Just like Michigan fans cry after they play the Buckeyes!
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After dumping Cliff Lee, it made sense for the Tribe to trade Victor Martinez. If you’re going to blow up the team and give up on 2010, this was the only logical move.
That said, it still sucks to watch them trade a player like Victor. He reportedly cried when told the news. It also sucks to see him go to Boston. It’s hard enough watching Cliff Lee pitch a complete game in his first outing for the Phillies, but at least he’s in the NL and not playing for a team Tribe fans hate.
The whole thing sucks. The Dolans should just give up and sell the team.
Of course, the Indians now have a ton of young players, mostly pitchers, added to their farm system. Given Mark Shapiro’s track record, these guys have a shot to contribute over the next several years. But does it really matter? Won’t the Dolans eventually give up on the players who do pan out?
Well, we now have some confirmation of what everyone suspected – that Manny Ramirez and David Ortiz, aka Big Papi, tested positive for performance enhancing drugs in 2003.
Can we now conclude that both Red Sox World Series titles were tainted? Their two best players now appear to be busted.
If you cheat and you win, did you really win anything?
I don’t want the Indians to trade Victor because I didn’t want them to trade Cliff Lee (at least not for a group of prospects).
That said, if you’re going to blow up this team, then go all the way! If they don’t have the stones (or the money) to try to compete in 2010, then load up the team and the farm system with young players and start over.
If you’re going to piss off the entire fan base, then at least start the process of competing in 2010. In that sense, trading Ryan Garko made sense, because now you can take another look at Andy Marte who is only 24 and has shocked everyone by playing well at AAA.
Victor is just taking up space now. There’s no way the Dolans are going to spend the money to extend him beyond 2010, and they’ve already given up on 2010, so they better be planning to trade him as well. I don’t care who they get. Have Mark Shapiro do waht he does best – go out and get good prospects from other organizations. WE know that Shapiro has done a terrible job at drafting and developing our own talent, so this is the best way to restock the talent pipeline.
If the Indians get lucky, some of these kids will develop quickly and they’ll have a respectable team next year. But that doesn’t matter now. The only thing that matters is getting good prospects who can help them in the future, as they’ve flushed 2010 down the toilet.
The trading of Cliff Lee is an embarrassment for the Dolan family and the Cleveland Indians, because they are giving up on 2010 along with this season for purely financial reasons. That’s the only explanation for this trade, and it feeds the long-standing criticisms of the Dolan family – that they don’t have the financial means to be playing in the big leagues.
The Dolans will counter that they have stepped up in the past and that the current payroll was substantial. In that respect they have a point, and Mark Shapiro and Eric Wedge need to answer for the team’s performance. But that criticism will be left for another day. The point here is that they are not willing to spend money when the inevitable adversity faces a franchise. Even good front office people make mistakes, and teams need to adjust a retool. In that respect the Sabathia trade last season was much more defensible. The season was lost, and there wwas no way they were going to be able to sign C.C., who despite his bullshit expressions of love for Cleveland and Milwaukee ended up taking the highest offer on the market from the Yankees.
That deal makes sense, but this deal makes no sense. The Indians do have a solid core group of players, and they could contend if they had Cliff Lee at the front of their rotation if they made some key moves on the pitching staff and got rid of Wedge. But now we’ll never know because the Dolans cried “uncle.”
Trading Cliff Lee, a Cy Young Award winner, for a bunch of prospects when you have another FULL SEASON left on his contract is a disgrace. No amount of spinning from Shapiro can save this one. Sure, Shapiro might strike gold again with this deal, he does fairly well evaluating other teams’ prospects, but that doesn’t really matter. The Indians are giving up for now.
I’ve shared a season-ticket package with friends for 15 years. I will not be joining the group next season.
UPDATED with more recent photo of Cliff Lee.
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