The Ubaldo Jimenez trade and all the moves after it. The "i"s have it.

OK, so we will start with a riddle.  What are two words that mean the same thing, with one ending in “i” and the other beginning with “i”?  Back to that later.

The Indians have made three trades involving ace starters over the past 3+ years.  As was easily predictable at the time, the return on the CC and Cliff Lee trades was pathetic.   It took most bloggers 3+ years to see this but it WAS apparent at the time.

Last July the Indians, under Chris Antonnetti (hint: the first word in the riddle above) traded FOR a front of rotation starter.  You do that when you are going for it and our GM had apparently decided that he was going for it because he gave up our top 3 pitching prospects, two of whom were probably in the top 50 prospects in all of baseball.

 So, Antonnetti took a big gamble, maybe a foolish gamble, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt.  So, if you are going to go for it, go for it, right?  However, since then, we have seen him make move after move that weakens the future of this franchise without strengthening the present, with one small exception, Derek Lowe for Chris Jones:  Atlanta was so interested in dumping this guy that they paid $10 million to do it.  And all we had to give up was a 2^nd or 3^rd tier prospect to get him and pay him $5 million for one year.  Great.  He makes us somewhat better as he can eat innings and save the bullpen as our 5^th starter and if we catch lightning in a bottle, he makes us really better in probably a free agent year for him.

After the Lowe trade, however, Mr. Antonneti showed us what he thinks of this organization’s pitching prospects  He thinks very little of their value either to this team or in trades.  But let’s give him the benefit of the doubt.  Maybe he got good pickups with these trading chips.  Well, unfortunately he did not. 

·     He traded a 2^nd tier (top 40 in the organization) relief prospect Cory Burns for the .189 hitting 4^th outfielder, Aaron Cunningham, who is out of options and can become a six year minor league free agent if we try to option him to the minors.  Ouch.  But it gets better.  He also lost another minor league reliever, Josh Judy, a top 20 prospect in our system on waivers to roster Cunningham. Ouch, ouch!.

·    He then proceeded to negotiate with Mike Cameron, Carlos Beltran and signed Ryan Spillboroughs to fill the roster spot he just gave to Aaron Cunnungham at a bloated price.  Ourch, part 3!.  Puzzling, at best, especially considering that he now has EIGHT outfielders on his 40-man roster, all of whom will be in AAA or the majors this year. And that doesn't even count Trevor Crowe, who is still under the Indians' control.

·    Then, finding out that Fausto isn’t just being Fausto, he panicked and traded a top 10 prospect in our system, Zach Putnam (another minor league reliever) for a guy, Kevin Slowey, who was 0-8 with a 6.67 ERA last year and isn’t obviously healthy for this season.  Remember Slowey had just been traded a month before for a single A reliever worse than Cory Burns and similar to Chris Jones, neither of whom were top 30 prospects for the Indians with Jones being only a top 50 prospect, at best.  And Antonneti did this KNOWING that he had Jeanmar Gomez, David Huff, Zach McAllister and Scott Barnes, all starting pitchers, at AAA to fill Fausto’s spot if he can’t pitch this year. 

·    Finally, he then proceeded to sign FIVE minor league free agent relief pitchers to add depth to our team which he had just depleted in the two pathetic and head-scratching trades above and a resulting loss.

So, in summary, Antonnetti apparently doesn’t value his pitching prospects at all and, while that is OK, doesn’t appear to get any value for them either.  He doesn’t want them but can’t get present value for them, either.  Perfect! 

It appears Mr. Antonnetti is pancking, trying to justify his Jimenez trade with a series of bizarre, head-scratching moves that have done nothing to help the ML team but have really hurt our upper level pitching prospects in our organization.  Only someone truly incompetent would do that…which is, by the way, the answer to the 2^nd word in the riddle that we started with.

1-24-12 Update: With the signing of Prince Fielder by the Tigers, the gap between the Tigers and the Indians got bigger, meaning that the trade for Jimenez and the subsequent trades of quality prospects for little return are less likely to make us competitive.  As I said at the time of the Jimenez trade, it was a big gamble and that the FO better know what it is doing.

And it just keeps getting worse and worse.

In today's Plain Dealer they had an interview with our new, soon-to-be-DFA'd 4th outfielder candidate Aaron Cunningham and guess what, he is an idiot in addition to not being capable of playing ML baseball.  Let's look at some of his quotes from that article:

"I love getting traded,"

"If you have struggles or whatnot with your old team, you can start over," he said. "You can become a new player. Your last team might say, 'You need work in the outfield.' When I get to the new team, I don't need work in the outfield, I'm a good outfielder."

"I can change it. I can become a new player each step I go."

"I didn't know that much about the organization," he said. "I did see Major League I and Major League II."

"I've always been told 'just wait for your chance,'" he said. "It's going to come. I really think this is going to be it."

Not only can't he play but he is also an idiot, too.  Firs he says that being traded is good because his old team has discovered all his warts and that his new team doesn't know them yet so he gets a chance to play for a while before his new team finds those warts.  And, since he has been traded many times, his new team has had a chance to find those warts.  Plus, in one of the most inane quotes of all time, he deadpans that the Indians are so insiginficant that all he knows about them is from two spoof movies.  Hey, Aaron, the reason you have been told to wait your chance is because you stink and don't deserve any more chances.  But, thank heavens for morons like Chris Antonneti, they give you a chance.

Also in today's Plain Dealer Terry Pluto hints that Kevin Slowey might not be ready for spring training based on last year's injuries.  He does point out that he did climb Mt. Kiliminjaro this winter but, still.   So we overpaid in for Slowey and he might not be able to pitch?

The Slowey trade reminds me of 2006 when we traded for ACab and Choo by giving fringe MLers Ben Broussard and Eduardo Perez to Seattle.  At the beginning of that season ACab and Choo were the 6th and 7th rated prospects in Seattle's organization.  This is what happens when ML teams are desperate to compete in the upcoming season and give away guys who they don't see as superstars, even though they see that those guys project as solid major leaguers.

In the past 6 months we have trade FOUR of out top 10 prospects (Pomeranz, White, Joe Gardner and Putnam) to Colorado and gotten back Jimenez and Slowey.  That is great for Colorado and, since we don't have the other pieces to compete, really, really bad for us.

I have read that Putnam, Judy and Burns are "fringe prospects".  I have also read that Putnam is a top 10 prospect in "name only".  While there may be some truth to those three not being top prospects because they are "just relievers", remember this: teams ALWAYS undervalue full-time relievers and a lot of times get burned when they do it.  That is how we got Chris Perez (and Jess Todd) from St. Louis for Mark DeRosa.  Not saying that Putnam and Judy or Burns will end up as good as Perez or as mediocre as Todd, but that is what we are looking at here for upside and downside.  So, yeah, feel free to trade your minor league relievers, but get back better than two AAAA guys.  If not, why not just keep the reliever prospects who are cheap, are under control for a lot of years and have good upside?

Congratulations Antonnetti, you have traded for an idiot in Mr. Cunningham and traded a real prospect for a guy who is healthy enough to climb mountains but maybe not to pitch and, even if he does, pitched like a AAAA guy last year.

These are the kind of trades, along with Jimenez, that doom your team, a team, which, BTW, has the talent to be 69-93 this year (what they averaged over the last two years if you take out unless a bunch of people have years SUBSTANTIALLY better than 2011 and NO ONE has a year worse than 2011.

Thir organization is in pathetic shape because Antonneti is an idiot.  More proof is coming in on a daily basis of how stupid he is.

The price of Ubaldo Jimenez just went up....again!. Another joke to add to the Indians' ridiculous off-season - Antonetti is officially an idiot!!!!!!!!!!!!

Face it folks, our GM is an idiot who is further sinking this team into an abyss that it will take YEARS to climb out of.

So let me get this straight:

We taded our #10 prospect (BA ratings) for a guy who was 0-8 with a 6.67 ERA last year?  Really.

And why did we do this?  Who knows?  Conventional wisdom is that we might be without the former Fausto Carmona this coming season and Josh Tomlin is questionable.

But who freakin' cares?  We had depth at AAA (Gomez, McAllister, Huff and even Scott Barnes).  It isn't like we were going to be without 5 starters come April.  And, even if we were, so what?  You can find AAAA guys all over the place if you just need a body to eat innings.

You want to know the REAL reason why this trade was made?  Ever since the Indians traded two top 50 in baseball prospects (Pomeranz and White) to get Ubaldo Jimenez, EVERY move the Indians made has been to justify that trade.

Look, Zach Putnam, Cory Burns, Josh Judy and Chris Jones, IF they even make it big in the majors, will do so after Choo, Sizemore, Cabrera, Hafner and Jimenez, among others, are gone. 

So Antonneti, because he was scared he would be short of starting pitching this year because of Carmona and Tomlin, mortgaged the future even more than it already is to get Slowey who, statistically, is a freaking joke.   He overpaid for Cunningham and now he has overpaid for the pathetic Slowey.  Idiot!

It is sooooo hard to be an Indians' fan anyway, but when an idiot like Antonnetti takes away even the future of the Cleveland Indians because he is too stupid to realize that there isn't a present for the Indians, that is when a change needs to be made.  You can't have a GM who continues to make stupid move after stupid move to justify a desparate trade last July.  THAT is how you become bad for 20 years.

Fire this idiot before he does any more damage.  Fire him now!

Ridiculous (and then there is Carmona!...and Spillboroughs)

Ridiculous to see that:

1. Fausto Carmona is not really himself.  However, for those of us who have seen him pitch we know that he has hardly been himself since the beginning of 2008.  I would say only the Indians but it happens to other teams, too.  Still, Wauli Bryan is probably laughing histerically somewhere right now.

1a. The Indians are going to arbitration with Asdrubal Cabrera because they would only offer him $3.75 million.  He wants $5.1 million.  Unless they already KNEW he would never re-sign with Cleveland as a free agent, one would have guessed they could have gotten something done with him, especially when he is more of a sure thing than Grady Sizemore, the $5 million mash unit.

2. The Indians signed Ryan Spillboroughs.  I mean, immediately after making the trade for Aaron Cunningham they tried to get Mike Cameron, then Carlos Beltran and now, finally, they have their guy in Spillboroughs.  All this AFTER they gave away Josh Judy and Cory Burns for the AAAA guy Cunningham.   Plus, soon after getting rid of Burns and losing Judy the Indians were hard at work signing AAAA relievers like Tejada, Chris Ray, etc to replace the depth they gave away in Burns and Judy.  I mean, how stupid is that?  Trade away Burns and lose Judy just to replace the guy you got and the guys you lost.  Why not just keep your homegrown, cheap prospects given that there is no way you can be competitive this year?    I would really like to hear from Antonetti what he was thinking.  This has to be the single most stupid thing this organization has done in my memory.  Yeah, on the Richter scale of trades this is hardly a blip, especially compared to such 8.0s like giving away Brandon Phillips and even Jeremy Guthrie (not quite that dramatic of a loss but, still, it was for nothing) a few years ago.  The nature of this trade, the loss of Judy on waivers and all the activity since to try to undo the effects of the original trade of Cunningham for Burns is comical.  Yeah, neither Judy nor Burns, AT THIS TIME, project as all-stars but that is no reason to give up on them and then try to erase this bad trade with a series of unnecessary moves, had you just kept Judy and Burns.
3.Out of Ron Mahay, Clay Zavada, Kevin Kouzmanoff, Alfredo Amezaga, Doug Slaten, Chris Ray, Aaron Heilmann, Koyie Hill, Miguel Bautista and Willie Eyre only Chris Ray was signed by the bottom feeding Indians.  BTW, that makes two veteran relievers (Ray and Tejada) signed to minor league deals since they gave away Josh Judy and Cory Burns.

4. How the Indians gave away the farm for Jimenez and since then are doing NOTHING to build for the future and nothing to secure the present, including no multi-year deals at all or signing useful free agents.

5. How most other teams in baseball are helping themselves at this time of year and the Indians are signing replacements for the guys they gave up for nothing, the definition of treading water.

Oh well, this is how you know you are an Indians' fan.

Thoughts on Indians top prospects

Baseball America came out with their top 10 Indians' prospects.  I can't wait for my Prospect Handbook to arrive.  It will be my 11th in a row.

BA's top 10 Indians' list is:

1. Lindor
2. Howard
3. Hagadone
4. Chen Lee
5. Luigi Rodriguez
6. Zach McAllister
7. Tony Wolters
8. Austin Adams
9. Scott Barnes
10. Zach Putnam

Here is my top 10 and where I ranked any guys in BA's list with comments about my higher and lower ranking of some guys:

1. Lindor
2. Hagadone
3. Wolters
4. Felix Sterling - I see him as breaking out this year
5. Elvis Araujo - Interesting that Araujo was the highest rated prospect on the Indians Arizona Summer League team but didn't make the top 10.
6. Dorsys Paulino - We haven't seen much of this guy but the snippets from the instructional league are impressive.  In a system this week I took a flyer on a breakout prospect. 
7. Chun Chen - He hits.  I think his upside is higher than #4-5 starters like Barnes and McAllister
8. Chen Lee
9. Alexander Perez
10. Hector Rondon
13. Scott Barnes
14. Zach McAllister
15. Dillon Howard - His control scares the heck out of me.  He could end up rookie ball for years if he can't control and command his pitches.  No way I rate him #3 at this point.  Maybe on upside but not on the chance he will reach that upside.  I'll be more conservative than BA on this one.
17. Zach Putnam - I rated him just behind Josh Judy.  That should tell you something right there.
20. Austin Adams - He has the highest upside of any pitcher in the system right now.
22. Luigi Rodriguez - I am not sold on guys who hit in the Arizona Summer League.   I like him but his lower rating by me is hedging on his crash and burn potential that goes along with his high upside.

Let's talk LaPorta and what the options are.

The Indians' fans are not enamored with Matt LaPorta.

Apparently the Indians are not enamored with Matt LaPorta.

I have seen LaPorta play and I am not enamored with him that much, either.

The issue is this:  People are talking about adding Derrek Lee, they are talking about adding Carlos Pena. 

But why?  Look, LaPorta is, considering his current situation, is at what I consider a career low.  He isn't going to get any worse.  The question is, in this lineup, can we live with that?  To me, the answer is YES. 

LaPorta CAN get a lot better.  He is coming off multiple injuries in 2010 that could have totally ruined his 2011.  Did that happen?  I don't know, but it is a real possibility.  The key, for me, is how dedicated LaPorta was at getting and staying healthy in the off-season.  If he is doing that, he is in line for a career year.

Plus, if you replace LaPorta you have to get rid of LaPorta, unless you think he can play LF, which most people don't.  Given his stats you will get minimum value for him.  That is unacceptable to a small market club, especially one who has invested so much (see CC trade) in him and Brantley.  Look, as I have said repeatedly, after their 30-15 start last year they had the same winning pct. the rest of the way that they had in the dismal 2010 season.  It's not like they are a sure thing to compete, right?

So a change from LaPorta would be incremental and expensive.  We would most likely (despite his remaining option) dump LaPorta as this replacement would signal that this organization is done with him.  Thus we would be selling low on him. 

Replacing LaPorta is not completely additive to this team, it is expensive, and it is adding a player at a position where we have a returning veteran, albeit one that everyone is questioning.  Where we need help is in the outfield or, as I have said repeatedly, at second base with Kipnis moving to the outfield.  That is where I think the Indians should continue looking. 

Hey, if you can sign Prince Fielder, great.  Otherwise, let's leave the first base options where they are and focus on where the bigger holes, in my opinion, are.

Random thoughts to begin the new year

• Why would you sign Robinson Tejada, a relief pitcher, to a minor league deal?  Bad roster management cost you Josh Judy who, at worst, is as good as Tejada.  And now you sign Tejada as AAA depth when you had a guy with more upside who you just lost for nothing!  Geez!  If Tejada makes the team out of spring training over some young relievers this would be even more stupid.
• Interesting deal between the Marlins and Cubs.  Carlos Zambrano goes to the Marlins.  Chris Volstad to the Cubs.  The Cubs eat 15 million of the last year of his contract.  Volstad has 3 years of ML service.  So the Marlins get now and the Cubs get now and in the future.  The two interesting issues are that Zambrano was a personna non grata with the Cubs from his outbursts last year and the Cubs now have exchanged him for a guy just as good, younger and much cheaper, albeit they had to buy their way into that.  For a rebuilding team like the Cubs should be, this is a good gamble as it is for a win-now team like the Marlins.  I think the Cubs fans probably LOVE this trade and 1/2 the Marlins fans hate it and half love it to death.
• Now that the Cubs are in rebuild mode, what if we take Alfonso Soriano off their hands?  How much it would cost us would depend on how much of his $18 million PER YEAR FOR THE NEXT THREE YEARS salary we are willing to pick up.  What if we could get him for $8 million a year with relatively little cost?  Say Paolo Espino and Aaron Cunningham?  Yeah, Soriano is getting old and his BA and walk rate eroded last year but we have gone to some pretty weird places to find RH batters this off-season (said Mr. Cunningham). Soriano is not ideal offensively or defensively but he would probably mirror most of Willingham's abilities over the next 3 years, costing us about the same or less.  Soriano also outhit Willingham against lefties last year with both hitting 100 points higher in wins and losses.  Soriano also had 88 RBIs while hitting mostly 6th and 7th for the Cubs, a team that was below average in runs scored in the NL.  Heck, maybe they would throw in a useful part or a low A prospect just to dump the salary?
• Another suggestion that is worth considering is acquiring a secondbaseman who can also hit a little and move Jason Kipnis back to LF.  The Cardinals brought Skip Schumacher in from CF to play 2B a couple of years ago with mixed results and he played more OF last year, even with the bad offense the Cardinals had at 2B and with Berkman and Holliday out there.  So, as I have said for a while, maybe our search for a power hitting outfielder could be a search for a powerhitting secondbaseman, or, with our groundball pitchers, one that can catch and throw above average, something Kipnis might never be.