ESPN - Oakland Athletics officially acquired Matt Holliday from the Colorado Rockies for Huston Street, Greg Smith and Carlos Gonzalez

Oakland Athletics officially acquired Matt Holliday from the Colorado Rockies for Huston Street, Greg Smith and Carlos Gonzalez

It's a totally perplexing trade on both ends. I have no idea why the Rockies would want to get rid of him, and no idea why the As would want him. Here's what his last three seasons would look like if you multiply his road numbers times two.

• 2006 .280 24 HR 72 RBI .818 OPS
  
• 2007 .301 22 HR 110 RBI .859 OPS
  
• 2008 .308 20 HR 58 RBI .891 OPS
  

Those stats are not the profile of a bad player. He will hit approximately 20 homers and bat around .300 - a solid guy - but is that what Oakland is expecting? On the other hand, we all know that he owns Coors. He's averaged .360 there for the past three years, so why are the Rocks dumping him? His salary next year will be $13 million, so they got rid of that, and he will become a free agent after that, so his price will go up, so maybe they're just jettisoning salaries. I don't buy that as the complete explanation. The real answer ought to be "because they can get something in return." They must have really their eyes on one or more of those three young players.

The trade is a really bad deal for at least two groups of people I can think of:

• Whoa, does it suck for Matt Holiday and his agent! This is his final year on a contract. If he played it in Coors, you'd expect him to hit .330 and knock in 120 runs, maybe make a good showing in the MVP balloting. If he plays in pitcher-friendly Oakland, you'd expect .290 and 85. Which numbers would you like to have when negotiating your contract?
  
• If you have Holliday in the type of fantasy league where you retain your players from year to year ... sorry, dude. Also, if you have Greg Smith, a young 2007 rookie with some potential ... oh, boy is he going to suffer for a while. He was 7-16 with a 1.35 WHIP for the As. A trip to Coors was probably not on his list of things to do in his sophomore year.