Maybe that goes without saying, but given that a great number of Phillies fans half-jokingly -- at least I hope it was half-jokingly -- proposed a silly Joe Blanton-for-Colby Rasums trade after hearing about Adam Wainwright’s injury yesterday, it’s probably wise that Ruben Amaro put the kibosh on such nonsense immediately:
Silly trade scenarios aside, there are two ways for competing teas to look at the Adam Wainwright injury: (a) as an opportunity to trade a pitcher on very favorable terms to a team in desperate need of one; or (b) as a cold-water-to-the-face moment in which you realize how just one damn thing going wrong could send your own season skidding sideways.
If you’re inclined to think in that latter, risk-averse fashion, you may be less likely to trade away a starting pitcher to a desperate Cardinals team today than you were yesterday. Because there, but for the grace your pitchers’ elbow ligaments, go you. And won’t you feel dumb if one of your big guns goes down and you don’t have a Joe Blanton-type to help stop the bleeding?