Back at the trade deadline, I wrote the following:
Forget Freddy Sanchez. I don't have a problem with average-dependent players, per se, but this one is hurt. We'll give up a top prospect, but we'll only get 107 at-bats of nothingness.Forget Ryan Garko. He'll slump, and then he'll be buried by a manager who manages like he's the lead in Memento. If Garko doesn't make Bochy tattoo his name within 100 at-bats, forget it.
- Tattoo #1: Start Randy Winn. He hit home runs in 2005.
- Polaroid #1: Buster Posey. (other side) Don't believe his lies.
Forget Matt Holliday. He'll go absolutely nuts for the team that acquires him, hitting like a latter-day Frank Robinson, but then he'll try to catch a ball with his crotch in the playoffs. That will cost his team the game and, most likely, the series.
No, the answer is Ronnie Belliard. Forget that he's only hitting .246/.296/.374 for Washington. He's going to get crazy-hot. And then he'll get clutch hits in the playoffs. And he's cheap. Seeing as we're going to give up Tim Alderson no matter what, I suggest we give him up for Belliard and Nick Johnson, who will stay healthy for the last two months and put up a .477 on-base percentage.
And everyone here freaked out. You all screamed up and down that we couldn't give up Alderson for Belliard and Johnson. Well, well, well. Now who looks like a genius? ME. So cram it, jerks.
I'd provide a link to that post, but I'm late on my copy-and-paste bill, so that's not working, and I've got this other thing going on, and work, so yeah.
One silver lining is that maybe the Giants will only offer a $125M contract to Matt Holliday instead of a $126M contract now. So we have that going for us. Which is nice.
I think that one reason teams like the Indians and Blue Jays are entertaining offers for players like Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay a year before free agency is that teams are terrified of trading for a rental who flops in the two months after the deadline. If Lee got lit up in a lot of his starts, the Phillies could say, well, at least there's next year. Sanchez was a total dud, but it sounds like the Giants are committed to him next season, even if that means exercising his frabjillion-dollar option.
I also think that this season will completely break me of deadline rosterbation. The answer was Ronnie Belliard. The Dodgers traded for Ronnie Belliard, and that's why they won the division. That's why they get to host the Cardinals. That's why the Dodgers are a win away from the NLCS. Ronnie Belliard.
Dammit. Just, dammit.
Get it together, Cardinals.