The Trade

I’m not sure what the logic is behind having gotten a better return if the Rockies had waited longer into the off-season. The longer teams waited, the more valuable free agent prices dropped. Had Beane not acquired Holliday, I’m sure he would have preferred to sign Adam Dunn for 2 years/$10M rather than give up players that could be dealt individually at a later date for a greater return (likely in-season).

Plus, the trade can’t be full evaluated until a) Carlos Gonzales gets a 200-300 ABs in a Rockies uniform and b) Huston Street is traded. The return on Street (or Corpas, perhaps) will hopefully improve the Holliday package.

I’m not looking forward to the trading deadline on this one. Especially if Billy Bean spins him off to a contender for a boat load of talent.

Especially given the glut of second tier sluggers on the market this season. Teams felt that signing Bobby Abreu plus having their current three or four starter was better than getting Matt Holliday and losing their 3 or 4.

If prospects are what we can expect, why not wait to see how the market shakes out? Or maybe it was just one way to deal with the over crowded outfield situation.

Coors batters will always be branded with Rocky Mountain High and despite the humidor and numbers going down across the board, it’s still LOL COORS CANAVERAL and stupid GMs seem to think it’s just a joke here.

I imagine he probably would have, but I also imagine that deal never gets put on the table from the A’s standpoint. It’s the same reason why we wouldn’t trade Jhoulys Chacin, Corpas and let’s say Charlie Blackmon (pretending he was eligible) to bring Holliday back right now, even if we were closer to a clear advantage in the division.

My guess is they wind up swallowing him for the season and compensation picks. The three month rental hasn’t supplied squat for the selling team for two or three seasons now.

I think Smith and Street were expected to be on the club, but CarGo was billed as a someday replacement for Hawpe when the trade was made.

What hype was there on Greg Smith? Everybody seemed to understand that the ERA was an unsustainable thing and he’s been panned up, down and sideways since the move. It was always my impression that Gonzalez and Street were what this trade would wind up being judged on, Smith’s just gravy if he produces anything.

Rockies got:

-A talented, but injury prone, and possibly untradeable, reliever to fill a position that was already filled (Corpas)
- A left-handed pitcher (just because he has MLB experience does not mean he’s MLB-ready, or suitable for the back-end of the rotation)
- A dynamic outfielder with almost no ability to select pitches

A’s get:

- A great deal, but probably not as spectacular a player as fans think they’re getting, which is why the Rockies did not get a great deal in return

Essentially, the Rockies were in the same boat with relievers (Corpas and Buchholz being a talented duo, much like the A’s have), already had an abundance of OF prospects/average ML outfielders (Fowler, S. Smith, Spilborghs, etc), and Glendon Rusch is just an older version of Greg Smith. The A’s deal was still the best available, and O’Dowd did good to bring back quantity that has at least a decent chance of good returns.

Innings-eaters don’t really count for much when they are throwing up all over the mound. The Rockies have Jason Marquis to eat innings in the third spot, but if he pitches like he has this spring it won’t matter if he can soak up 300 innings. The same went for Smith in the second half, as well as this year. Unless Smith was Smith of the First Half of 2008, the A’s would be better off trotting out a different minor league starter every fifth time. Perhaps the A’s just recognized that capitalizing on his 2008 first half was the best they were going to do and were able to slide him in as an acceptable “MLB ready” starter in order to hang onto better, less advanced prospects (well, obviously this is what they did).

And those SLG%s are both awful