"Don't Get Sad" (Ida, Will You Find Me)

So the Red Sox potential deal with the Rockies for the once-great, still lively and rather excellent defensive first baseman Todd Helton is dead, dead, dead. In the short term, this seems sucky, and since Boston fans are rabid, snarling beasts continually living for THIS YEAR, NOW, NOW, NOW!, a lot of fans are going to be annoyed that the difference between the deal's culmination, which also would have gotten rid of unpopular, violent reliever/spot starter Julian Tavarez, is going to cause a lot of guys named Casey and Sully to get the same vein in their forehead popping that I get from too much whiskey.

Calm down, Johnny Burger King. As this excellent Baseball Prospectus blog posting'll tell ya, this isn't one to get upset over. Getting a 33-year-old first baseman on the tail end of his career, with five years on an exorbitant contract even with the Rockies' assistance, is potentially wasteful enough. Giving up a top prospect, even reliever Manny Delcarmen, whose 2006 season was very up-and-down and whose upside isn't necessarily that high, just isn't worth it. And if that money is the difference between getting a big free agent in 2008 and being handcuffed into getting the next Gil Meche/ Carl Pavano/ Matt Clement, we're doing more than well by letting this one go. So even if you can't think past this year and have no chance of thinking of 2010, when this move might still hurt, think of next year. When we'll be defending a World Series championship.