worst starter, putting up -0.5 WAR. Brett and Ellis combined for 5.1 WAR, and Randolph added 4.2. The Pirates finished in second place, nine games behind the Phillies. You can do the math yourself. It's not nearly that simple -- Ellis and Brett would be replacing Medich and someone else, and the other four starters were mostly very good -- but it's close enough that you can see those three players carrying the Pirates to the title.

I worry that because Randolph had such a rocky and high-profile managerial career, and because he's not in the Hall of Fame (and rightfully so, I think), people will forget what an excellent player he was. In his first five years with the Yankees -- from age 21 through 25 -- Randolph never had a WAR below 4.0, peaking at an MVP-level 6.4 in 1980 with a great .294/.427/.407 line, leading the league in walks, scoring 99 runs and stealing 30 bases out of 35 tries. Throughout those years, Randolph was a slap-hitting on-base machine who could draw walks, steal some bases and play great defense (he probably didn't get enough credit for his defense, since he played at the same time as the legendary Frank White).He never had any power to speak of, but he could do everything else well.

The strike year of 1981, just when Randolph should've been hitting his peak at age 26, was not kind to him at all; he played just 93 of his team's 107 games and hit just .232/.336/.305 (88 OPS+, 1.8 WAR). He bounced back from that, though, and settled in for most of the next twelve years (seven more with the Yankees and then two with the Dodgers and one each with the A's, Brewers and Mets) as a solidly above average, and occasionally brilliant, second baseman.

Randolph's second-to-last year, 1991 with Milwaukee, at age 36, was one of the best ever by a late-thirties second baseman (a position that, as I've mentioned before, tends to burn players out faster than any other save perhaps catcher). In 124 games he hit a phenomenal .327/.424/.374, and his speed was gone, but he could still play solid defense. His 4.4 WAR is tied for 13th all-time for second basemen aged 35 or older, and aside from one freakish season by Randy Velarde (seriously, check out his 1999--nothing about that year blends in with the rest of his career at all) and a solid year by a very good player in Eddie Stanky, everyone ahead of him is a Hall of Famer or should be: Lajoie, Collins, Hornsby, Whitaker, Gehringer, Kent, Morgan.

In all, Randolph ends up with 60.5 WAR, 13th among second basemen, shockingly close behind Sandberg and actually a full win ahead of Jeff Kent. He's well ahead of Tony Lazzeri, Joe Gordon, Billy Herman, Johnny Evers, Bobby Doerr, and Red Schoendienst, all Hall of Famers. If you wanted to put him in the Hall, I guess I wouldn't argue with you too much, as long as you put Lou Whitaker and Bobby Grich in first.