Top Nine Players Mohawk Valley Gave Up On Too Early

By Matt Eddy

Every manager knows the sense of regret that comes with releasing or trading a player too early, only to see him find success with a new team.

The Lions still rue trading Brandon Morrow before he
blossomed north of the border

Mohawk Valley knows the feeling all too well, having given up on at least nine players the club drafted and then unceremoniously dumped before they blossomed in the big leagues. This doesn't necessarily mean the players would have been Strat-O-Matic monsters, but these players had obvious utility in their post-Lions careers.

1. Brandon Morrow, rhp
2008 draft (3rd round)

Perhaps the worst trade in club history occurred after the 2009 season, when the Lions dealt Morrow to the Stars for Chris Volstad. Morrow spent three wild years in the Mariners bullpen (5.8 BB/9) before growing into a power starter with the Blue Jays (9.8 SO/9) from 2010-12, while Volstad never did much of anything in MLB or the MMDA.

2. C.J. Wilson, lhp
2008 draft (5th round)

Wilson spent his early career as a wild, sporadically-effective reliever, but the Lions had released him by the time he anchored back-to-back AL pennant-winning rotations in 2010-11 with the Rangers.

3. Omar Infante, 2b
2003 draft (4th round)

A steady defensive second basemen with good contact skills and consistently good production against lefthanders, Infante joined the Clippers in an ill-advised midseason 2011 trade for Kyle Blanks.

4. Colby Lewis, rhp
2003 draft (2nd round)

Lewis dealt with shoulder trouble early in his career and failed to establish himself with the Rangers, Tigers, Nationals, Athletics or Royals. Even the Lions gave up on him and flat-out released him. Everything clicked into place when Lewis spent two years in Japan, however, and he returned to the U.S. as a strike-throwing stalwart with the 2010 Rangers.

5. Chris Denorfia, of
2007 draft (6th round)

Another player released a year too soon, Denorfia is the rare position player who had Tommy John surgery and missed a season. Thus the Lions released him in 2008, only to watch him become one of the best righthanded platoon outfielders in the game.

6. Justin Turner, util
2012 draft (4th round)

The Lions foolishly traded Turner to the Razorbacks following the 2012 season for light-hitting backup catcher Chris Stewart. All "Red" did in 2014 was hit .340/.404/.493 for the Dodgers, while starting at all four infield positions.

7. Scott Hairston, of
2005 draft (2nd round)

Hairston returned to his original MMDA organization in 2013, but he enjoyed his best years on other rosters after the Lions traded him (and Ryan Doumit, by the way) for Gabe Gross prior to the 2007 season. Anyone remember Gabe Gross?

8. Michael Saunders, of
2010 draft (4th round)

This doozy of a trade sent Saunders to the Beaz for Fernando Martinez not long after the 2010 draft. Saunders is no star, but he's a far sight better than F-Mart, who presumably is too ashamed to return to affiliated ball after his Biogenesis-related 50-game suspension to finish 2013.

9. David Carpenter, rhp
2012 draft (7th round)

The Lions took a seventh-round flier on Carpenter at the end of the 2012 draft, but they gave up on the converted catcher too soon. Once the Braves sprinkled their magic reliever dust on him, he became a legitimate bullpen weapon with a 1.12 WHIP and near 4-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 2013-14.