Holliday Looks to Jump Ship

As the days creep towards the 2009 Major League Baseball season, it seems less and less likely that our resident superstar, Colorado Rockies outfielder Matt Holliday, will be donning the purple pinstripes for Opening Day.

Normally not the type of player to air his dirty laundry out in the media, Holliday is apparently trying a new tact of expressing his true feelings, regardless of who is listening.

In a recent Denver Post article, it appears Holliday has grown increasingly frustrated with the treatment that he has received from the Rockies' front office and what he deems are low-ball contract offers drawn up by Dealin' Dan.

The latest contract offer cited in the article was a four-year, $72 million deal with a $12 million option. Holliday rejected the offer in part because he wasn't sold on the organization's commitment to winning.

"I specifically don't want to spend my career collecting paychecks and having October off. I want to be in a situation where I feel like I can make the postseason every year, not only if the perfect storm comes together," Holliday said.

To me, that quote was not only a subtle dig at the career of Rockies legend Todd Helton, but also an admission that the miracle "Rocktober" run to the 2007 World Series was a fluke and nothing more.

It shows that Holliday doesn't believe that his teammates are willing or able to bring a title to Colorado and he shudders at the thought of being an iconic talent on a perennial loser like Helton has been.

With Holliday's current contract expiring at the end of the 2009 season, he's likely to command a contract upwards of a six or seven-year deal worth somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 million. With the penny-pinching Monfort Brothers in charge, there is almost no chance that the Rockies will even be in the discussions with the slugger.

Of course, Holliday is represented by sports' biggest snake, Scott Boras, who is never coy about his desire to manipulate his clients into ditching any of their team-first tendencies in the effort to attain top dollar. (Just look at what he did to Manny Ramirez in Boston.) If we do indeed end up trading Holliday, we can look at the moment he came under Boras' tutelage as the beginning of the end of his tenure in the Mile High City.

Holliday has always said that he, not Boras, will have the last word on whether or not he will choose to stay with the only club he's ever known. Looking at these latest comments, however, makes me believe that Boras has had more of an influence than we would like to believe.

From the "hot stove" rumblings that have been reported thus far, it appears that Dealin' Dan is in contact with many teams and has made it perfectly clear that Holliday is available for the right price. (Or David Price, possibly?)

As Holliday becomes publicly disgruntled with the state of the franchise, O'Dowd's hand may be forced to make a deal sooner rather than later, and there is no shortage of teams on the open market who could use a career .319 hitter who has averaged 32 home runs and 113 RBI in the last three seasons.

Holliday's bags are packed and he's ready to go, but don't be shocked if he doesn't wake us up to say goodbye.

The Proverbial Stove is Getting Warmer

With trade rumblings already starting to make their way into the blogosphere and the World Series now just a memory (thankfully), we turn our attention to the so-called Hot Stove to see how our Rockies are looking to improve their club for the 2009 campaign.

Now, most of this "analysis" that I'm about to preach on these pages is from either snippets of ideas that I've read in newspapers like the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News, coloradorockies.com, or even articles from fellow Bleacher Report contributors with a little bit of my own wish list thrown in.

We're going to do this on a team by team basis as to who might be interested in some of our boys.

O'Dowd has made it widely known that he is dangling both Garrett Atkins and Matt Holliday this winter in exchange for young, Major League-ready starting pitching, so if you notice a common theme among some of these possible suitors, well, I just told you.

New York Yankees

-Rockies Bleacher Report contributor David Martin already wrote an excellent piece on a possible Willy Taveras for Ian Kennedy trade that you can check out here. I think my feelings are pretty well known that I would trade Willy Taveras for a punch in the stomach much less for a young, talented starting pitching prospect.

-Also, you can never count out a team with Mariana Trench-like (that's right, a geography reference) pockets like the New York Yankees. You have to believe they'll at least be in the discussions for Matt Holliday.

Boston Red Sox

-With the uncertain injury status of current third baseman Mike Lowell, the Red Sox have been reported to have thrown their hat in the ring for Garrett Atkins. The Sawx have no shortage of young, talented pitchers like Clay Buchholz and my cousin, Justin Masterson.

Now, I could probably just call up my cousin and give him my best political stump speech on why he should want to come play in the mile high majesty of Colorado instead of the intense pressure of Beantown. Then, when he realized the wisdom of my words, he could go to Theo Epstein and demand a trade that would send him out west. He'd join a starting rotation of Francis, Cook, and Ubaldo that would give the Rockies a pitching staff that could compete with the rest of the NL West.

Hey, a guy can dream right?

Minnesota Twins

-Twins Bleacher Report contributor Warren Williams recently wrote a hypothetical article where we would trade Garrett Atkins to the Twins for outfielder Michael Cuddyer. While I wasn't too fond of the trade straight up, Minnesota does have some talented young pitchers that I'm sure O'Dowd wouldn't be too upset if he acquired.

Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey, and Nick Blackburn would be the names we would more than likely focus on if this or any trade with the Twinkies were likely to go down. Baker is the most attractive of the bunch, not physically mind you, but statistically, finishing 11-4 on the year with a 3.45 ERA. Slowey and Blackburn are both relatively young guys who were key components in the Twins' mad dash to their one-game playoff where they ultimately succumbed to the White Sox.

Chicago White Sox

-Speaking of those White Sox, Bleacher Report contributor Tab Bamford concocted a bold blockbuster trade opportunity between these two ball clubs that would send Matt Holliday and Garrett Atkins to the White Sox for Jermaine Dye, Nick Swisher, and Javier Vazquez. I immediately dismissed this deal at first, but upon further thought, it's not too radical.

Though Dye is getting up there in years, he would more or less replace Holliday's bat. Swisher can play both first base and outfield and would benefit from Coors Field's cavernous gaps. Vazquez has immense talent, but has never been able to overcome a debilitating case of mediocrity (showcased by his career 127-129 record.) He has also seemingly worn out his welcome with Sox manager Ozzie Guillen with his poor performance down the stretch.

To make such a dynamite deal go down, the White Sox may need to sweeten the pot by throwing in young lefty John Danks instead of Vazquez. If Danks were included, it might be tough to say no to Sox GM Kenny Williams.

Florida Marlins

While the Rockies are obviously looking for starting pitching to shore up a shaky rotation, if a deal for a power hitting second baseman falls into their laps, I would find it hard to believe that they would ignore it. That's where Dan Uggla comes in. Though apparently not known for his book-smarts and analytical game preparation, he sure knows how to hit. An infield of Helton, Uggla, Tulo, and some sort of Stewart/Atkins hybrid would be formidable to say the least.

New York Mets

They seem to have deep pockets as well and would be in the race for Matt Holliday. Whether or not they have enough to give the Rockies in return is a whole different story altogether.

Tampa Bay Rays

The Rays obviously have young talent to spare. If the Rays want to indulge in their Socialist side and spread the wealth around (since that seems so apropos,) I'm sure the Rockies could come to some sort of agreement for David Price, BJ Upton, Carl Crawford, or Matt Garza.

That's all I have right now. Leave any other trade ideas, dreams, or possibilities in the comments in case I might have glossed over a few.

Riddle Me This, Mr. O'Dowd...

With the Rockies off-season unfortunately already upon us, it's time to look at some of the biggest questions facing the former National League Champions heading into the cold, Colorado winter.

1) Will Dan be dealin or will Dan be dormant?

The Rockies felt more than comfortable to rest on the laurels of their World Series appearance in 2007 and didn't make a major splash in the free agent market in the following off-season. That is, unless you're a close personal friend or relative of Mark Redman or Kip Wells.

Believing the team that took his franchise to the World Series would be good enough to compete in 2008 backfired, and already it appears as if O'Dowd is going to be much more aggressive come winter. Slugging Marlins second baseman Dan Uggla's name has already been thrown around as a person of interest for the Rockies. The Red Sox have shown interest in both Garrett Atkins and Matt Holliday, and the Mets are believed to be the front runners for T Rex Fuentes.

Whether or not O'Dowd can pull the trigger on a deal remains to be seen, but we know the main target for Dealin Dan this off-season is going to be young, talented starting pitchers (Justin Masterson, anyone?)

2) Will the players respond to a slew of new coaches?

I may be wrong here, but I think that every single coach on the Rockies big club last year has either been fired or given a stern talking-to by upper management. In fact, I think the only one who escaped unscathed was that kid in the bullpen who runs the jackets of the pitchers into the dugout and sprints back out to his position.

One of the most notable firings was that of strength and conditioning coach Brad Andress. Adored by most of the Rockies players and regarded throughout the league as the guru of the weight room, his firing came as an unwelcome shock to the clubhouse.

It probably wasn't easy to see guys like third base coach Mike Gallego, bullpen coach Rick Matthews (who has been with the organization since its inception in 1993), bench coach Jamie Quirk, and hitting coach Alan Cockrell join the rest of America in the unemployment line either. Will these guys welcome the new guys Hurdle brings in or will there be a bit of lingering resentment regarding the way these firings were handled by the organization?

That was just a tiny taste of the 31 Flavors of questions we have going into 2009. I'd handle more at the moment, but duty calls, and I must report for work. Until next time, Rockies fans...

Where do we go from here, babygirl?

Well, the trade deadline has come and gone. The Rockies valiant post-All-Star Break play has come and gone. OUR ROTATION FEATURES GLENDON RUSCH, JORGE DE LA ROSA AND VALERIO DE LOS SANTOS. Okay, I know Jeffrey William Francis will be back in the rotation--this time sans injury--but seriously? The Royals wouldn't even take De La Rosa as a fifth starter and he's our third starter? The 42-68 Padres thought Rusch wasn't good enough for their team. Then there's Valerio De Los Santos. He wasn't good enough for anyone in America to want him on their team. Welcome to Colorado, Valerie of the Saints. Pitch well and with vigor.

Dan O' Dowd in his infinite wisdom decided that the Rockies were contenders. Maybe Terry Malloy shoulda been a contendah, but the Rockies don't pitch on the waterfront. They pitch at the stoop of the mountains, where balls fly higher than a beach ball at a Nickelback concert.

Let's pontificate on this for a moment... Jimmy is learning how to strikeout, Cook's striking more out and walking fewer, Francis isn't hurt and screwing with his delivery anymore. Then we have Gregford Reynolds the first starting to figure stuff out at AAA. Morales and Hirsh are slowly but surely being taught that the object of the game is to throw the ball across the plate, not at the batter, at the ump, into the stands, toward Uzbekistan. Dan O'Dowd's answer is let Rusch, De La Rosa and De Los Santos take us to the promised land. The Rockies are only 8 games out!

Wouldn't it maybe make sense to focus on the future? Stew and Iannetta are destroying; Tulo remembered how to hit; U-Ball is using the stuff of the gods to get swings and misses; Dexter Fowler is blitzkrieging AA pitching. The Rockies might just have a future with those players and a rotation of Cook, U-Ball, Francis, Reynolds and either Hirsh or Morales (may be better suited for the pen).

I understand not trading T-Rex Fuentes--the Rockies get two first round compensatory picks for him. Perhaps Dan of O'Derr will pick up two college players on the fast track. But, as much as it hurts, Holliday and Helton should be traded. Helton, though he gets on base more than the Dark Knight gets ticket sales, is too expensive. The duo of Atkins at first and Ian "Do you think I'm sexy?" Stewart at third base is much more cost effective and not a huge dropoff in production. Also keep in mind that Atkins is one of the worst fielding third basemen in baseball and is better suited for first. Last year, he had the second worse plus/minus, after Ryan Braun, of all third basemen (-29). Over the last three years Atkins is fifth worst of all third basemen. He had a -12 FRAA last year. To put it bluntly, Atkins blows at third base, no matter how you look at it.

So for the next few years you have an infield of: Atkins-1st, Baker or eventually EY Jr.-2nd, Stewart-3rd, Tulo-SS, Iannetta-Catch. That is a pretty decent infield and all relatively cheap.

Holliday's replacement would be tougher. Hawper is a good hitter and functional outfielder, who is under control, at a decent wage, till 2010/11 with option. Taveras sucks and is a fourth outfield/pinch runner at best. Seth Smith is a replacement player, who will provide slightly less than Keanu Reeves value, but still not a huge gap in the lineup. Dex Fowler is certified stuck off the realness and will be one hell of a center fielder and, since he hasn't appeared in the majors yet, will be around until at least 2014. So Seth Smith would have to fill in for Holliday. But that depends what we would get in return for Holliday. Future ace? Sluggifier? Left field is usually a pretty easy position to fill. All you have to do is find a fat first basemen who can run a bit and stick him in the outfield. Hell, Joe Koshansky could learn to play left and he could provide Brad Hawpe like production at the major league level.

So trade Helton and Holliday and the conclusion: reduce the payroll by huge margin, lose maybe 30-50 runs in the short term, and add prospects that could eventually make up those 30-50 runs and possibly add more. It'll hurt ticket sales and fan's feelings, but it'll add wins in the future (if, of course, O'Dowd gets good prospects).

There's no chance of contending this year; there's a small chance to contend next year; and if, O'Dowd plays his cards right he'll have a good chance in 2010-2012ish, before having to rebuild with the losses of Atkins, Hawpe, Cook, Francis and soon after Tulo and Manny.

The D-Bags are only going to improve, and will provide intense competition. Luckily, Ned Colletti is a complete moron and got robbed by the Red Sox and Bucs. I'm so excited that I won't be seeing Andy LaRoche in Dodger blue. Maybe even the Dodgers will sign Manny Being Ramirez for $100mil/4yr like he thinks he deserves. It would be amazing to watch him hit like 10 home runs at 40 and get paid $25 mil by the Dodgers, while limping his way around the outfield, of course. I am concerned though that Manny won't fit in with the gamer mentality of the Dodgers. Manny can hit, he doesn't hustle, he doesn't have a beard and he doesn't scrap. Hmmm, how do you win games with that? If only the Dodgers had a team of Juan Pierres, Casey Blakes and Nomar Garciaparras, they'd score like 100 runs per season and scrap their way to five wins.

Okay, that was meandering and incoherent, but I'm sick and it's about 90 degrees at Frost Brewed Baseball Headquarters. So, please forgive me.

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.