This is the second edition of a series of posts called “Trade Lines.” For the first edition (and what they are all about, go here).

With the Cardinals coming to town today, I decided to do the trade lines from the last major deal we made with the St. Louis Cardinals, which was shipping out disgruntled third baseman Scot Rolen and nobody pitcher Doug Nickle for infielder Placido Polanco, and pitchers Mike Timlin and Bud Smith. Rolen first came up with the club at the tail end of the 1996 season, and won the Rookie of the Year award for the National League the next year (his first full year). He lasted in Philadelphia until July of 2002, when he was shipped out.

Doug Nickle was somewhat of a journeyman throughout his career. The Phils got him from the Angels in the ‘98 offseason for outfielder Greg Jefferies. He did not last long at all for the Cards, because the San Diego Padres claimed him off of waivers in August of 2002. After the Padres, he has pitched for the Angels (again), White Sox and Dodgers AAA teams. He has not appeared in the majors since 2002.

Placido Polanco was the Phillies third baseman immediately after Rolen’s departure, and slid over to second when Doug Bell was “imported” from the Giants in 2003. He lasted until the 2005 deadline (a.k.a. Year 1 of the “Utley Experience”), when he was dealt to the Detroit Tigers for reliever Ugueth Urbina (pronounced oo-GET), and infielder Ramon Martinez. Neither made an impact on the team, nor returned in 2006 (Urbina went to jail, and Martinez left for the Dodgers). So, 3 years after he left, we have nothing left to show for Polanco, though Urbina’s sticky situation is no one’s fault but his own.

Mike Timlin was a solid, 12-year veteran pitcher when the Phillies obtained him (if somewhat unpopular). He had a decent season (giving up a career-best 14 walks), but left as a free agent to the Boston Red Sox after the season, where he rejuvenated his career. We have nothing left to show for him.

Bud Smith (the final player in the deal), never saw the light of the major leagues again after the Cardinals traded him. The reliever was, putting it nicely, one of the majors biggest disappointments this decade. His no-hitter as a rookie in September of 2001 against the Padres is most assuredly his biggest achievement in life. The highest he pitched for the Phillies was AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in 2002 and 2004. He was largely hurt throughout his short Philly tenure, and pitched sparingly in 2003 for both AA Reading, and High A Clearwater. After 2004, he departed for the Twins, and has since pitched in the Golden Baseball League (independent ball) in 2006 and 2007 for the Long Beach Armada. We got nothing out of him, except for a few minor league strikeouts.

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Where are they now?

Rolen went on to win the 2006 World Series with St. Louis, before being dealt to Toronto after 2007 for fellow third baseman Troy Glaus, where he is currently. Rolen has been hurt several times in his career, and, at age 33, is at nearing the end of his illustrious career.

Nickle retired after 2004 after having being largely anonymous in his brief career.

Polanco, as mentioned, was traded to the Detroit Tigers in 2005. He is still playing for them, and won the 2006 pennant. Earned a place in the all-star game in 2006 as the starting second baseman.

Timlin, now 42, is still pitching for the Red Sox and has been an integral part of the World Series-winning 2004 and 2007 Boston bullpens.

Smith is now out of baseball after pitching in the indy leagues, trying to salvage his once-promising career.

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Trivia Section

Who was the last Cardinal to wear 51 (the former number of fan favorite Willie McGee)?

It’s around Seven minutes long. Topics covered include the transactions for the week (JRoll and Snelling to the DL, and the replacements), and what the Phils can do to replace the MVP and Victorino.

Update: Stupid WordPress won’t let me post it here. You’re going to have to go to philliestk.podbean.com to see/hear it (not too difficult), or search for it in the iTunes library. I submitted it today, so it should be available for download in a few days.

It seems that everyone is changing the design of their uniforms lately.

==UPDATE==This post is too long for the home page. Click to read it.

The final Devil Rays logo.  01-07.

First the Tampa Bay Rays did it (along with a name change) changed from the Green motif to the ugly blue/sun colored unis.

New Phillies alternate unis.

Then, the Phillies introduced the new “retro” style alternate, as did the Cleveland Indians. They introduced an off-white home alternate similar to the ones from the 1960s.

New Indians alterante uniforms.

Jose Guillen modeling KC’s new powder blues.

Then the Kansas City Royals brought back the powder blues from the 1980s (when they lost to the Phightins in the 1980 World Series) as an alternate. The latest major league team to bring back uniforms is the Toronto Blue Jays. They used the 1977 (their inaugural year) road uniforms as the new “Friday Night Jerseys”. They also changed the font color on the aways from gray to Jays blue.

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The Major Leagues are not the only teams to bring on new uniforms. The minor leagues are catching on with the trend as well. In AAA, the new team Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs introduced rocking uniforms. It is a great offset to the terrible name. The Fresno Grizzlies (with the SF Giants) got rid of the atrocious “golf club” logo (as named by the staff of Baseball America) and replaced it with an

New Fresno hat insignia.

New Grizzlies logo.

awesome one. I especially like the hat insignia (the F with the claw marks

NewRiverCats logo.

through it).  Lastly, The Sacramento River Cats (Oakland Athletics AAA) trashed the “background noise” (the bridge and some buildings) and kept the rest as the new logo.

Down in AA, the Phillies’ own Reading affiliate changed everything. They introduced “bubble gum” as the trim color for the jerseys, they changed the logo, they added a Pagoda-style patch, and they added four new uniforms to the mix (one of which is a throwback to the 1980 Philadelphia aways). The rival Trenton Thunder (NY Yankees AA) brought in a new uniform. It’s an anthropomorphic cloud with a thunder bolt as a bat. I believe it is the first good uniform in team

New Thunder logo.

history.

A third change in the EL is the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, who are with the Toronto Blue Jays. The new logo features a furtive Fisher Cat that appears to be on the prowl. They also went from a green color to more of a turquoise color in the

New NH logo.

logo.

Over in the Southern League, the Huntsville Stars (Houston Astros) went from an ’80s-esque logo radiating from the center to a new millenium-type logo, which features a rocket taking off, with a baseball in orbit around a star acting as the ‘A’ in Stars.

New Huntsville logo design.

NW Ark. inaugural logo. What the heck is it?

Over in the Texas League, another relocating team now known as the Northwest Arkansas Naturals (KC Royals) moved from Wichita, Kansas,where they were known as the Wranglers. What the logo is supposed to be is up for debate, as I have no idea what it is supposed to be. I can only discern a waterfall (or something) with a baseball coming out of it. Not the best logo I’ve seen. Not even close. But I have seen far

worse (two that comes to mind is the previous two Trenton logos–the “Thunder Bird”, and the Thor logo).

Amazingly, only one team in all of the high A leagues changed appearance. That team was the Lancaster Jet Hawks (Boston Red Sox). They went from a flying purple hawk shaped like a jet, to a red hawk’s head surrounded by wings that look like the ones stewardesses give to little kids on airplanes. It also has a baseball-bat-cross with a ball in the middle.

New Lancaster (CA) logo.

First (and only) Swing logo.

Current Quad Cities logo.

In low A ball, the Swing of the Quad Cities (affiliated with St. Louis Cardinals) changed their name back to the Quad Cities River Bandits (the name they had from 1992 through 2003). The look switched to the one they had with the first River Bandits moniker. It is a raccoon-looking animal with a Cowboy hat with a bridge in the background. It features the words “Quad Cities” in blocks underneath of the aforementioned bridge. River Bandits is written in cursive beneath “Quad Cities”.

Way down in Rookie ball, your very own Williamsport CrossCutters changed their appearance. They went

New Williamsport logo.

from a lumberjack in Pirates colors with a hat over his eyes and a huge black mustache covering everything on his face below his nose. The trajectory from his swing was pictured (why this is true is beyond me) with a gray line. It didn’t look so good. The new logo has a built, plaid-clad lumberjack facing forward with two new logs hoisted over his shoulders, one of which is shaped like a bat. The word “Crosscutters” is written at the bottom in bifurcated red and silver letters.

Returning to baseball after a two year hiatus, Pulaski, Virginia comes back with a

Seattle Mariners logo. I can imagine that Pulaski’s will look similar.

Mariners affiliate in the rookie level Appalachian League. The logo has not been released to the public, though I am sure it would look similar to the ML counterpart. By far, my most favorite change of all was the Casper, Wyoming team. They changed their name from Rockies to Ghosts (possible allusion to the 1995 movie?). The new logo has a demonic-looking baseball ghost with “Casper Ghosts”

written in gray below it. Get this–and this is my favorite part–the whole thing glows in the dark! How creepy awesome would it be to have 9 players out on the field at one time in glowing uniforms?