Rockies set to acquire BK Kim

It's not very often that you see a closer go from absolutely dominant to simply awful over the course of one pitch, but that seems to be what happened to Byun-Hyun Kim during the 2001 World Series. You can really divide Kim's career into two phases: pre-Jeter and post-Jeter. (Granted, he was still pretty good in 2002.) Apparently, the Rockies think that a change of scenery - to Coors Field, no less - is exactly what Kim needs to shake off the gopherballs. Hmmmm. In any case, they're reportedly set to acquire Kim, and may be thinking about letting him close.

In any case, the Rockies' closer situation is still somewhat of a mess. Chin-Hui Tsao was tenatively named the closer by manager Clint Hurdle, and promptly developed a sore shoulder. We should have his MRI results shortly, but the Rockies are obviously concerned. Brian Fuentes missed the first half of camp with a sore back, and has spent the rest of the spring getting rocked to the tune of a 10.29 ERA.

The Red Sox will reportedly pay $5.6M of Kim's $6M 2005 salary. The Red Sox may - may - be getting RHP Jason Young (COL's 2002 2nd round pick) back in the deal... and may even be getting Brian Fuentes. We'll keep you posted if and when this deal goes through.

(UPDATE: Reports indicate that this deal is only waiting on the OK from Boston's ownership group, probably because of the large amount of salary that they'll be eating. Also, more importantly, Chin Hui-Tsao's MRI revealed no structural damage - just rotator cuff tendinitis. He may be throwing in less than a week.)