It's been five years since the big trade of the 2005 offseason, in which the Florida Marlins sent starting ace Josh Beckett and third baseman Mike Lowell to the Boston Red Sox in exchange for prospects Anibal Sanchez and Hanley Ramirez.
However, which team got the better end of the deal?
The Florida Marlins?
It sounds weird if you're a Red Sox fan, but if one were to analyze the deal, it might be possible.
It is, after all, a very easy trade to analyze, since it's batter-pitcher for batter-pitcher.
Let's start with the Boston Red Sox.
Third baseman Mike Lowell gave the Sox four full seasons and one season as a bench player in 2010.
In those four seasons, Lowell ranged from 17 to 21 home runs and 70-80 RBI. He hit more than 80 RBI once (120), in the same season in which he touched .300 once (.324)—that is, in 2007, when he was dubbed the World Series MVP.
That was arguably his best season, better than any year he had in Florida.
Josh Beckett was once the ace of the Boston Red Sox.
In 2007, he won 20 games and had an ERA of 3.27, while going 200 innings for the second time in his career for the world champions, the Boston Red Sox.
Other than that, he's had an ERA in the fives on two occasions in 2006 and 2007, to go alongside his two seasons with an ERA in the threes.
Simply put, he has been an on and off kind of guy.
The Marlins, on the other hand, got arguably the best young player in baseball in shortstop Hanley Ramirez.
In the leadoff position, he has given the Marlins similar power numbers to Mike Lowell.
In his rookie year, for example, Hanley hit .292 with 17 home runs and 59 RBI as a leadoff man to win the Rookie of the Year award.
In the four years after that, he ranged from 21 to 33 home runs and 106 RBI, always hitting over .300 with one season in which he hit .342 to win the batting title. That is, 2009.
Anibal Sanchez went 10-3 with a 2.83 ERA in his rookie season, in which he threw a no hitter against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
However, he struggled with injuries in 2007 and 2008 before he came back in 2009 with a 4-8 record, but still had a 3.87 ERA that year.
Last season, he started in 32 games—the most in his career.
He went 13-12 with a 3.55 ERA.
During those five years, it was clearly a great trade for both teams.
Now, in 2011, with Lowell gone and Beckett coming off a 2010 season in which he went 6-6 with a 5.78 ERA in 21 starts, and Sanchez now part of a solid rotation on a team built around Hanley Ramirez in Florida, it looks like the Marlins have the better end of the trade after all.
All they're missing is a ring.
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