I love this trade. The Expos may never have another chance at winning, and they are going for it. They pick up a good pitcher having his best season. Colon has 14.6 win shares this year; the most an Expo starts has is Ohka with 7.6. The four pitchers who have been used in the 5th slot have 1.9 win shares (that's overall, they probably have less just as starters). This now gives the Expos a rotation that looks like:

Pitcher      WS

Colon      14.6

Ohka        7.6

Vazquez     6.8

Armas       4.0

Pavano, who had been used most as a fourth stater only had .3 win shares, and had fallen out of the rotation. What is really interesting is that Robinson appears to have gone to the La Russa 1990 strategy of not using the fifth starter when days off allow it. He's only used 4 starters the last two times through the rotation. Expos need to make up 5 games to get the wild card, and this deal should be good to make them 3 or 4 games better over the 2nd half of the season. That includes losing Lee Stevens, who's 4.5 win shares at first base was nothing special.

This is the sort of deal Cleveland should have made last year. Those of you who logged into BBTN on-line last year may remember be saying the Indians should trade Thome for a front line starter, either with the Angels or Marlins. Cleveland was clearly reaching the end of the run, and Hart, while producing a very good team, did not give Cleveland the championship they had long sought. They had plenty of offense, (and the Angels needed some power at first), and a deal could have given them enough to face the Mariners and Yankees. But they couldn't or wouldn't pull the trigger. Now Indians fans are going to wait a few more years as the team rebuilds. The Expos realize they can't wait any longer and are going for it. I'd love to see it work out for them. By the way, Expos attendance is about where it was last year through 39 games. In 2001, they were averaging 8500, this year 8427.