Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
November 17, 2002
Hampton Trade:

I've been keeping my eye on this, but it always seemed to fluid to get a real feel for. Now, it appears to be done.

Hampton was a failure in Colorado. That's not so surprising, since Coors is a tough place to pitch. What is surprising is Hampton's home-road record as a Rockie: 12-9 with a 5.73 ERA at home, but 9-19 with a 5.77 ERA on the road! If Hampton had been able to put up his previous road ERA of 4.08, he probably would have been the best pitcher in Rockies history.

This all makes me wonder if Coors teaches pitchers bad habits. It seems to me that you need to be too different pitchers when you're working for the Rockies. I've sometimes thought that the Rockies should have home-road platoons on the pitching staff, although they'd probably have to carry 15 pitchers to make that work.

I think Atlanta is taking a huge risk here. Hampton, before the move to Colorado, was greatly helped by his home fields (2.89 ERA at home pre-Colorado). I think I'd rather keep Glavine.

I'm very excited for Charles Johnson, however. He handles pitching staffs well, and he has a decent eye for the strike zone, although he's not that good a hitter. I suspect Coors will add to his power, and I wouldn't be surprised to see him start the All-star game next year.

And of course, the best part of the trade (from the above AP article):


Later, the former 22-game winner was traded by the Marlins to the Braves for reliever Tim Spooneybarger and an unnamed prospect, the Journal-Constitution reported.

When you get Tim Spooneybarger, does the other player really need a name? :-)


Posted by David Pinto at 07:57 AM | Baseball