It was never a matter of if the Colorado Rockies would trade OF Seth Smith, but when? With the signing of Micheal Cuddyer, the Rockies had a crowded outfield and no longer had any room for the former Ole Miss QB.

Smith finally got traded out of Colorado on Monday

The Rockies have been looking for a trade partner for Smith for a while now and on Monday, they found a team they matched up with. The Rockies traded Smith to the Oakland A’s for LHP Josh Outman and RHP Guillermo Moscoso.

With the A’s re-signing CF Coco Crisp and trading for RF Josh Reddick, Smith figures to nail down the left field job for the A’s in 2012. That leaves Michael Taylor as the odd man out and his season most likely starting in Triple-A again.

Smith hit .284/.347/.483 with 15 HR’s, nine triples (wow, that’s a lot), and 10 SB’s in 533 PA’s for the Rockies in 2011. Smith will certainly see his numbers suffer somewhat going from the hitter friendly Coors Field to the cavernous Oakland Coliseum, but I think Billy Beane saw Smith’s 2011 splits and felt comfortable that Smith could have a similar season in Oakland in 2012 that he had in Colorado in 2011.

Smith hit .285/.335/.513 with nine HR’s in 254 PA’s at home and hit .282/.358/.456 with six HR’s on the road. As you can see, Smith’s splits aren’t that far off.

Smith is arbitration eligible after the 2012 season and is set to be a free agent after the 2015 season. So he is cost affective and under control for the next four years — that’s a perfect A’s player.

In return for Smith, the A’s received Outman and Moscoso. Outman is a 27-year-old left-handed pitcher, who I am guessing will be used as a swing man in Colorado, but mostly pitching out of the bullpen.

I am not sure about Outman in Colorado. He is not a strikeout pitcher (6.4 K/9 for his career) and he is not a ground ball pitcher (38.8 percent for his career), so I don’t think his game translate well to Coors. Based on his career splits, Outman might be best served as a left-handed specialist out of the pen. Lefties have only a .466 OPS against Outman in 153 PA’s. If he pitches against righties in Coors, he might get torched.

Moscoso is a 28-year-old right-handed pitcher, who is pretty similar to Outman. Moscoso isn’t a strikeout pitcher (5.2 K/9 in 2011) and is an extreme flyball pitcher (55.5 percent in 2011), so again, I am not sure how his game is going to translate at Coors. My guess is Moscoso will compete for a starting rotation spot in 2012.

On the surface, I give the edge to the A’s in this trade. When I look at what the Rockies got back for Smith, they got two guys who don’t fit the profile of a successful pitcher in Colorado. I would think by now they would know a profile of what succeeds at Coors, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here.

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By The Baseball Index