TOT: Braves Trade for a Water Cooler Beater

I haven't been doing a good job of keeping up-to-date with my work here at the blog, but I am hoping a few changes will help (and subsequently get more post going at my other blog). The offseason is tough to write about, but a series like this can help me stay engaged. Transactions of Today, or TOT because I am super awesome at acronyms, will look at one transaction a day. These posts won't be super long, but will hopefully be interesting. Today's a good one, after all.

Transactions of Today...December 14, 2004 - The Braves complete a deal from December 11 by sending Alec Zumwalt to the Brewers. The Braves had already traded Jose Capellan to Milwaukee for Danny Kolb

Oh, Kolb.

Brought in to replace John Smoltz as the latter went back to the starting rotation, Kolb was coming off an All-Star year where he saved 39 games for Milwaukee. Even with that in mind, he had done it in the weirdest way possible. In 57.1 ING, he struck out just 21 and walked 15. A BABIP of .246 led to Kolb looking a lot better than he actually was, but John Schuerholz still surrendered the 25th best prospect in baseball, according to Baseball America, in Capellan. The latter had a rocket arm and leaped from Myrtle Beach to start 2004 all the way to the bigs.

Ultimately, the deal did little for either side. Kolb logged just 11 saves in 65 games. His biggest moment as a Brave? Beating the crap out of a water cooler. The Braves cut their losses after the season and Kolb returned to Milwaukee before a brief spot with the Pirates. His career came to a close after nine games with the Pawtucket Red Sox in 2008. Cappy pitched in 85 games over the next 2.5 seasons with the Brewers, though found little success. He was particularly homer prone due to a straight fastball that liked to stay belt-high with no life on it. He would pitch for the Tigers and Rockies, but not for very long. He pitched in Korea and kept active in winter leagues through 2013, but never sniffed the majors after 2008.

And Zumwalt? He played in AAA in three different seasons, but never advanced beyond that barrier. He had began his career as an outfielder, but couldn't hit before being moved to pitcher in 2002. He's since moved onto scouting and is an advanced scout for the World Champion Royals who provided some the "advance reports that helped doom the Mets."

Man, even our throw-ins in deals for terrible closers get rings before Andruw Jones.