It’s days like this when I am ashamed to be a fan of a mid-market team. Being a fan of such relegates you to having to slap your forehead and shout at the radio/TV/Twitter when a bad move is made because your team usually cannot compete with money and has to do so by moving players.
This morning was the first time for me this offseason when the Rockies traded Jason Hammel and Matt Lindstrom to Baltimore for Jeremy Guthrie.
It’s been awhile since I’ve had an immediate reaction of outright disgust to a Rockies move. I think the last one was when they let go catcher Miguel Olivo.
On what pitching planet do the Rockies live on where trading two pitchers for one — who has led the league in losses, twice — a “good” trade? A few facts:
- He led the league in losses in 2009 and last season, each with 17.
- He has a career ERA of 4.19. (I said in my Rockies Christmas Wish List that we need starters with an ERA below 4.00.)
- He has a WAR of 2.9. (I’m sorry, we shouldn’t be looking for pitchers who are really only getting you almost three wins more a season than a “replacement.”)
The biggest “upside” to be found is he eats up innings. That’s great, as long as he is winning them, which his record shows he does not do as often as necessary.
This trade is compounded even more by the fact not only is Guthrie a losing pitcher (haven’t we had enough of those around here?) but we gave up two pitchers to get one … who loses a lot.
I won’t spend much time on Hammel because anyone around here knows he was on his way out at some point because he was the Jeremy Guthrie of our rotation; now we actually have Jeremy Guthrie.
What made this trade exponentially bad is they sent away late-reliever Matt Lindstrom as a part of it. Lindstrom came here by way of a trade with the Astros last offseason and blew the doors off batters with his dirty pitches. His stuff was great to watch in relief, and he has an awesome windup and release. It is a shame that stuff is going to impress about 14,000 less fans a game at Camden Yards than at Coors Field.
The Rockies offseason was one of success, and then the brain trust at 20th & Blake smudge it with a terrible move like this.
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