Kenny Lofts One back with the Indians, and thankfully, he's cut down on his pop ups.

[Alex]

This was a BAD, BAD, BAD, BAD, BAD, BAD, BAD trade.

Maz Ramirez was tabbed as a down the road great hitting catcher.

All Max Ramirez did was live up to that billing by making the futures game and then smacking a double.

Shaprio seems to like to give "make goods" when he makes a prior good trade with a team. After stealing Grady, Lee and Phillips, Shapiro then gave Montreal two really good prospects as a form of a "make-up" trade, Church & Izturus.

Likewise, Shapiro basically stole Travis Hafner, so now he comes back with a "make good" in the form of Max Ramirez.

Ben and Franky need to stay on the squad, if our brass can't see how useful these two guys are they don't know baseball. LOL, now we have Kenny Lofts one, Michaels, Nixon and Dellucci, and once again Shapiro pushes his quality, FAST, youngsters to the background.

The Indians might very well be 0-5 in 1-0 games this season if not for Franky G's two solo homers that turned two of those scoreless games into 1-0 Cleveland Victories.

I gotta wonder if Ben Francisco had made that diving catch that would have ended the inning and prevented the only run from scoring in the 1-0 loss against Boston and maybe we end up winning, would Shapiro have still made this deal?

Too bad Wedge didn't do a better job of positioning Francisco in the outfield, Ben's punishment for Wedge's poor positioning is a trip to the minors. Watch other managers, they DO POSITION their outfielders.

Meanwhile, BOTH Chicago and Detroit have youngsters they recently brought up who are THRIVING and contributing.

I don't mind Kenny coming back to Cleveland, but not if it cuts into the playing time of Ben and Franky G in the majors, and I don't like what we gave up for Kenny either.
Since Ben is now back in the minors, I'd say this trade had future implications that are not good, the loss of a quality hitter AND the further stunting of the development of a young, fast, quality player who was ready for the majors.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ August 30, 2007 01:37 AM: Message edited by: Alex ]</font>

[Alex]

I'll enjoy having Kenny back for playoff run but I still think we'll regret having trading Max Ramirez for him.

The good news is Kenny doesn't overswing the way I recall he used to do and has had some key hits for the Indians in his time back. I think Kenny may be hiding some type of lingering injury. The way Kenny is running just seems like something is amiss. Maybe it's best he keep it to himself, I don't know.