Mordecai Brown by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview
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Mordecai Brown
Page 28
43-94, a ridiculous 46½ games back. Despite Brown’s promise, St. Louis was nervously mired in a constant roster churn and looking for immediate pitching help.
This was a straight player for player trade, not a purchase or waiver move. The Cardinals believed Jack Taylor was the better pitcher. Taylor had just thrown 312 innings with a 2.45 ERA in 1903 and had led the league with a 1.29 ERA the year before.
They didn't yet realize Brown was about to become a generational ace. Brown had shown promise but wasn't yet the legend he would become.
Chicago was said to have been willing to move Taylor because he was under suspicion for throwing exhibition games against the White Sox-something that made the Cubs eager to unload him. Whether that was their true feeling or an attempted ruse will never be determined with any accuracy.
What is an indisputable fact is that Brown went on to win 20+ games six straight seasons for the Cubs and became the anchor of their 1906-1910 dynasty.
Though this trade is viewed as one of the all time worst it was really not due only to the first transaction. Taylor, didn’t do all that bad for the nervously moving Cards. In fact he did rather well. But he was then traded back to Chicago in July