Building your foundation on a house of cards.

So Grady Sizemore is hurt again!  A lower back strain caused by bending over to field a ground ball.  That's something that a lot of the 50+ guys who read this can relate to.  The problem is that Grady is not 50+ and is getting paid a heck of a lot more than almost of that gender/age group.

The Indians made a $5 million gamble on Grady because, after the Ubaldo Jimenez trade any thought of turning the other direction, cutting Grady loose and rebuilding went right out the window.  The Indians HAD to cut the best deal with Grady they could and hope against hope that he was healthy and productive this year. 

It looks like that gamble may have failed.  Looking at the outfielders they were able to gather up this winter tells you that they had to gamble on Grady.  GM Antonnetti said that almost all of these guys had big league experience.  Isn't that like someone suggesting to you that you should eat at a restaurant just because the health department hasn't closed it down....yet?  Face it, all of the guys in camp to replace Sizemore are AAAA types or, at best, 4th outfielders in the majors.  AT BEST.  Yeah, we might be able to catch some lightning in a bottle and the winner of the replace Grady lottery might give us 30 to 60 days of above average production before they come back down to their AAAA/utility/minor league free agent/career average level.  At this point that is all that we can hope for.

You know, at this point Grady should probably just retire and save the Indians the $5 million.  That would be the standup thing to do.  But the Indians wouldn't allow that.  They will play this out to the end hoping for a miracle.

But when you set up the foundation of your 20 story building on a house of cards this is what often happens.  THAT is what they pay GMs NOT to do.  I hate to say it but this season and the next few for the Indians may be the beginnings of a new book and movie.  The title will probably be something like 'Idiot Ball'.

Another asset given away for nothing

Cory Burns, Josh Judy, Zach Putnam....now Kelvin De la Cruz.

The Indians 'traded' De la Cruz to Texas after DFAing him to clear a roster spot for Kotchman.

Most of us questioned putting him on the 40-man this winter and now that bonehead move has cost the Indians as, through DFAing him, they had to expose him to waivers and, in so doing, they eventually were backed into a corner to trade him for a little money.

De la Cruz has had injury issues which have limited his development but two things in this situation are true:

1. De la Cruz should NEVER have been put on the 40-man roster to begin with.  He was not ready and he would NOT have been selected in the major league portion of the Rule 5 draft.

2. If they thought so little of De la Cruz they should have DFA'd him this winter and kept a fungible major league asset in Josh Judy.  Yeah, not a great asset but homegrown and lost needlessly.

This move shows yet another example of how pathetically run the Cleveland Indians currently are.  Losing multiple pitching prospects this winter and getting laughable (Cunningham and Slowey) players in return.

All after giving up the future in the Ubaldo Jimenez trade.

Update to 2011 International Signing Period - Latest List

Here is the list of significant Latin signings from players eligible for the 2011 signing period.   The numbers are from the Baseball America rankings.   There are two unsigned players from BA's ranked players (see bottom of list) unless I have just missed their signings.
 

Ranking, Name, Position, Country	Team	Bonus
NR Iosif Bernal, OF, Panama	Atlanta	$230,000
16. Manuel Marcos, OF, Dominican Republic	Boston	$800,000
17. Raimel Flores, SS, Dominican Republic	Boston	$900,000
NR Dioscar Romero, RHP, Venezuela	Boston	$600,000
NR Luis Martinez, RHP, Venezuela	Chicago WS	$250,000
8. Marck Malave, C, Venezuela	Chicago Cubs	????
9. Luis Enrique Acosta, SS, Dominican Republic	Chicago Cubs	$1.1 million
30. Ricardo Marcano, 3B, Venezuela	Chicago Cubs	????
39. Jonathan Perez, RHP, Venezuela	Cincinnati	$825,000
38. Soid Marquez, RHP, Venezuela	Cincinnati	????
14. Dorssys Paulino, SS, Dominican Republic	Cleveland	$1.1 million
29. Anthony Santander, OF, Venezuela	Cleveland	$385,000
NR Fancisco Miguel, OF, Dominican Republic	Cleveland	$200,000
27. Antonio Senzatela, RHP, Venezuela	Colorado	????
26. Adelin Santa, 3B, Dominican Republic	Detroit	$750,000
13. Luis Reynoso, SS, Dominican Republic	Houston	$700,000
40. Arturo Michelena, SS, Venezuela	Houston	$220,000
NR Harold Arauz, RHP, Panama	Houston	$300,000
1. Elier Hernandez, OF, Dominican Republic	Kansas City	$3.05 million
12. Adalberto Mondesi, SS, Dominican Republic	Kansas City	$2 million
22. Miguel Gonzalez, RHP, Dominican Republic	Minnesota	$650,000
28. Mauricio Silva, RHP, Venezuela	Minnesota	$370,000
24. Jose Garcia, C, Venezuela	NY Mets	$800,000
20. Miguel Andujar, 3B, Dominican Republic	NY Yankees	$750,000
34. Sanber Pimentel, OF/1B, Dominican Republic	Oakland	????
37. Yairo Munoz, SS, Dominican Republic	Oakland	$280,000
25. Carlos Tocci, OF, Venezuela	Philadelphia	$759,000
15. Harold Ramirez, OF, Colombia	Pittsburgh	$1.1 million
23. Elvis Escobar, OF, Venezuela	Pittsburgh	$570,000
7. Jose Ruiz, C, Venezuela	San Diego	$1.1 million
18. Franmil Reyes, OF, Dominican Republic	San Diego	$700,000
3. Victor Sanchez, RHP, Venezuela	Seattle	$2 million plus
11. Helsin Martinez, OF, Dominican Republic	Seattle	$2 million
35. Jose Godoy, C, Venezuela	St. Louis	$200,000
NR Dewin Perez, :LHP, Colombia	St. Louis	$450,000
36. Eric Otanez, C, Dominican Republic	Tampa Bay	????
2. Ronald Guzman, OF, Dominican Republic	Texas	$3.5 million
10. Nomar Mazara, OF, Dominican Republic	Texas	$5.0 million
19. Yohander Mendez, LHP, Venezuea	Texas	$1.5 million
NR Eduard Pinto OF, Venezuela	Texas	$300,000
4. Roberto Osuna, RHP, Mexico	Toronto	????
5. Wilmer Becerra, SS/OF, Venezuela	Toronto	????
6. Dawel Lugo, SS, Dominican Republic	Toronto	$1.3 million
21. Jesus Gonzalez, OF, Venezuela	Toronto	????
33. Manuel Cordova, RHP, Venezuela	Toronto	?????
31. Manuel Gonzalez, RHP, Dominican Republic
32. Gialy Arias, RHP, Dominican Republic

Musings for an early February morning

•  Russ Canzler cost us $100,000?  Interesting as I am sure Tampa Bay took the best offer.  So why would a team like the Indians get an essentially first base-only guy when they have Duncan who is out of options?  Beats me and beats me why they would pay $100,000 for him.  Remember that Aaron Cunningham (he of the trade that cost us Josh Judy and Cory Burns) is also out of options.  100K is not much but getting Canzler doesn't seem to fit.  Heck, maybe he can turn out to be Casey Blake but without Blake's defense.
• Casey Kotchman?  Not a bad signing as we had to have better defense at first base with our starters.  However, let's remember that this is a domino signing.  Signing Kotchman means that LaPorta is probably going to the minors.  It also means that someone will be bumped off the 40 man roster and, as with Josh Jody, could easily be lost on waivers.  So when we consider Kotchman as a plus, and I do, remember that the incremental increase in talent will be dulled somewhat if LaPorta isn't here and if we lose the guy we DFA off the roster.  Again, this move does nothing to make the huge gamble in getting Jimenez look less fool-hearty.  And also remember that people talk about Pomeranz and White but Joe Gardner who we also lost in the trade is not chopped liver and performed very well after th trade.  As a groundball pitcher Gardner fits the mold of a guy who could get a lot of ML time in Colorado.
• As far as who will be lost from the roster, this will be interesting.  The Indians know much more about the health of Nick Weglarz than we all do.  My money is that he is not healthy and that the Indians will DFA him.    Popular money is on Juan Diaz or Danny Salazar as many fans can't understand why they were rostered this off-season.  One thing the Indians will probably NOT do is DFA Aaron Cunningham because their trade for him (loss of Burns and Judy) would look incredibly stupid at that point.   Aside from Weglarz, who would represent a significant loss for the organization, Ezequiel Carrera looks like someone they might try to sneak through waivers, as well.  As always, with the Indians, this will be an interesting roster move.
• Under this new administration it appears that when this organization is 'done' with a guy they are done with him for good and really don't value him at all.  They obviously don't give a crap about guys like Huff, Crowe, Putnam, Judy and Burns and, now, probably LaPorta.  The issue when an organization has this kind of attiutde that guys like Casey Blake sneak through and end up with good careers elsewhere.  The Indians were like thise regarding Jeremy Guthrie and Brandon Phillips, remember and look how that turned out.
• The Indians have dissed their minor league relief pitching prospects and gone with veteran minor league signings.  Over the past three years the Indians have had the following veteran relief AAAA filler who they have signed to minor league contracts: Chad Durbin, Justin Germano, Mike Gosling, Greg Aquino, Vinnie Chulk, Matt Herges, Tomo Ohka, Rich Rundles, Luis Vizcaino, Jose Veras.and Jamey Wright.  They let those guys pitch instead of giving the innings to their own prospects. Antonnetti said that the guys they brought in on minor league deals this year were brought in because they had a chance to contribute this year.  History would say the Indians have no clue how to pick these guys as none of the above guys had even decent stats here and most looked really bad.   Looking at the list of available relievers who signed minor league deals this off-season, I can spot at least 6 guys who were significantly better than the best AAAA reliever we signed.  Clearly we were bottom feeding and it is interesting we signed a lot of these guys AFTER we lost bullpen prospects and possible major league contributors this year in Putnam, Judy and Burns.  Could it be that the agents for the AAAA relievers smelled blood in the water after our trades and their clients knew from those moves and recent history that they would have the best shot to get ML time with the Indians, despite bad performances in the past and this coming season?  The Indians seem more intent on signing guys who will take the garbage the FO deals out and say 'may I have another, please?' in the hopes of getting a small amount of time in the majors that will come despite not earning it and will be extended beyond all reasonableness even if they pitch poorly in the big leagues.

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!