The Orioles trade Guthrie for Jason Hammel and Matt Lindstrom

I'll start this by saying I am a big Jeremy Guthrie fan and I will miss him pitching in Baltimore. He was a steady starter and you knew most days he would give 6 plus innings and keep you in the game. Easily the best starter on last year's team and also seemed to be a leader on the field and on the bench. I think he helped a lot of the young pitchers as they came up and I think he had a positive impact on Matt Wieters when he came up in helping him learn how to call a game. I wish him luck in Colorado and I hope we don't regret this trade. There is a good chance in my opinion the O's will regret this trade though. Dan Duquette has preached getting arms that could make a difference and could go close to 200 innings. Guthrie was that pitcher for us, he got 200 innings the last two years and had decent stats to go with those innings, I am not saying he was an all-star but on a team with under performing starters he was the one bright spot. In return for Guthrie we get Jason Hammel a 29 year old starter who has gone over 170 innings the last three years with comparable stats to Guthrie. The thing that worries me is that last year he got switched to the bull pen near the end of the year and doesn't seem to be any more effective than Guthrie. Matt Lindstrom will come out of the bull pen and I don't know much about him (have you heard his name much?), he is 32 years old. Obviously this trade could turn out to be a good one, I just don't see it. This seems to be a move more based on money than production and the real disappointment is that more than likely the guys they got for Guthrie probably won't be with the team in two more years. Many thought that if the O's traded Guthrie or any one else it would be to get prospects that could help us in the future. These two guys are too old and not productive enough to be around when we start to get better, in my opinion. I know we weren't going to get anyone's best prospect for Guthrie but you would like either a young player with good up side or at least someone a little better than Guthrie if you just want to trade starters. This trade also doesn't make since in the fact that you take a known starter away for a guy who might be able to start and add another arm to a bull pen that is already over crowded. I can't really make sense of it other than that the two players combined make what Guthrie would make this year but that doesn't seem worth it when you are losing a type of pitcher which you profess to covet. We'll see how it works out, good luck Guts! Go O's!