HOLY CRAP! A Monfort Quote Makes Sense?
The Helton trade is a no-go.
Someone in the Rockies organization felt that the Red Sox, the stingiest team in baseball™, weren’t willing to give up enough for the Rockies to pull the trigger. Now hold your breath. That person in the Rockies organization was the infamous Charlie Monfort, who almost uncanilly mirrored the thoughts of most Rockies fans with a quote in a recent Tracy Ringolsby article.
“They wouldn’t give us a player compatible with what we felt we needed,” Monfort said. “When you are talking a player of Todd Helton’s ability, you need to get someone back who is going to make an impact.”
-Charlie Monfort
And it’s true - the Red Sox weren’t about to give up much. The deal the Red Sox put on the table was for the Rockies to pay about half of Helton’s remaining contract and send him to Boston in exchange for two overpaid but not nearly as productive (even given Helton’s recent slowdown) veterans in Mike Lowell and Julian Tavarez. To take on those contracts, the Rockies were only willing to pay $28 million, around a third of Helton’s contract - and they still wanted at least one of the Red Sox’s top prospects, which is where the deal really fell through.
Once again, the stingiest team in baseball™ wanted to flip mediocre veterans in exchange for a proven one, and not give up any potential talent - which is how deals like this are made in today’s MLB. For what it’s worth, the Rockies wanted one or more of the following: pitchers Jon Lester, Manny Delcarmen, Craig Hansen, Clay Buchholz, Dan Bard and center fielder Jacoby Ellsburg. As has been previously noted, the Red Sox didn’t want to see any of these go - even to acquire a player that might put their lineup back on par with the start-studded Yankees top nine, and plays defense at first.
So what’s the moral of this story? The Rockies do value their one star veteran afterall, and weren’t just trying to dump his contract. And apparently, someone in the front office could see that the Red Sox were trying to pull a fast one on us. So I guess Sam has a bit of explaining to do, because for once, I’m fairly happy with the Monforts.
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1. Sam Handler - February 1, 2007 @ 5:58 pm
I have no explaining to do. If the Rockies had any thought of trading Helton in the next year, there’s no excuse for dealing Sheally. And don’t think one instance of decent general management will redeem this cursed organization in my eyes.