Yesterday evening, we saw a swap between the Chicago Cubs and the Colorado Rockies that will sent Ian Stewart and Casey Weathers packing and will bring in Tyler Colvin and DJ LeMahieu. Colvin is a low-OBP, high SLG type of batter while LeMahieu is more the AVG/OBP style of hitter. Depending on how the next 2 months go, both of them could find themselves on the active Roster in 2012.
This is all happening so FAST. First, Ubaldo goes, then Iannetta goes, then Huston Street goes, now Stewart... it's almost a shame we don't still have Garrett Atkins so we could dump him as well. Almost.
You know, as long as we're shipping out the 2009 playoff team.
No, this is complete disappointment being expressed by the front office. When Ubaldo Jimenez got traded, the rationale was that when things go bad, somebody has to pay for it. I felt miserable hearing that, thinking that Ubaldo was taking the bullet for the entire team. Well, it turns out that those words were a bit more prophetic than we originally realized.
Huston Street forgets how to close? Shipped to SD for a PTBNL.
Ian Stewart can't catch a break in 2011 after looking poised to finally break out from 2 straight years of mediocrity, and he's swapped out with other failed prospects from the Cubs.
Seth Smith's fielding deficiencies become undeniable, and he's being dangled to any number of teams.
Chris Iannetta was Chris Iannetta, and he got sent to a new World Series contender. Wait, that one doesn't work. Hm.
The point is kind of just that the team has been pretty serious about shedding extraneous parts. They know their team has holes, and they're moving people out who aren't actively doing anything to fix it.
What kind of spooks me about that is that the Rockies only have like 5 position players we're sure are gonna be in the majors: Todd Helton, Troy Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzalez, Dexter Fowler, and Ramon Hernandez. Oh, and Jason Giambi. I guess he counts. We still don't have a 2B, or a 3B, and we only have like half of a RF, we don't know who the utility guys are gonna be.
It also has me thinking that the Rockies are going to surprise us yet with some sort of big move, whether expected or not. This could mean Michael Cuddyer or Josh Willingham, or perhaps someone else in trade we wouldn't be expecting. The FO knows that a lot of them are on thin ice pretty quickly here, so to make promises of turning things around and then not actually bringing anybody in would pretty much be suicide. I simply can't see the team just dumping EYJ at 2B and Chris Nelson at 3B and calling it good.
The team has been relatively active this offseason, and in my estimation, they've been keeping up with at least part of what they promised to do in moving extraneous players before they lose all possible value. Now, getting the value BACK is something they're still working on. Baby steps I guess, but this kid had better be walking come April.