Jeff Samardzija trade should not have been allowed. Nor the 1997 Mark McGwire trade. No trades during the season should be allowed.

For a league that invokes the best interests of the game as an excuse to enforce all kinds of junk you'd think that not allowing trades during the season would be at the top of the list.  However, the Major Baseball League (MBL) commissioner Allan Huber "Bud" Selig has apparently never even considered this fundamental reform.  He's not alone.  Neither have fans, media people or players.  If something's been going on long enough, it's rarely evaluated.

Jeff Samardzija, Cubs 29 year old starting pitcher, was the primary player in a trade with the Oakland As, the small market team that has the best record in the MBL this season.  This was the trade as shown in baseball-reference.com:

July 5, 2014: Traded by the Chicago Cubs with Jason Hammel to the Oakland Athletics for Billy McKinney (minors), Addison Russell (minors), Dan Straily and player to be named .

No trades during the season. Constitutional amendment 3.  Friday, August 30, 2013

This is pretty much the same for all three U.S. sports.  For a long time baseball has done this the most.  However, with the addition of one more tournament spot in 2012 more teams seem reluctant to give up and trade otherwise good players just to possibly get some benefit a few years later.

Aside from any tactical considerations trades during the season undermine the integrity of the game, yes, much more than use of performance enhancing drugs (PED).

Try this scenario.  A team spends all off season promoting certain players.  Based on that fans buy lots of tickets in advance, including season tickets, i.e., tickets for EVERY game.  Then before the July 31 trading deadline that same team trades some or even all of those featured players.  I'm amazed that fans have yet to file a class action law suit claiming false advertising, etc.

Plus, that team becomes much less competitive immediately.  Any other team that plays them after the best players have been traded has a big advantage over a rival that played the team before it traded its best players.  What happens in 2-3 years does not make up for the impact on the tournament competition this season.

The clown rules that seem to provide incentive for teams substantially changing their roster should be changed or eliminated.
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Mark McGwire 1989
by Silent Sensei from Santa Cruz
via Wikimedia Commons

In 1997 Mark McGwire was on pace to challenge the season home run record: 60 by Babe Ruth in a 154 game schedule, 61 by Roger Maris in a 162 game schedule.  However, McGwire was traded by those same Oakland As to the St. Louis Cardinals during the season.  He hit 58 homers in 1997: 34 with Oakland, 24 with St. Louis.  Nice, huh.  Those Oakland fans must have felt great.  Commissioner Selig did not reject the trade as not being in the best interests of the game.  After all, look at the trade in baseball-reference.com:

July 31, 1997: Traded by the Oakland Athletics to the St. Louis Cardinals for Eric Ludwick, T.J. Mathews and Blake Stein.

McGwire had hit 52 homers the previous season, 49 as an Oakland rookie in 1987.  McGwire had been with Oakland his entire career and he was traded during a possible record breaking season.  In 1998 McGwire broke the record with 70 home runs.  In 1999 McGwire hit 66.  Subsequently, he was held in disgrace by the baseball establishment because he had used performance enhancing drugs (PED).

Forget the damn drugs.  It's the trade that's the disgrace.  Bud Selig, you're a disgrace.