The St. Louis Cardinals traded
left-hander reliever, Ray King to Colorado on Wednesday night for outfielder
Larry Bigbie and infielder Aaron Miles.
For Cardinal fans who saw St. Louis',
Plan A, (The A stood for AWFUL) going after A.J. Burnett and Brian Giles,
turning into a total disaster. A disaster in that the Cardinals wasted significant time and
energy in the pursuit of players that they never did have a chance to sign, nor
should they have signed in the first place.
Actually
Cardinal fans should give thanks to the Toronto Blue Jays and San Diego Padres
for sparing St. Louis of those insane contracts that were given to Brian Giles and A.J. Burnett.
Speaking of insanity, now St. Louis
moves onto Plan B, (Apparently the B stands for BAD) and now we see one of the best
left-handed relievers in baseball being traded to the Rockies for a couple of,
as far as I'm concerned, a couple of glorified AAA ball players.
King was 4-4 with a 3.38 ERA in 77
relief appearances for the Cardinals last season. After not appearing in the
playoffs he demanded in the media to be traded. Despite the reports that all
parties had kissed and made up, King gets his demand and is traded to
Colorado, or why don't we just say, given to Colorado, that is what it basically comes down to.
If I had made this deal with Walt Jocketty, my mom would make me give King back. She wouldn't let her own son, take advantage of someone like this.
"We're very excited to add a
left-handed pitcher of Ray's caliber to our bullpen," Rockies general manager
Dan O'Dowd said. "He brings a veteran presence to the later innings of a game,
and his track record speaks for itself."
In return, for King, the Cardinals
get Larry Bigbie, who was traded from Baltimore to Colorado for outfielder Eric
Byrnes on July 29. Bigbie hit a combined .239 with five homers and 23 RBIs for
the Rockies and Orioles.
23 RBIs in Colorado, so
much for the benefit of the Rocky Mountain air. Where is this guy going to play?
Springfield AA?
Bigbie hit .212 at Colorado, and please stop
trying to put a spin on it, by reporting the combined batting average of .239. Not that a .239 batting average is going to impress most of the fans of Cardinal Nation. How
about an on base percentage of .257 and a slugging percentage of
.258? Now that I think about it, playing at AA Springfield may even be a stretch.
But wait there is more, Aaron
Miles, who started 69 games at second base for the Rockies, batted .281 with two
home runs and 28 RBIs in 99 games last season. Miles a career minor leaguer,
spent nine years in the minors before his break out season in 2004.
He led major league rookies at the
age of 27, in 2004 with 153 hits and 75 runs scored and led the National League rookies
with a .293 batting average.
While we of course wish him the
best of luck, Miles is not coming in and going to be the Cardinals second
basemen and he certainly isn't going to bat leadoff. His .281 batting average you could almost live with, but an on base percentage of .306 from last season, does not project you as a possible top of the lineup batter.
Miles will be lucky to make the
team as a member of the bench, and the problem with that is, Miles is limited at
playing at second base and cannot or should say has not played shortstop or
third.
In a bull market for relievers,
especially left-handers, the Cardinals trade away Ray King, one of the
best in the game, who in 447 career games for the Chicago Cubs, Milwaukee,
Atlanta and St. Louis, is 18-18 with a 3.12 ERA for a couple of glorified AAA
players.
I can only reason, that the Plan A and Plan B that the
Cardinals are executing is an effort to sell more beer.
It's working, I just downed a six-pack of Bud Lite after
hearing of this deal.
Why wasn't a rumor of this deal not reported by the
Birdhouse earlier. Basically because no one would have believed
it.
This deal is so BAD, that the Associated Press waited until
midnight to report it - I waited until I finished my six pack.