FanPost

Rasmus for Rasmus?

Now I know that nobody here wants to give up Rasmus and I can understand that. It is obviously going to be difficult to get anything resembling fair value for an elite fielder and elite hitter playing an elite position for pennies. And I also know that people are tired of hearing trade proposals for Colby. But I think this proposal could really work out for both sides and benefit us going forward. So stay with me:

We trade:

Colby Rasmus

The Cardinals trade:

Colby Rasmus

Stop it; I can hear your scoffing from here. "No way. Maybe in the Cardinal’s dreams," you say. "You want us to give up Colby Fucking Rasmus for some guy with a K% of 31.9? He played abysmal defense last year!" I know, I know but hear me out. The man most definitely has superstar upside. All he really needs to do is put together his defensive wizardry 2009 with his explosive bat of 2010 and he’s a 5 WAR player. And get this – he’s only 24. He has plenty of room to improve.

"Right, there’s clearly some upside to be had from Colby. But, seriously, there’s no way it compares to Rasmus’s upside. The guy has light-tower power plus speed. All of his tools are a plus." I think if you actually took a moment to compare upside, you’d find Colby Rasmus’s potential to be very similar to that of Colby Rasmus. Just look at their stats and scouting reports, they are very close.

"We wouldn’t need to give up Rasmus to get Rasmus though. I think we could make this trade happen with Jon Jay/Allen Craig + Lance Lynn + Jason Motte. That way, we end up with an outfield of Rasmus, Rasmus, and Holliday." This may seem like a reasonable trade to you but if we went over to the Cardinals SB site, I guarantee you they would pan it in a split second. St. Louis is gonna expect some premier talent in return for Colby Rasmus and the only real trade piece we have to give in return is Colby Rasmus. There’s obviously a natural human tendency to value your own players over those of others but you have to spend talent to get talent.

"Look at his spat with his manager, Tony LaRussa. The guy clearly isn’t a good clubhouse guy and I would not appreciate him asking for a trade off of our team. Just watch him play, he’s clearly a headcase." Honestly, if he hits the way he did last year, he could insult my sister hourly via Twitter for all I care. And remember that Colby Rasmus has had his share of personality issues as well.

Perhaps his little manager dispute could maybe be used as leverage against them. I mean, think of it from John Mozeliak’s perspective. He’s got a chance to end a dispute between a player and his manager and get a once-in-a-lifetime centerfielder in return. Do you really think he’s going to balk at throwing in another prospect if it’s necessary to make this trade go through? He hasn’t had a record of getting the best value in his dealings so far. So, ideally, we could ask for Colby Rasmus+ for Colby Rasmus. It doesn’t seem all that unreasonable to me.