Yesterday afternoon, Troy Renck of the Denver Post shared quite a bit of information with his Twitter followers.
Twitter / @TroyRenck: Prado isn't dead bc braves ...
Troy Renck is telling us that just because the Braves like Smith, a Prado trade isn't dead yet. Maybe they don't want to do Smith for Prado. Maybe they want to do Smith for somebody else. Probably not Jurrjens though, given:
Twitter / @TroyRenck: Plus wheeler which Rox are ...
Atlanta wants Tim Wheeler and Seth Smith for Martin Prado. Now look, I'm not saying we should just throw Tim Wheeler around like a random throw-in, but I guess I'm not sure what we're balking at. I mean, from my stance, Smith is a far more valuable player than he's getting credit for, poor season fielding or now. Remember, Prado is in a BUY LOW situation. I'd do Smith and Wheeler if Prado was playing well and we were a little more sure of the player we were shopping for than what Prado showed us in 2011. I don't see this particular acquisition as the make-or-break of 2012 success.
I'm not particularly secure in the other 2B options we have, so I DO understand some of the urgency, but let's not hurt the organization as a whole by getting so fixated on one player that we end up overpaying just for the sake of saying we got our guy. We got Cuddyer. Let's not go haywire acquiring a stopgap. We could go haywire for Heyward. But not Prado. No alliteration there.
Let's keep this in perspective. Ryan Spilborghs just came off of an awful season, and while he's not the WORST player we could pick up, the notion that he's like a LOCK to come back just doesn't make sense. We shouldn't be paying more than league min for that kind of player on the bench - good guy or no - so guaranteeing anything above that is just a poor financial move for the organization. I'd rather just run the risk of having Charlie Blackmon and Wheeler up to back up Carlos Gonzalez, Dexter Fowler, and Michael Cuddyer. Or Andruw Jones. I'm still interested in him.
Well, it smacks of Desperation, that's for sure.
Ok, that's a good thing. Jurrjens is a good, young pitcher. He'd be a boon to our rotation.
Atlanta is looking for a Greinke-esque package for Jurrjens.
Ok, Jurrjens is good, he is, but he ain't that good. I'm really concerned that he might not have a full 34-start season in him. Which would be a shame, of course.
In a sense, I can't blame the Braves for seeing what they could get for him, and asking really high. 2 sub-3 ERA seasons are nothing to sneeze at from a kid that young. I'll be interested to see how some of these offseason pitcher moves compare to the Rockies' return for Ubaldo Jimenez.
Twitter / @rafaelrojasc: Former #Rockies IF Melvin ...
After a long career that included the Colorado Rockies for a short amount of time, Melvin Mora has retired from the great game of baseball.
Melvin Mora Retires: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com
The Rockies were only a short part of Mora's career, and he made a good impression on Rockies fans, batting .285/.358/.421 in 113 games for Colorado. Perhaps his versatility was overstated, as he really didn't have any business playing 2B, 1B, or any outfield position, but Lord knows the guy tried, and a .285 batting average had most fans pretty pleased with the acquisition.