Just got back from running my 93-year-old mother to a few stores and I learn the Indians have agreed to trade Cliff Lee for four prospects — one a catcher, none in the major leagues, none named Kyle or Drabek.
Good luck to the Indians selling this one.
Oh … and Ben Francisco is going to Philadelphia as well.
The Indians had maintained it would take a gigantic offer to prompt them to trade Lee. They got four minor leaguers — and none were among the three that Toronto wanted for Roy Halladay. But they were the second, fourth and fifth-rated prospects in the Phillies organization.
This smacks of a team losing money that knew it could only do so much in 2010 and felt it needed to get numbers of players rather than keep the one player.
It's a roll of the dice. A huge one. Because the more viable players leave for prospects, the more fans wonder when the winning will take place.
Now we're back to the future — with guys being dealt for prospects and the talk about improvement if the prospects come through. If, if if.
I'd have preferred to keep Lee. And if he had to be traded I'd have preferred to acquire a major-league ready player, not to wait on guys. But I also preferred to keep Bartolo Colon a few years back, and Lee was one of the guys the Indians got for Colon and he turned out to be a pretty good pitcher.
The Indians better hope these guys and all the rest of the young guys they've acquired come through. If they do it could be an exciting young team to watch — provided it wins. But if they don't it'll be a long time until there's some excitement downtown in the summertime.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Let's simplify things here. Even with Cliff Lee on the hill, the Tribe continued to lose. The guy had 6 or 7 wins. Carl Stinkin Pavano has more than that. We were going to lose Lee after next season anyway. We're never going to win until we get some consistent offense in the lineup, so why bother kidding ourselves?
The entire team needs re-tooled, re-made, re-invented…however you want to phrase it. People in this town whine, because they whine about EVERYthing. But they cried when Colon was dealt, til Sizemore, Lee and Phillips panned out. Let's give this deal a look-see before we break out the pitchforks and torches.
So Cliff Lee is gone… with no J.A. Happ, no Kyle Drabek and no Michael Taylor and Dominic Brown in return for him. Victor will be flying to Beantown soon with perhaps some cash and a few never-will-make-the-show guys. Love it. Love it. Love it. Time to pull out my old 8-tracks and groove to the 70's music coming out of the Front Office.
Still think it's right to trade him now. Hope I'm right about trade timing, but more than anything hope Shapiro is right about the prospects.
hey jason, sizemore, lee and phillips DID NOT pan out. obviously if they had brandon phillips would be at second base (blame wedge), lee would still be on the team, sizemore wouldn't be wedge's strike out machine girlfriend and the team would have won a championship. this trade is ultimate proof that the colon trade was a FAILURE! you don't trade a cy young winner with an $8 million dollar option for next year if things are working out.
to trade lee now was beyond foolish. at the very least wait until just before the deadline. maybe the phillies would have given in and thrown in someone other than a scrub catcher. people claim his value would have been less had they waited until next year. less that what they got this year???? no way in hell. these trades happen every year for rent-a-pitchers. no need to dump the guy this early for a package of hopes and wishes.
shapiro and wedge disgust me. trading back to back cy young winners. pluto can now write a whole second book based on the curse of rocky colavito now.
also, since when has wedge ever been known to develop young players??? how about—-NEVER! what good are prospects when you have a twiching fool at the helm?
the name dolan is synonymous with dog s— in my mind.
Pluto writing another sports book will be a curse in itself. Anyway, the Colon trade was not a failure by any stretch of the imagination. This is a payroll dump, pure and simple. What gets me is that the reigning Cy Young guy in return for four 12-year-old sixth-grade prospects wasn't enough. They actually had to give up a mediocre big league player, too, just to make the deal. That part of the deal is the part that really baffles me. How much are they saving on Francisco's salary for the rest of the season? Can't be that much.
how can the colon trade be a success? it wasn't!
it looked like a success for a long time but obviously the cy young guy was only worth some minor league kids, phillips wasn't worth anything and all they have left is a strikeout at centerfield. essentially it's colon for sizemore. whoopie!!!! a success would be a world series ring. hell, i'd even settle for an appearance. didn't happen. that ain't success unless you're a cavs fan who thinks that losing to orlando in the ecf was a good time.
The trade itself was a rousing success. I didn't say that what they did with the players they received was a success. Even if it had been just Cliff Lee for Colon straight up, the Indians got the better of the deal.
if i trade you a dollar bill for a twenty and i manage to lose the 20 in the wind is that a success?
that is essentially what the indians did with the colon trade.
Yes, it was a success. Just because you're a boob afterward doesn't mean what you initially did wasn't a success. You're arguing semantics.
What I don't like about the trade the most is Martinez will now be pawned for nothing. Why did Shapiro pull the trigger two days before the deadline? It screams he's desperate. He didn't even bother posturing that he was talking to other teams about Lee so as to possibly get better prospects from Philadelphia. Now everybody knows Shapiro is in full desperation mode, and they don't have to give up anything for Martinez because they know Shapiro is absolutely desperate to dump salary.
It's like Shapiro has done the Vulcan mindmeld with Danny Ferry. This is some of the worst negotiating ever.
Oh, the Colon trade was spectacular. What we DID with the talent we received is another story.
Regarding Francisco, I prefer to think of it this way: "Okay, we'll give you Cliff Lee for four no-names, but you've GOT to take Francisco in the trade, too…or it's no deal."
The shame of it all is, Shapiro didn't demand that Philly take HAFNER and Francisco.
Yeah, Wedge has no idea how to manage young players, Glad to see we called up Marte yesterday only to sit him today after getting 2 hits last night!!!
A bad deal. They had Lee set for next year. They could have built a
decent rotation around him and they still could have traded him before
next year's deadline if things went south. Now they don't have that core
pitcher to build with. pretty sad but typical of this organization.
Keith Law explains this deal perfectly in an interview with Michael Reghi.
http://www.espncleveland.com/podcasting/
Nobody is in love with the sound of his own voice more than Michael Reghi. I wonder how much that blowhard would change his tune if the Indians games were broadcast on WKNR. No, come to think of it, I don't wonder. I know.
I can't blame Dolan, obviously the attendance projection didn't come close to the expectations. There has been close to a 20% dip in attendance since last season. That's freakin' ridiculous. Cleveland is a lousy baseball town and Jacobs took Dolan for a ride at Splash Mountain or Dip City, or wherever the hell the intrepid columnist said he took his kids this past week. Jacobs is probably yukking it up 10-feet-under, that jerk.
How in the world do you still have a job as a writer, McMANorMORON. Maybe I should be asking your employers.
First, you aren't Terry Pluto. Stop trying to be a folksy version of him. As far as the folksiness, it just is boring. People don't want sentences, where the subject is left out. People don't want to read about your life outside of writing. You should be called Mid-Western Man, with all your folksy talk. UGH.
If Pat were Terry Pluto, his words would be in verses and he'd be praying like a madman.