The Colby Rasmus trade: Who has gotten better value so far

Right before the non-waiver trade deadline, the Cardinals got Edwin Jackson,   Octavio Dotel and Marc Rzepczynski, and Corey Patterson. The Blue Jays got Colby Rasmus, P.J. Walters, Trever Miller and Brian Tallet. For the Jays, Colby Rasmus was a disaster in 2011, a -.9 WAR and injury problems. Trever Miller was a really pointless pickup, registering a 0 WAR in 3.2 IP, was released and signed by the division rival Red Sox. Tallet managed to pick up a -.6 WAR despite only pitching .1 innings for the Jays. Walters threw just 1 inning and registered a 0 WAR. For the Cardinals Edwin Jackson had a .8 WAR, Dotel had a .2, Corey Patterson had a -.4 WAR, and Rzepczynski had a .1 WAR. For the Cardinals, the trade had a slightly positive effect, and they needed everything they could get with their improbable comeback to sneak into the wild-card. For Toronto, the trade was for the future, but the players they got actually hurt them down the stretch.

Corey Patterson has been a disaster for the Cardinals

In one of his final games as a Toronto Blue Jay, Corey Patterson was put in as a substitute fielder in the bottom of the 9th in Texas. He misjudged a ball, it sailed over his head and the Rangers won on a walk off. Yesterday, the Cardinals were up by 1 in the 9th, and a Corey Patterson error caused them to go into extra innings (they won anyway, beating the Phillies). Granted, it was his 1st error as a Cardinal and he had a slightly positive defensive WAR coming into the day as a Cardinal, but he has been absolutely atrocious on offense, with a .180 OBP, .416 OPS, 0 homers or steals, and just 3 rbis since coming over at the end of August. In the massive trade between the two teams, there were some curious players included. It didn't make any sense for the Blue Jays to pick up Trever Miller (who has already been released and picked up by the Red Sox), and I certainly wasn't excited about the Cardinals picking up Corey Patterson (he isn't a young prospect or anything). Yes he is making very little by Major League standards ($900,000), and had a WAR of .9 with the Blue Jays this year (giving him a very nice WASP of 666 for his 4 months as a Blue Jay), but he has racked up a -.4 WAR as a Cardinal (because they are giving him so little money for his two months of play, his WASP is still very good). It was a small risk for the Cardinals, but its hard to imagine that Patterson would be this bad.