Just another day at the office apparently. In order to pry away Yorvit Torrealba, it turns out the Rockies had to give up promising right-hander Marcos Carvajal. This move doesn't initially look very good long term at all, but it's hard to deny that Torrealba will bring more benefit to the 2006 club than Carvajal would have (unless you're more inclined to root for the Sky Sox). Whether five years from now we look back on the move and cringe is still to be determined, but the Rockies have made the move and with Dan O' Dowd's record with trades, what's one more bad one going to do, anyway? Just keep saying to yourselves: there is no such thing as a pitching prospect, and you'll start to feel a little better.
Well, lose one promising Rule V pick, gain another, I guess, as the Rockies tried to double their luck picking Luis Gonzalez's in this particular draft (our current second baseman was nabbed two years ago this way), this time choosing a Dodger southpaw from Puerto Rico. Whether Gonzalez sticks around to make the team is another question worth asking, since as of right now the Rockies have added three lefties (in addition to entrenched closer Brian Fuentes) to the bullpen mix heading into Spring. Gonzalez, Ray King from the Cards, and Jamey Cerda claimed off waivers from the Royals. Hurdle likes to have one long and one short left-handed option, my early hunch is that King will become the primary inning eater, leaving Cerda and Gonzalez to duke it out for the LOOGY role. Yesterday's Thomas Harding article at the official site speculated that the Rox' Rule V pick could possibly never wear a Rockies uniform, becoming instant trade bait instead.
Update [2005-12-9 15:59:49 by Rox Girl]:
Gonzalez could be the final piece in the Carvajal/Torrealba trade according to the Rocky Mountain News:
Finally, 40 year old geezer, er... reliever, Jose Mesa was quite oddly not offered a humongous multi-year contract by another club and instead signed the one year offer put on the table by the Rockies. Mesa figures to battle with Mike Dejean over which one gets the seventh inning and which one gets the eighth in front of Fuentes. I'm hoping that Chen Hui Tsao has something to say about that as well.