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Colorado Wants Middle Reliever For Shealy

According to the Post-Gazette, the Rockies want a "young middle reliever" for Ryan Shealy. That is a completely reasonable asking price and one to which the Bucs should agree. The best young middle reliever the Bucs have is Matt Capps, and I would gladly send Capps to the Rockies for Shealy. He's a good middle reliever, but even if he turns out to be a great one, it's worth the risk to see if Shealy can be an answer at first for the Bucs. Among young middle relievers on the teams supposedly pursuing Shealy, though, the Rockies might prefer the Giants' Jonathan Sanchez or the Orioles' Chris Britton.

(Sidenote: If I'm Dave Littlefield and I'm worried about looking good and protecting my job, I'm all over this, since the chance that it will make me look bad in the future is so tiny. If I trade a middle reliever to the Rockies, no one will notice him even if he's great, since the Rockies are almost as chronically win-resistant as the Bucs and since the altitude will kill the reliever's ERA. Brian Fuentes has had some really great seasons for the Rockies; few have noticed.)

The same article also suggests that the Padres might be interested in Joe Randa. If any other team were in the Padres' situation, I might be inclined to believe they'd trade for Randa, but Randa completely fell apart after coming to San Diego in a mid-year trade last year.

Finally, Jim Tracy suggests that he's "trying to win games" by keeping Craig Wilson, Jeromy Burnitz and Randa out of the lineup. Obviously, I'm fine with leaving Burnitz and Randa on the bench, but how does starting Nate McLouth in right over Wilson help the team win games? There is, of course, a perfectly good reason to play McLouth, which is to find out what his future is with the Pirates. I don't know why Tracy wouldn't just come out and say that.

By the way, Wilson isn't too happy about his lack of playing time, and be sure to read the whole quote:

"Obviously, it's frustrating," said Wilson, who has requested a trade on numerous occasions. "You know going in you're only going to get the start against (left-handed pitchers). I don't know what else I have to do."

When has Wilson asked for a trade?!