Well, we can't.

DO'D on the Kaz deal, from the Post: "We don't know what we have here. Are we getting the player who is a seven-time All-Star in Japan or the player he's been the last couple seasons? Ryan Spilborghs had taken Eli [Marrero]'s at-bats. Jorge [Piedra] makes us more left-handed. There just wasn't any spot for Eli as we move forward." The article goes on to say that the Rockies will give Matsui about a month in AAA to get New York City out of his sytem. My guess is that he will eventually be released and will quietly go back to playing in Japan, but I'm a born pessimist.

More or less the same story from the RMN, although with a typical Pollyanna spin. ("The big picture and immediate future might have brightened for the Colorado Rockies on Friday," reads the lead.) Why am I bothered by this trade? Because it seems too much like a deal made for the sake of making a deal. I'm glad that a young player, Spilborghs, is taking old player Marrero's spot, but the Rockies' lack of a place for Marrero wasn't license to trade him in what is essentially a garbage dump for the Mets. Perhaps I'm overestimating Marrero's value, but it seems to me that a trade for a minor league prospect or two would have been possible somewhere and would have made more sense given the Rockies' current position -- improving, but probably not contending in the NL West this year. A guy who's a longshot to become a cheap contributor for several years is still a better get than a guy who's a longshot to do anything this year and then becomes a free agent anyway. Of course, there may be another shoe preparing to drop that we don't know about yet. I dimly recall Dan O'Dowd being effusive about Eric Byrnes' addition last year and then flipping him off to Baltimore days later.

Brett Tomko faces Jason Jennings at Coors tonight, although if I were you I'd avoid watching Rockies games until their offense breaks out of the ugly funk in which it's presently mired. The game last night was particularly tedious, especially with so many exciting things going on over on other channels, baseball and otherwise.

Oh, I went to see Bob Schneider last night. Bob Schneider is good.