No-trade cause: Change is not always for the better

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The Phillies wanted CC Sabathia. The Rays wanted Jason Bay.

David Price's call-up was an important move for the Rays. (Getty Images)

They both thought they needed midseason help. We thought so, too. So when the July 31 deadline passed, we called them losers. Three months later, it looks like they were wrong, and so were we.

So welcome to the World Series of (trade deadline) losers.

It's funny how things worked out. Back in that last week of July, we were all so sure that Mark Teixeira was the player the Angels really needed to put them over the top.

"Teixeira's a great player," Phillies first-base coach Davey Lopes said Monday. "But did he knock in any runs in the playoffs?"

The answer is yes. Teixeira drove in one run. Matt Stairs has driven in two -- and a pretty big two, if we remember right.

"One little piece can be better than a bigger piece," Lopes said.

The Phillies got Stairs in a little-noticed trade at the end of August, acquiring him from Toronto for a player to be named later ("I was right in this clubhouse when they told me," Stairs said Monday at Tropicana Field). The Rays finally got a reliever when they picked up Chad Bradford on Aug. 7.

The Rays also got Rocco Baldelli back from the disabled list. They brought David Price up from the minor leagues. Now Price has one more postseason win (and also one more save) than Sabathia had for the Brewers.

"It's the way baseball is, I guess," Phillies general manager Pat Gillick said. "I mean, we'd have liked to have had one of those guys who went to Milwaukee (Sabathia) or Los Angeles (Ramirez), I won't lie. But we weren't able to get them."

Gillick sent his lieutenants all over the baseball world looking for a starting pitcher, and the best they could come up with was Joe Blanton. Blanton won four games for the Phillies, and one more so far in the postseason, but it turned out the biggest addition to the rotation was a revitalized Brett Myers.

The Phillies searched everywhere for relief help, too, coming up empty. Then Ryan Madson's fastball went from 92 mph to 99, and suddenly they had themselves a true setup man in front of closer Brad Lidge.

"We used to think about getting the ball to Brad in the ninth," Phils reliever Chad Durbin said. "Now we think about getting it to Ryan in the eighth."