I had a nightmare last night that it was the 1970’s and Gabe Paul was the general manager of the Indians and they kept getting good players and trading them for prospects.
Then, I woke up and realized it was no nightmare. It was reality. Except for the part about Gabe Paul. Mark Shapiro has taken his role.
The two guys that write about baseball for this blog are part of an Indians’ season ticket group since the last year the old stadium was in use in 1993. All the members of that group, of which there were eight people, decided we would not renew our seats for the 2010 season.
It was apparent in mid May that the 2009 season was going nowhere, but who knew at that point, that the 2010 season would be shoved aside as well. To trade Cliff Lee and not get one player on a major league roster in return is a travesty.
Tomorrow night, the Indians return to Progressive Field to take on Detroit without one player on the roster that they received in trade two, TWO, Cy Young Award winners. The team even decided to recall Trevor Crowe to replace Ben Francisco on the roster, not Matt LaPorta.
Look at the comment put out by the team from GM Mark Shapiro after the deal:
"At the root of this deal was balancing the conviction of our ability to compete in 2010 with the opportunity to impact the team’s construction for years to come," said Cleveland Indians Executive Vice President & General Manager Mark Shapiro. "Without the sense of confidence in the team’s ultimate competitiveness, we acted aggressively to add players that will impact the organization in 2010 and beyond."
Me thinks this sounds a lot like gobbledygook, no?
The front office denies it, but this was a salary dump, and there is no doubt in my mind that Victor Martinez will not on this team before their next game. It will remove $16 million from next year’s payroll, and Shapiro is claiming that he will know be able to add to next year’s roster because of this move.
However, trading Kerry Wood and Jhonny Peralta would have removed $14.6 million from the payroll, and the 2010 Tribe would still have had a chance to compete in the AL Central Division. Lee and Martinez are all star players, Wood and Peralta are not.
Before the season, the four players received from the Phillies were in their top ten prospect list as compiled by Baseball America. However, outside of the youngster acquired, Jason Knapp, the other three players were all having less than good years at the AAA level.
Carlos Carrasco has a good arm, but has an ERA of over 5.00 in the minor leagues this season. Jason Donald has just returned to the lineup from a knee injury. Lou Marson is a catcher with no pop in his bat, although he does know how to work the count. Knapp is currently sidelined with shoulder fatigue.
What is more curious is that Donald is a SS, but doesn’t have the arm or range to play the spot at the big league level, so he projects as a 2B or 3B. He may be a platoon player at the former with Luis Valbuena.
Marson plays the same position as the Indians’ best prospect, Carlos Santana. If Martinez is indeed traded, does that mean we will be seeing more of Kelly Shoppach behind the dish with his offensive game of whiffing, whiffing, and more whiffing, with an occasional home run mixed in?
And with the way the organization moves prospects at a snail’s pace, exactly when do you think any of these players will wear an Indians uniform? Now Columbus has both Marson and Wyatt Toregas on the roster, when Santana should be playing there based on his numbers at AA Akron.
There is no question reading between the lines, that this trade was financially motivated. If the Dolan family can’t afford to own a major league team, then they should get out. Why should long-suffering Tribe fans have to go through more pain?
The ownership should be ready for a backlash because this is a punch in the gut to the fans. Does this deal mean that Eric Wedge will return for an eighth season as manager? The fans don’t want to see that either.
While Shapiro and the rest of the sheep in the Tribe front office pat themselves on the back because they made another deal like the 2002 trade that sent Bartolo Colon to Montreal, the fans are left holding the bag. That ’03 team had some age (Vizquel, Thome, Fryman, Burks, Lawton, Gutierrez) and needed to be overhauled.
This team is not like that. The only everyday players (using that term loosely) over 30 years old are Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez. This edition of the Tribe has some good young players like Grady Sizemore, Shin-Soo Choo, Asdrubal Cabrera, and again I think Valbuena will be a good one.
Shapiro can put any kind of spin that he wants on this move, but the reality is that he was told to cut the payroll; meaning 1948 keeps getting farther and farther away in the rear view mirror.
The city deserves more than that Mr. Dolan.
KM
Cleveland Sports Perspective 