Colon traded!!!

[The Real TexasTribe]

Hey, Genius, helluva night!

I suspect tomorrow will be even more chaotic.

[The Genius]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor="#DDDDDD"><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by The Real TexasTribe:
Hey, Genius, helluva night!
chaotic.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>
Not if Drew is the ptbn, as ESPN now says. I was thinking he would take Bart's spot in the rotation. Now who? Jason Phillips?
[img]graemlins/cry.gif[/img]

[The Real TexasTribe]

I didn't necessarily mean helluva night as in good. Only time will tell.

With respect to Drew, I believe they have figured that he just doesn't have enough of a fastball to be anything more than a marginally succcesful MLP.

This is obviously going to be a complete re-tooling and Shapiro/Dolan must believe that they have enough in the way of live arm prospects that will be ready for 2004.

I have no doubt that Finley and Burks will be gone shortly. With respect to Thome, I think it's 50/50 that by tomorrow he'll either be traded or signed long-term. (If they sign him long-term, they can trade anyone else they want.)

[the teacher]

The floodgates are open. What Dolan does in the next few weeks will shape the team for years. It's going to be interesting indeed.

Someone recently posted that there's no such thing as a sure thing prospect and that's my belief. You need to go for quality AND quantity and hope that if you get 3 sure things one of them works out. Now that the dismantling has begun I hope that they get all that they can. No one over 26 should be off limits.

[Swanny]

It looks like Shapiro gave this one a little more thought than the Alomar deal. I agree with Mr. October. We have been screwed around this season. The Tribe is at the point where Dolan really wanted to see it. The point in time where there is really no other alternative than to totally rebuild. Trying to convince the fans that we could contend this season with the current lineup was BS. I don't care how many games out we are or were. This team was not contending. I just wish that I could believe that Shapiro explored all options before pulling the trigger on a big deal. He didn't do that in the Alomar deal and I'm not convinced he did that with this one either.

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ June 28, 2002 01:51 AM: Message edited by: Swanny ]</font>

[The RotoTribe]

In my opinion, Drew is a middle of the rotation kind of guy-at best, so I don't see him as much of a loss for the Tribe. I see Colon as a big loss, though. As Vizquel says, "Colon was the next Bob Feller in Cleveland."

I know the routine. Tribe has no hitting--they need prospects. The trade was necessary. I don't think so. The Tribe has prospects now. Buffalo is in 1st place. Akron has the best record in baseball. I think the Tribe could take some of the best Akron players and bring them up now--like St. Louis did with Pujols a couple of years ago.

Trading Finley for a couple of prospects makes sense to me. Even trading Thome for a couple of prospects makes some sense (although I think loyalty to the City should stand for something). I don't think you trade great pitching--not til next year when he's a free agent.

I see all these trades as the 1960's revisited. That's when the Tribe would trade any good players for prospects. Most of the time, prospects don't pan out. Sure, there are exceptions. The Joe Carter trade was an exception. But for every great trade, there were three stinkers.

[The Real TexasTribe]

By 2004, the Alomar trade may turn out to be this decade's equivalent of the Joe Carter trade.

[The RotoTribe]

I think the Alomar trade all depends on Escobar. My question about Escobar is, "Can he recover fully from the knee injury or will he be less of a player?"

I haven't had a chance to see Riggan (I live in Ca. and we don't get to see the Tribe much). I think he's done ok at Buffalo, but not in the majors.

If the Tribe needs more prospects, I'd say relief pitchers and catchers should be highest on the list.

[*TR]

We don't need catching prospects. Victor Martinez at AA is one of the best catching prospects in baseball and at AAA Josh Bard will be a major league player. Our catching is fine.

[The RotoTribe]

If the catching is fine, the minor league pitching looks good, and we have these new prospects, why does the Tribe need to make more trades? Maybe this is enough already.

Several years ago, Art Modell said of Bernie Kosar, "I had to draft him because he wanted to play in Cleveland. We don't get many who want to play in Cleveland. (this is not an exact quote, but the gist of it is included)"

Jim Thome and Omar Vizquel also want to play in Cleveland. Omar is signed for a few more years. Obviously, his off season training regimen proves he is still at the top of his game. Thome is the new Rocky Colovitio. I hope Dolan has enough sense to realize that trading Thome for propspects could create 40 more years in the wilderness.

It sounds to me like the minors are re-stocked now. I know that it probably is time to trade Finley, but they don't have to be desperate.