Not much happening out there today, Rowbots, but I'll do my best now that I've finished burning and eating my green chile, cheese, and bacon omelet. Much as I'm running late this morning (not for publishing, but just more in a general morning sense), it's better that I'm writing now than when I first woke up as you'd be getting paragraphs about how pissed off I am that it's still dark outside and that I was awake in general.
But I digress.
All Things Rockies: Buchholz inches his way back to the big leagues || Troy Renck
Now, this is actually from Saturday, but I didn't A. see it explicitly mentioned or B. look very hard, so we're seeing it again. Bottom line of the article for you skimmers out there is that Taylor Buchholz is more or less on time for June. Wheee! The more expanded news from this lovely piece is that he's throwing from the mound, he's working on maintaining his delivery, he has incredible work ethic, and his breaking stuff is apparently being thrown pretty well too. When he shortens his stride, his curveball gets even better. Again, on pace for June, and this will be the equivalent of a big midseason acquisition.
Inside the Rockies: Helton should be Rockies first honoree || Tracy Ringolsby
Ringolsby posts a very short blurb in order to spark some user discussion regarding the Rockies Hall of Fame. His suggestion is for them to get moving on it, but rather than get it done ASAP, kind of just dink around with it and have it ready to open the year after Todd Helton retires. Retire his number at the same time. Induct Vinny, Dante, Walker, El Gato Grande, make everyone feel all special.
Click past the jump, because there's a doozy waiting down there.
And finally because there doesn't seem to be much more going on in the world of news today, I bring you this masterpiece:
ESPN: Sources: Phillies discuss Ryan Howard for Albert Pujols deal || Buster Olney
Wow, guys, did you know that you could just MAKE STUFF UP and then pass it along as a "rumor"? Buster Olney tries to spin up some interesting something or other by bringing up the Albert Pujols situation, and the possibility that the Cardinals will be unable to work out an extension, putting him in a similar situation as the Twins were with Johan Santana and may be with Joe Mauer. Superstar trades, let's see, Pujols may not be signable...Oh that's right, I am aware that the Phillies exist, and Ryan DINGERS N RIBBIES Howard plays the same position as Pujols! Let's make a rumor! Why not cite Prince Fielder? Or Miguel Cabrera? To top it off, Pat Gillick, currently serving as an advisor to Ol' Rube, apparently made a blockbuster with Toronto, so WOW, this suddely is lent credence, right?!
I'm sorry. You don't get to just pick a big name at the same position and call it a trade rumor.
But this almost happened once before!!!1 Yeah, apparently way back in the day when baseball was still played with dinosaur bones, there was almost a Ted Williams for Joe DiMaggio swap, but apparently Boston wanted Yogi Berra in the trade as well, so they called it off. It sounded an awful lot like some drunken weekend between Tom Yawkey and Jacob Ruppert, and apparently this deal was only signed on a napkin or something like that. Amusingly enough, had that trade happened, it might've helped even further increase the career numbers of both of these great players, thanks to the Monster and the former RF short porch.
ANYHOW, back to the topic at hand. First, I continue to express my disgust with just pulling this article out from nowhere, citing "sources", and passing it off as news, but for the sake of discussion, what's at stake here?
Well, for starters, Albert Pujols is the best player in baseball. He was worth nearly DOUBLE that of Ryan Howard, if you believe WAR. If he finished his career today, he'd the be the 8th best batter of all time, at least as far as wRC+ is concerned. The downside is that he might rival ARod's contract if he were to hit free agency. There have been indications that he might give the Cardinals some sort of a break if the Cards proved that they were dedicated to winning, which they may have just done with Matt Holliday's contract. However, that same contract may have made it difficult to really throw a solid chunk at Pujols.
But Ryan Howard? As a replacement? I mean, you could certainly do worse, but why Ryan Howard? The closest thing that Olney suggests to a legitimate connection is the fact that Howard is from St. Louis, and thereby the "hometown boy" card has been played, and that's really about it.
Ruben Amaro, Jr. flat out denies it, saying there's no truth to it, it's false, quit stirring up nonsense, Olney (OK, I added that last part in), and basically dispells any rumors that this might actually be, you know, true.
But seeing how we're a bit slow on breaking news today, what do you think about this trade? I may not have stated my flat out opinion in so many words, but I'm pretty sure I made my stance clear. How about you?