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Toblogganin' about the Shealy deal

By Rox Girl

First, a few Rockies blogosphere perspectives, of course, I post these snippets in the hope that you actually click on the links and read the rest of their well crafted opinions:

From the DenverSportsZone (formerly Rockies Disaster Report):

Affeldt is young and could still prove to be a top-quality reliever, especially with a good change of scenery. Meanwhile, if Bautista turns out to be a real starter and not just a scouts' player, next years' rotation could be scary. All of the sudden, the Rockies' organization seems to be filled with pitching prospects, and a 100% solid rotation would make this team very scary indeed.

From Up In the Rockies:

Bautista is still raw, to be sure, but he's still the closest thing the Rox have to a future big league starter in their high minors at this point aside from Ubaldo Jimenez. If he can find some consistency and command (and I'm guessing finding his curveball might be a key), I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the rotation as soon as next year.

From The Coors Effect:

So the one deal that did go down was a good one.  The Rockies sent off two players who they had little use for for a couple of guys who, well, they potentially could have use for...

Jeremy Affeldt is a lefty reliever who hasn't quite lived up to his promise, but he could be a decent swingman for the Rockies.  The problem is that the team now has four lefties in the bullpen, which is kind of overkill, so Ray King or Tom Martin might be shipped out in a waiver-wire deal.  Bautista is a young, power arm with a nasty curve and a great groundball ratio, but he hasn't figured it out yet either.

From Rox Head:

The deadline trade can be positively summed up in a few words.. it is ALWAYS good when you can trade for big, young left-handed pitchers.

And the beloved contrarian, Bad Altitude:

Affeldt is a failed starting prospect who has showed some flair as a LOOGY in the past months. Clint Hurdle can now play matchups to his heart's content. Bautista is just pretty much a failure. Personally, I think Shealy for both of those guys might not have been a fair deal for Colorado.

Baseball with an Altitude posted their response to the trade, and the first quote comes from that link. The second comes from yesterday's trade thread here, wherein both BwaA bloggers chipped in affirmations:

I am in complete agreement with DOD here. Affeldt is the kind of pitcher that could very much benefit from a change of scenery... I?ve seen Denny pitch on numerous occasions for the Royals and I must say that the majority of the time I have been impressed. He has had some great outings over the past two seasons (plenty of poor outings as well), including shutting down both the White Sox and the Cardinals earlier this year. The downside is that he struggles mightily with inconsistency, control, and injuries.
I honestly, when looking at the trade as a whole, dont have a problem with what O'Dowd got. Its much better than the names that were being thrown around when it came to the Orioles (Javy Lopez, Hawkins) and Pirates (Grabow, Capps, McLouth). Truth be told, McLouth is no better than Sullivan/Freeman/Salazar, and we already have enough of them in the system.

From Rockiesbiggestfan (aka David)

So, counting me and the generally positive responses some of my most informative readers gave(besides some of the bloggers already mentioned OhNoKoolAid and malakian gave thumbs up, Rox Rock a thumbs down) in yesterday's thread, that seems to indicate a heavy majority thinking that we scored alright with the Shealy-Dohmann/Affeldt-Bautista swap.

A summary of Royals responses also indicates they're mostly positive from their end, meaning this so far is like the early days of internet stocks. Rob and Rany split with Rany "having trouble coming to grips with" the trade and Rob thinking the return of Shealy is a more sure reward than the sketchiness of inconsistent pitching prospects with "incredible stuff". Royals Review offers a similar sentiment:

there's some debate on Shealy's long-term value or upside. Well, compared to Affeldt and Bautista, I'll take that chance. One last thing: here are Shealy's road stats this season for Colorado Springs- .298/.374/.532. Not exactly sure why Colorado would make this move, but Affeldt could theoretically help them this season.

A further indication of the "everybody's a winner this year" mentality, Royals fans there give Dayton Moore high marks on his trading season, with 56% saying he deserves a grade of B+ or better. Of course the real results of this trade won't be seen by the Royals this season, so part of that all encasing euphoria is due to the fact that there are several separate measures of the trade's success being started yesterday:

  1. Will Affeldt help the Rockies get to the playoffs this season? Even if he helps us stay close enough to keep fannies in Coors Field seats the rest of the way we'll have to be happy with that result.
  2. Will Ryan Shealy stabilize the Royals lineup and provide protection to the already potentially scary trio of Teahen, Gordon and Butler? The hypothesis of this measure is that Gordon and Butler are ready to join the team next season and a presence like Shealy down the lineup will keep them feeding on juicy pitches.
  3. Will Denny Bautista ever reach his potential? This is the wildcard that could turn the trade from flip to flop for the Royals. Moore made a calculated move similar to moves made when he was with the Braves (Bruce Chen, Jason Marquis) of trading a promising but largely ineffective arm for some goodies. So far these moves have made him look like a very very smart man. It would be nice if one came back and nipped him here.
  4. What will Jeremy Affeldt do for the Rockies after 2006? Aside from this season, the team's real plan has them rising to regular deep playoff runs in 2008 and beyond. 2007 should be a solid season where we contend for the division again, but it's not meant to be any sort of peak. Affeldt becomes a free agent after that season, which could make his Rockies tenure an interesting and possibly short (trade deadline to trade deadline) one. Bautista on the other hand seems to have been acquired with that 2008 goal in mind.
  5. Scott Dohmann. Similar to Affeldt, the Royals will only get value from his end if he 1) helps them compete in the AL Central or 2) Helps them get players who will help them compete in the AL Central. For some reason I don't think KC is where we'll see the best of Dohbermann, I'm guessing the Royals at some point flip him to a contender and give him a chance to pitch on a bigger stage next season.

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