An Open Letter to the Rockies

It'll make sense in a minute...

Disclaimer: This post is predicated on Dan O'Dowd making intelligent decisions. Long shot, I know, but for argument's sake, let's say he is smart. Also, I know it is extremely unpopular and you'll probably wonder how the hell I could feel this way, but allow me to explain myself in epistolary form...

Dear Rockies,

What's up? How's your summer going? Tell the Broncos "hey." Now let me get down to business.

Trade people. Seriously, do it. Just do it. Nike. Trade Holliday. Trade Fuentes. Trade Helton. Trade Atkins. Trade Taveras. Trade Barmes. Hell, trade Glendon frickin' Rusch if you can.

Now, you may be thinking, "What in the name of Milli Vanilli? Are you cah-razy?" Well, quit asking me questions. I'm not an encyclopedia. Let me instead ask you a question. Do you like to win? Because you aren't winning this year (though you are doing better lately and the NL West is not exactly hard) and things aren't really looking bright for the next few years either.

You could trade basically everyone except the young, cost-controlled guys (Tulo, Hawpe, Iannetta, Francis, Cook, Corpas, Buchholz, Jimenez, Spilly, Stewart, and obviously all the minor leaguers). You aren't going to spend 15 mil per yr for 7 years for Holliday. Fuentes will cost more than he is worth in free agency. Atkins is having a subtly mediocre year disguised as a good one and he only has two more years left before he leaves to follow one of his BFFs, Holliday or Utley. Plus Ian Stewart is almost as good as Atkins right now, and will grow to be better than Atkins (probably). He also plays for chicken feed, at least by baseball standards (I sure as shoot wouldn't mind making 390k a year).

You already tried a few trades, which included Carlos Carrasco and Fernando Martinez. Both are extremely overrated. But you did try and get Lou Marson too. Do stuff like that! Get good prospects. The Rays apparently like a bunch of people. They've got young pitchers like whoa. Maybe you could get Phil Hughes from the Yankees.

It would suck now. You'd lose a lot of games this season. And probably next season too. But if you got the right prospects, and didn't get fleeced in trades, in 2010 you could be jammin' mon. The system is weak after Reynolds and Fowler. Sure the 07 class is looking pretty core, but they're mostly in A-ball. They've got some proving to do.

Okay, I'll admit it. The A's are my number 2 team after the Rockies. They've gotten rid of half the roster from the 2006 ALCS team, but they also will be the top minor league system for any intelligent baseball analysts at the start of next year. This means when they finally get out of the crappy city of Oakland and move to Fremont, they'll be in the playoffs every year for many years.

Why can't you do that too? At some point you've got to look at your cards and realize you gotta fold. It'll suck to see some fan favorites go, but it's also fun to get psyched on a super prospect, especially when you robbed another team. Beane has fleeced the Cubs (twice), the Braves, the Diamondbacks, the White Sox, and the Phillies in the last year. You have plenty of time to start fleecing. Replenish your prospects. No more one year fluke World Series and then back to crappiness. You gotta build for prolonged success. As a fan, I'm telling you that I'd much rather see a win than the lovable Todd Helton decline into not being able to slug the ball out of the infield. Baseball is a business and the currency is wins, not fan favorites. Go out there and get yourself some future wins. Pretty please.

With Bitter Love,
Me

P.S. Go Jimmy-nez. I'm not usually one for intangibles, but goll dang that kid's got some make-up. Now, if he could just strike some people out...
P.P.S.S. Stewart rakes, finally. That dude can hit the ball a long ways.