Breaking News: Shealy, Dohmann to Royals for Affeldt, Bautista
A week ago, the Colorado Rockies website reported that Hurdle would be looking for a veteran to add to the lineup to give the team real pennant experience. Instead, the Rockies have dealt their top prospect, Ryan Shealy, to the Kansas City Royals along with Major League Failure Scott Dohmann in exchange for two young pitchers.
The more experienced of the two is 27 year-old lefty Jeremy Affeldt, who has played 4 seasons with the Royals. Affeldt started 9 games this year, but has been mostly delegated to relief pitching, where he has done well, posting a 2.96 ERA and a .174 opponent batting average in 18 appearances from the pen. The Rockies will likely use him as a left-handed specialist to replace the faltering Ray King, as lefties are hitting just .181 against him this season. This should give the Rockies increased stability in a bullpen that has been faltering of late, and certainly help us in the division race - but it does mean that our top prospect is gone and we still need to fill at least one literally gaping hole for next year: center field.
The other pitcher acquired is 25 year-old right-handed starter Denny Bautista, who has a great arm but has so far been a bust and has spend most of the season in AAA. Some people are pitting Bautista as the real headliner in this deal, but so far he’s just shown that he has potential - a lot like Scott Dohmann.
So the question now becomes, did we get enough for Shealy? I look at this in two ways: first, Bautista and Dohmann basically cancel out. Either still has the potential to be good in the majors, but neither has proven as of yet that they can do it. Shealy can hit at the major-league level, and plays a decent first base, but has yet to have a lot of experience in the majors, so it makes sense to get a reliever with proven talent out of the bullpen, especially in a role that we’ve really been missing of late, left-handed middle relief. But Shealy has the potential to be a franchise-building player, much like Todd Helton, and relievers tend to come and go. So while this may have been a good move for the short term, will we really benefit down the road when we find that our real problems are in center field, and that we might need a prospect like Shealy to solidify the outfield? Consider this: The biggest loser in this years’ trade deadline fiasco was without a doubt the Boston Red Sox. Possibly the most talked-about team heading into the deadline, all of the deals the Sox were considering fell through, and they got nothing. Meanwhile, their AL East rival, the New York Yankees picked up Bobby Abreu to add power to an already overpowered offense. When deals started falling through for the BoSox, could the Rockies have reminded Boston, who had expressed interest in Shealy before, that Ryan was still available? We will of course never know.
The Bottom Line
Both teams improved in this deal. Shealy will help the Royals fill a huge gap in their lineup, and at least for the short term, Affeldt should solidify the bullpen for the Rockies. Plus, Affeldt is young and could still prove to be a top-quality reliever, especially with a good change of scenery. Meanwhile, if Bautista turns out to be a real starter and not just a scouts’ player, next years’ rotation could be scary. All of the sudden, the Rockies’ organization seems to be filled with pitching prospects, and a 100% solid rotation would make this team very scary indeed. I’m still worried about what we’re going to do in center field, but after thinking about the trade over and over again, I can’t help but think that it was all-in-all a good deal for the pennant race this year, and could be a great one for years to come if everything pans out like the scouts say it will.
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1. Kels - August 1, 2006 @ 4:39 pm
I like the trade. Let’s face it, we had to get rid of Shealy given his age, and other teams knew it so I think we received pretty good value. And for some reason I’m a Jeremy Affeldt fan, his has a great arm, and he should get a little boast from being traded to a team in contention. I just hope the bats get going.
2. Gabe Stein - August 1, 2006 @ 4:59 pm
Yeah, I mean I like the trade too, at least in the short term. I just wonder if we couldn’t have got a bit more for Shealy.
3. Kels - August 1, 2006 @ 6:52 pm
It could be worse, we could have gotten Chacon back…;)