Ken Rosenthal does a hatchet job on Rockies fans in an article titled "Value of Holliday, Atkins Questioned" which pretty much sums up where he's coming from in devaluing our players. Note that he hasn't written a similar article questioning the value of Jake Peavy coming from the most extreme pitching park in the league. He also fails to mention that Holliday's career OPS at Busch III (1.350) is better than his splits at Coors. With Atkins? Alright, so maybe he has a point there, but I don't think there are any MLB execs unaware of how park factors play at this point and even Rosenthal realizes that after Casey Blake, it's not like there are a lot of better options available at third right now even with the park factored in.
Anyway, Rosenthal reiterates the Holliday to St. Louis rumor with a little more detail on their rumored contribution than what we've been speculating about, his version has the deal being Holliday for Ludwick, Skip Schumaker and Mitchell Boggs. So we'd trade Holliday for a modest average 30 year old slugging corner outfielder, his defensive back-up and a pitcher that gets thrown into the Reynolds/Hirsh "prove what you've got and get a spot" category. If this is the case, I still would rather do a deal with Philadelphia as the rumored principals seem to be a higher quality.
A Cleveland report yesterday said that the Rockies were after an "outfielder and a starter" for Atkins, but didn't mention any names. Similarly to the Twins, the Indians have several of each category that would be appealing.
Tracy Ringolsby reports on Venezuelan signee Alving Mejias a 16 year old RHP with advanced pitchability who reportedly got a $250,000 bonus.