Trade Review - Cowhide Joyride and Colon No Like Salad

Cowhide Joyride receives:

Prince Fielder, 5th round pick

Colon No Like Salad receives:

Josh Hamilton, Alexei Ramirez, 3rd round pick

A blockbuster that makes a lot of sense for both teams, as Dave has put up with Billy Butler as his first baseman long enough and Russ has had difficulty finding an OF to fit in next to CarGo and Stanton. The picks are more or less a wash since they're so close, especially given the gravity of talent involved. Hamilton had an unfortunate injury but has been otherwise productive. Alexei has been typical Alexei, a solid contributor in counting categories compared to others at the position, though he can run into frustrating cold streaks. For Russ, replacing the likes of WVeneble and AEscobar with Hamilton and Ramirez, while only downgrading from Prince to Gaby Sanchez at first, could be the cure to what ails this suprisingly struggling team that is a few more bad weeks from an insurmountable hole. In the end, Russ also doesn't lose much on a keeper perspective and one could argue Hamilton is better based on his position. There's still a chance for Colon to make a run here if Hughes comes back to life, Zambrano's stint on the DL is short, Colon comes back in full force and Oganda proves the last couple weeks were just a bump in the road - there's still eight weeks left. That Halladay/Kershaw/Gio trio has been one of the best in the league, so keep an eye on this team. Still needs an upgrade to the UTIL slots though, as Rolen/BWallace/Maybin/Chisenhall is less than ideal.

For Dave, his offense could become a monster providing his now thinner OF maintains productivity. Beltran has been excellent, LoMo has been decent but not great, Joyce has slowed down considerable and VWells is probably best left for the back up position. It wasn't an obvious position for Dave to trade away from, but Prince is a top shelf first baseman in a contract year and is a huge improvement at first. Butler is more of a UTIL type, which he now becomes; he and Reynolds will provide nice production from those spots. IF RZimmerman can get going, this offense could explode, which Dave needs because he's only just above Russ near the bottom of the standings.

Overall, I'd personally rather have the Prince side of the deal, since he's the better, younger, healthier player. But given his current spot in the standings and the overall value of Hamilton as a keeper, I can't fault Russ for taking a shot here and helping the team overall. Either way, these guys are sitting in the 13th and 12th spots in the standings with eight weeks to make a move, so it makes sense to shake things up.