A Wise Trade, as It Turned Out
Career numbers at the time of the Wise-Carlton trade.
A Wise Trade, as It Turned Out
Bob Vetrone Jr.
This summer is the 40th anniversary of the best single-season performance by a Philadelphia athlete not named Wilt Chamberlain:
Steve Carlton’s magical 1972 campaign.
To mark the occasion, BoopStats has decided to revisit Carlton’s Phillies career every now and again.
This week we touch on his acquisition, coming in a trade from the St. Louis Cardinals for Phillies fan favorite Rick Wise.
Remember, Wise had debuted with the Phillies in 1964 and in June 1971 had tossed a no-hitter and hit two home runs in the same game. So not all Phillies fans were happy with the Feb. 25, 1972, deal.
Carlton had led the National League in losses (19) in 1970, and at the time of the trade he had exactly two more career wins than Wise (77-75). Lefty would extend that margin to 141 by the time his career was over.
Below are the career statistics for Carlton and Wise on the day they were traded for one another.
| Carlton | Wise | |
| Age | 27 | 26 |
| Record | 77-62 | 75-76 |
| ERA | 3.10 | 3.60 |
| Games | 190 | 219 |
| Starts | 172 | 178 |
| Complete Games | 66 | 52 |
| Shutouts | 16 | 13 |
| WHIP | 1.28 | 1.30 |
| Hits/9 Inn. | 8.3 | 9.4 |
| HR/9 Inn. | 0.63 | 0.61 |
| Walks/9 Inn. | 3.2 | 2.4 |
| Strikeouts/9 Inn. | 6.8 | 5.2 |
| Strikeouts/Walk | 2.12 | 2.19 |
I remember being upset at this trade. Boy, was I wrong! Happy to admit it. Lefty was so dominant. The best slider I've seen. The game by Rick Wise is arguably the greatest single-game achievement in MLB history. A no-hitter and two home runs in the same game. Amazing.— phillyinsd- It is a sad thing when journalistic reporting about a team has to dig into the history books for a happy story.— orange rhino
- Orange is so right. I opened this article and it's about...Carlton? Silly.— TomO
- this trade was a bit before my time. i always mis-understood this as a deal where the phillies got a hot prospect and the cardinals got the veteran help. i didn't realize how comparable, career-wise, these two were. why did the cardinals do this deal? were there questions about lefty? did they have too many LH starters?— Krusty
- Think Carlton was inconsistent...had a 19 strikeout game ..but lost, some other issues.— robinlupe
- The deal got done because Carlton wanted more money than the GM was willing to pay him, so they dumped him on the sad sack phillies.— blaqjaq
