Friday, December 23, 2011

OK, now it's official, I am ticked!

To no one's surprise, or at least it SHOULD be to no one's surprise, after trading successful minor league reliever Corey Burns,  the Indians have lost Josh Judy on waivers...to the Reds.  All this for Aaron Freakin' Cunningham.

Judy IS a top 20 Indians' prospect.  (NOTE: Something I read on an Indians forum was that Rafael Perez topped out as the #11 prospect for the Tribe right after his first ML September experience, Judy has almost as high a rating after his: makes you think about the real worth of Josh Judy, doesn't it?) (NOTE: Baseball America had him as the #23 Indians' prospect and Cory Burns as their top RHRP not making the top 30 in their upcoming list, and I had Judy ranked as #17 and most other lists published so far only went to 15 or 16 and did not mention Judy.)  Judy has not failed meaning he does not hold the AAAA tag that Cunningham does.  Judy was primed to help in the big leagues in 2012.  You don't lose guys on waivers, not if you are the current version (major and minor leagues) of the Cleveland Indians.  You just don't

Cunninham, is a AAAA player, someone who can do well in AAA but not the majors.  His AAA stats are meaningless since they came last year in his 4th year at that level.  He is a dime a dozen guy you can sign as a minor league free agent or pick up as DFA (see Jai Miller for example).  You don't have to trade for him.

Judy is an Indians' top 20 prospect.  We lost him and got NOTHING back for him.  NOTHING and we lost Cory Burns, too.  No one should have a problem losing Judy and Burns but I do have a very big issue with losing both of them as a result of trading for a AAAA guy like Cunningham.  You can't blow off losing Judy and Burns just because they aren't all-stars.  You have to get value for them and we got squat in value.  That is unacceptable..

We left outfielders Thomas Neal, Nick Weglarz, Ezequiel Carrera and Shelly Duncan on the roster, any of whom could have been DFA'd instead of Josh Judy and would have been less of a loss.  In fact other pitchers like Corey Kluber, Frank Herrmann or Danny Salazar could have beeen DFA'd and none would have been as big a loss as Josh Judy..

We gave up the farm for Jimenez and, instead of continuing to build this team, we continue to tear down the future of this team without improving it!

Chris Antonneti has botched his time as GM.  His Jimenez trade was questionable at the time, giving up 3 of our top 10 pitching prospects without the team to back Jimenez up.  His moves since then have been pathetic and misguided.  You don't trade for Cunningham if you are negotiating with Beltran and Cameron and, in fact, given his lack of ability, you don't TRADE for Cunningham at all. You wait for him to be DFA'd this spring and pick him up on waivers.  You don't add salary in Lowe if you aren't going to do anything else. 

Take away the 30-15 start last year and the 2010 Indians = 2011 Indians in record.    And we have this kind of waste of talent with 5 of our best pitching prospects leaving the organization without an increase in talent anywhere close to enough to be competitive in the AL Central.  That is just pathetic.  That is the KC Royals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Houston Astros all rolled into one.

Pathetic beyond words and very, very aggravating!

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