Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Winter Meetings Tuesday Recap

First and foremost I would like to send well wishes to Rockies skipper Jim Tracy. Those were a scary couple of hours early Tuesday morning when word of his collapse at his hotel in Orlando started getting around. I'm very thankful he was able to return home on Tuesday and am hopeful the medical situation is behind him.

My best to his family as well on what had to be an incredibly stressful 12 hours.

-- The Rockies probably overpaid on Ty Wigginton. I have to wonder how many teams would have been willing to go to two years for anything close to that money. Probably not a one, but it does show me the Rockies have identified a guy they like and were aggressive in getting a deal done. That's good. Now we just have to hope their evaluation is sound and Wigginton can handle the assignment.

What's scary is the team apparently didn't do its homework on Melvin Mora last offseason when they believed he was capable of handling a utility role. A lot of people, myself included, saw that problem coming a mile away. Unfortunately we were right, and the Rockies were significantly hampered defensively for an extended period of time.

I think Jim Tracy would be wise to limit Wigginton to 1B and a little bit of 3B. 2B and OF don't seem necessary when you have Jose Lopez giving you plenty of infield flexibility and Eric Young Jr. who can also play 2B and is likely a better outfielder than Wigginton would be a middle infielder. Let EY take those emergency OF innings when needed.

-- Missing on Ronny Paulino robbed us of a potential Paulino-Paulino battery every fifth day. That novelty aside, I don't think the Rockies will regret missing him too much. I know he's a Tracy guy, and it sure is possible the Rockies end up settling for something less, but at this stage I'm not concerned.

-- Michael Young trade rumors dominated Twitter and other media outlets on Tuesday night. My official stance is that potential move would be far fetched, but that's what I would have labeled the Jayson Werth contract right until the moment he signed it. This has been a weird offseason. Teams are being aggressive, creative, and often times stupid, so it's difficult to rule anything out without having enough information.

For now, I'm saying it's unlikely.

Young may fit from a baseball standpoint, but the business side, his age, and his declining skills are all factors weighing heavily against this. The only possible scenario I can see working would involve Colorado flipping Young to a third team, possibly someone like the White Sox, in exchange for a pitcher like Gavin Floyd.

Again, the money would have to make sense, and I don't see it getting to a point where it makes enough sense for Colorado.

But what do I know? Stay tuned and we'll see what Wednesday brings us.