In seeking a third consecutive pennant, the Cardinals traded six players to get a No. 5 starter for their rotation.
On Dec. 3, 1968, the Cardinals acquired pitcher Dave Giusti from the Padres for infielder Ed Spiezio, outfielder Ron Davis, catcher Danny Breeden and pitcher Philip Knuckles.
Two months earlier, on Oct. 11, 1968, the Cardinals got Giusti and catcher Dave Adlesh from the Astros for catchers Johnny Edwards and Tommy Smith, but three days later the Padres selected Giusti in the National League expansion draft.
The Cardinals, who won league championships in 1967 and 1968, were determined to add Giusti to a 1969 starting rotation with Bob Gibson, Steve Carlton, Nelson Briles and Ray Washburn, but the payoff didn’t match the price.
In exchange for Edwards, Smith, Spiezio, Davis, Breeden and Knuckles, the Cardinals got a pitcher who earned three wins in his lone season with them.
Houston calling
Giusti was a successful college pitcher at Syracuse and nearly signed with the Cardinals when he turned pro in June 1961. The Cardinals and Houston Colt .45s each offered Giusti a signing bonus of $35,000 and Giusti was leaning toward choosing St. Louis, partly because his former Syracuse roommate, Doug Clemens, was a Cardinals outfielder.
“If the Cardinals had hurried just a bit at that point, they undoubtedly would have landed Giusti,” The Sporting News reported.
Giusti opted for the Colt .45s, who were entering the National League as an expansion club in 1962, because he said “it would be the fastest way to the big leagues.”
Giusti made his major-league debut in April 1962 and developed into a durable starter for the club, which was renamed the Astros in 1965. In each of three consecutive seasons (1966-68), Giusti reached double digits in wins and topped 200 innings pitched.
During the off-seasons, Giusti, who earned a master’s degree in physical education, was a substitute teacher in a Syracuse suburb.
Giusti was delighted when the Cardinals acquired him from the Astros. With Dal Maxvill at shortstop, “I’ll have more experience behind me at that spot than I’ve had before,” Giusti said, and with an outfield of Lou Brock, Curt Flood and Vada Pinson to chase down drives “you don’t have to worry about making the perfect pitch all the time.”
Come and go
To help stock the rosters of the expansion Expos and Padres, the National League held a draft on Oct. 14, 1968, consisting of six rounds. The Expos and Padres each were allowed to select five players per round from the existing National League franchises.
Each existing team initially could protect 15 players. A team could protect three more players each time one was taken from its list of unprotected.
After the Cardinals got Giusti from the Astros, he asked general manager Bing Devine whether he’d be protected and Devine “didn’t say yes or no,” Giusti said.
The Cardinals wavered until the last minute before protecting Washburn instead of Giusti, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported. The Cardinals would have protected Giusti in the second round if another one of their players was chosen in the first round, according to the Post-Dispatch, but Giusti was the first Cardinals player drafted. The Padres selected Giusti with their second pick in the first round.
“I’m very disappointed,” Giusti said. “Nobody in St. Louis told me this was going to happen. I wanted to work for a championship club.”
Let’s make up
Trade offers for Giusti poured in to the Padres from the Reds, Orioles, Astros and Cardinals. The Reds were offering shortstop Leo Cardenas or outfielder Hal McRae, The Sporting News reported.
Devine came up with the package of four players at positions the Padres were looking to fill. “We needed numbers and the Cards wanted the proven starting pitcher,” said Padres president Buzzie Bavasi.
Devine called to inform Giusti he’d been reacquired by the Cardinals and said, “You can stop being mad at me. We’ve got you back.”
In addition to a fastball and slider, Giusti threw a palmball, which is similar to a changeup. “The difference is the pitcher grips the ball back in the palm rather than with the fingertips,” the Post-Dispatch explained.
“Learning to throw the palmball was a matter of survival,” Giusti said. “I found out early that the hitters up here can hit the fastball. I had to come up with another pitch.”
Said Cardinals pitching coach Billy Muffett: “He can throw the palmball over the plate just about any time he wants. He’s not afraid to throw it no matter what the situation. He never tips off the pitch.”
Starter to closer
In his first regular-season appearance for the Cardinals, on April 12, 1969, Giusti pitched a shutout and scored the lone run in a 1-0 victory over the Mets. The run came in the third inning when Giusti doubled and scored on Flood’s double against Don Cardwell. Boxscore
Giusti pitched a three-hitter against the Cubs for his second Cardinals win. Boxscore.
His season began to unravel in late May when he wrenched his back while fielding during batting practice. He was on the disabled list for a month and in his absence Chuck Taylor and Mike Torrez won spots in the rotation. Giusti was relegated to long-inning relief in August and September as the Cardinals faded from contention.
He finished the season at 3-7 with a 3.61 ERA in 22 appearances.
On Oct. 21, 1969, the Cardinals traded Giusti and catcher Dave Ricketts to the Pirates for outfielders Carl Taylor and Frank Vanzin. Pirates general manager Joe Brown made the deal on the recommendation of outfielder Roberto Clemente, who told him Giusti “always had good stuff and he is a tough competitor.”
The Pirates converted Giusti into a closer and in 1971 he led the National League in saves (30) for the World Series champions. Giusti pitched 5.1 scoreless innings against the Orioles in the 1971 World Series and earned a save in Game 4 when he retired all six batters he faced. Boxscore
In seven seasons (1970-76) with the Pirates, Giusti was 47-28 with a 2.94 ERA and 133 saves.
RetroSimba 
Trading Giusti to the Pirates was another of Bing’s poor trades in his second tenure with the Cardinals. He had taken over a championship team and had traded it into mediocrity by the early seventies. Tolan for a declining Pinson, Flood and McCarver for Dick Allen who was traded after one season. Reggie Smith for Joe Ferguson in a stunner. And, of course Carlton and Reuss on trades that Devine later said were ordered by an angry Gussie Busch.
Good points. Thanks for commenting.
Reggie Smith for Joe Ferguson was because Reggie was playing out his option and wasn’t going to re-sign.
Thanks for the info. The trade of Reggie Smith to the Dodgers in 1976 was made within the last hour before the midnight deadline on June 15 only after the Dodgers offered a two-year contact and Smith agreed to terms, according to the June 17, 1976, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The Dodgers agreed to a deferred salary arrangement that had been a stumbling block in Smith’s failure to sign with the Cardinals, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The Cardinals stumbled in April and May of 1969. Runs were hard to come by. They got hot in July, played well the rest of the year, but couldn’t make up for that punchless start.
Yes, thanks. The 1969 Cardinals were 9-12 in April, 12-13 in May and 14-16 in June. They had winning marks each month after that, but finished in fourth place in the National League East at 87-75.
As noted, most of Devine’s deals during his second tenure as the Cardinals’ GM were clunkers. Some of the deals made no sense right away (releasing Jose Cruz, the Smith-Ferguson trade, Carlton-Wise), but then even deals that seemed to be good ones turned out bad. Rick Wise had a solid 1971, and in terms of the modern stat WAR, was actually a little better than Carlton. He also had two solid seasons with the Cardinals, but Carlton was unbelievable in ’72 and continued to be great for many years, while Wise was dealt after those two years in St. Louis and was not as good with Boston and other clubs.
Two members of the 1969 pitching staff went on to do well as closers, Giusti and Mudcat Grant. Another good closer we gave away was Wayne Granger (in the ill-fated Tolan-for-Pinson trade).
One last comment – Devine always defended the Tolan-Pinson deal, saying Pinson gave the Cardinals what they were looking for in replacing Roger Maris. But he would conveniently leave out any comments about how great Tolan turned out to be in Cincinnati, nor anything about also giving up Granger. Those two helped make a solid Reds team into the early version of the “Big Red Machine”.
Regarding Cruz, I remember the Cardinals giving him plenty of chances (especially between 1971-73) to become a regular. He didn’t become a consistent hitter until his second season with Houston. Plus, the emergence of Bake McBride in centerfield, and the acquisition of Reggie Smith also led to him being sold to the Astros.
Giusti had one helluva palm ball. I could never tell when he was throwing it.
Which, I guess, is the whole idea.
Good point. I remember Orlando Pena was another who threw an effective palmball for Cardinals.