ROCKIES! Trade Ubaldo Jimenez!

At one point last year, Ubaldo Jimenez looked like he could win 30 games. 25 was a lock.
He was the 26 year old home grown ace of the Rockies and things were just going to get better.

He was 15-1 at the All Star break.
His ERA was sub 1.00 into June.

The second half? He went 4-7 with a decent (especially for pitching 1/2 his games in Denver) 3.80 ERA.

His numbers were solid and Cy Young worthy. But there was something mildly disturbing.

His whole career he's been a decent pitcher who put up decent numbers. And for one half of a year, he was a Cy Young candidate.

What if that one half of a season was a fluke?
What if it was an anomaly?

What if this is... *GASP*... Javier Vazquez all over again?
As I wrote before, Vazquez had a terrific 2001 with Montreal and coasted on the reputation of that season until 2009 when he had another great year for Atlanta.

The Yankees were of course burned when they brought him back... but my point is this:

Jimenez might not be an ace. But teams might THINK he is!
He started the 2010 All Star Game. That was almost exactly a year ago.

When exactly will his value be higher than RIGHT NOW?

The Rockies are sub .500 now and don't have the arms to catch up with San Francisco for the West nor for Atlanta for the Wild Card.

So take a look at Jimenez as a chip. A young good starting pitcher who everyone thinks is an ace!

Why hold on to him until people figure out he's NOT an ace?

If the Yankees want to give up some of their top prospects (and supposedly Jesus Montero is being offered) take it.

Drive up the price as the Yankees, Tigers, Reds and almost every other contender is looking for an arm.

With Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki locked up for long term deals, the Rockies can't really afford many expensive mistakes. And expecting Jimenez to be the pitcher that he was for 1 half of a season as opposed to the pitcher he was for 3 seasons is a risky prospect.

Get two quality players and let him become a decent but not great player for another team!

And don't wait too long.
Did someone say "Brandon Webb?"

Get to know your Rockies

Back in December, I praised the Rockies for signing Troy Tulowitzki to a long term contract, avoiding a free agent nightmare, and making sure that fans throughout this decade in Denver will know who will be at short.

And now with a grand total of one full season in the majors, Carlos Gonzalez will be a Rockie for the next seven years, once again side stepping a free agent bidding war.

No doubt a lot of people (like The Bleacher Report) will kill both of these trades, saying they will be albatrosses on the payroll.

But I like them for two reasons:

First of all, as I said before, I like signing players that the fan base can get attached to. Baseball has such a reputation of being a sport where the stars all leave the smaller revenue teams. Why not have Tulo or Carlos stick around for a while and give the team an identity?

Secondly, how do we know that the salaries won't escalate even more? This could be a bargain by the time 2020 comes around!

I remember the Pirates at one point could have resigned Barry Bonds for four years at $16 million... TOTAL.

They balked and later he went to the Giants for five years and $25 million. (Remember when that was a lot of money? Granted, I'll take it now.)

If the Pirates had ponied up a little money in 1991, they may have had a contender for a few more years instead of blowing the team up after the 1992 NLCS.

Either way, Rockies fans you should be happy. You had one superstar, Todd Helton, play the entire 2000s with your team and will have two other stars, Tulowitzki and Gonzalez play the 2010s at Coors.

Stars you can identify with?
Stars who have already played in the post season?
Stars who are sticking around?
Fans who can attach some emotion to their favorite players?

WHAT A CONCEPT!

Give the Rockies credit... they give their fans players to cling to

You are going to hear a lot of mixed opinions about Troy Tulowitzki's long term contract extension with the Rockies.

Jeff Passan has already chimed in on Yahoo. The panel on MLB Network is split on it. (John Hart pointed out what a no brainer Grady Sizemore's super stardom looked like.) And more will come down the pike.

And yes people are pointing to the Rockies rotten contracts for Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle, but those are disingenuous comparisons. They overpaid for them to lure some pitching into Denver and as it turned out, they were both bad fits. (Although Hampton liked the schools and Neagle liked the women in his car.)

You will hear Todd Helton's name being thrown around as a lousy contract as well. And I suppose technically it wasn't a great one. It was an albatross for a bunch of years and by 2006, they would have dealt Helton for flat Diet Sprite.

But a very cool thing happened the next year.
The Rockies went on their amazing run and stunned everyone on the planet Earth by sweeping Arizona and storming into the World Series.

And the last out was recorded by Helton.

The Rockies had a bunch of players most fans had never heard of. But they had Helton, who might not have been the superstar he was when he signed his bear of a contract. But he was the steady player whom any baseball fan knew and could relate to Colorado.

And that is something that all the stat heads in the world will NEVER understand. Sometimes for a fan base, it is GOOD to have a steady reliable player that the fan base can point to and say "That's my guy!"

Helton was that guy on the 2007 Rockies. Who knows? If the Blue Jays make the playoffs, Vernon Wells and HIS brontosaurus of a contract might have a similar reaction to Helton in the '07 ALCS.

It is why I totally understood the Ryan Howard contract. Lots of people killed it, but I got it. Sometimes you need to put OPS+, VORP, WAR and everything else and put it on the shelf.

Howard the Phillies fan's guy. He delivered for them with those towering homers in the 2008 World Series and as the 2009 NLCS MVP. He was a World Champion and an MVP for the Phillies... and you don't have to worry about him going to New York or Chicago or Boston. The long term contract gave the fans license to get attached to him as a Phillie.

And besides, how do you know if an Adrian Gonzalez or whomever else would be able to produce in Philadelphia or be as loved by the fans.

Sometimes to build up a fan base, regular fans need to have fan favorites to root for. Not everyone is watching the game with a calculator in hand. Some people (and brace yourself here) root for the PLAYERS. Some people like having a player to cheer for through thick and thin, and not drop them from their Fantasy Team because their Base Out Win percentage dropped.

Yes it involves emotion, but not all baseball fans are Vulcans!
Some fans have been stung by departing players and want to know if this is a long term relationship or just a fling.

I wonder if the Marlins would have a bigger fan base if some of their World Champions were able to stick around. I wonder if Padres fans would have shown up at the park this year if they felt like the stars they were cheering for would actually come back in 2011.

So guess what Rockies fans... you can buy a Tulowitzki jersey and know it will be good for a while. In the age of free agency, spending 10 seasons in a smaller market is really all you can ask for.

Todd Helton has given Colorado fans 13+ seasons.
Tulowitzki could spend 14+ seasons in Denver if the contract runs through all of its options.

Either way there will be many Rockie fans who could point to Todd and Troy and say "They were MY GUYS."

Go for 20, Ubaldo

Remember when Ubaldo Jimenez was 15-1 at the All Star break? It looked like not only was he a lock for the Cy Young Award but had a legit shot at 30 wins.

He got his 15th win on July 8th.

If I told you that in the second half, the Rockies would have a 10 game winning streak and Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez would enter the MVP race, you'd think he'd have AT LEAST 25 wins going into the last weekend.

But here we are... in his last start of the season, still searching for win #20.

And like I said about Jon Lester, 20 wins is still a cool milestone no matter what the sabermetric people tell me.

Being a 20 game winner with a sub 3.00 ERA should be a Cy Young contender every year... and as a member of the Rockies should put him #2 or #3 in the voting.

There is something frustrating about 19 wins too. You got THAT close to 20 wins but didn't get it.

It's kind of like Jerry Seinfeld's "Silver Medal" bit. If you won 18 games... that's great. If you won 19 games, you can't help but think "How close did you get to 20? Did you lose a tight game?"

So let's go Ubaldo... win that 20th game. Be the first 20 game winner in Rockies history... and do NOT give announcers the line "He looked like he had a shot at 30 but didn't even win 20."

And enjoy Seinfeld at his best.