The "Larry Dolan Effect" and Trade Deadline Implications

The Tribe has experienced a roller-coaster effect in the last several days.  After beating the Yankees 4-1 last Tuesday, we lost a few straight in massacre-fashion.  Between the last two games of the Yankees series and the first game against the Blue Jays, the Tribe lost all 3 games, getting outscored 27-5.  Not exactly our best effort, and the Trade Deadline certainly had an impact on the team's morale.

Larry Dolan continues makes a strong argument as to why he should be considered amongst the worst owners in professional sports.  When the trade deadline approaches in baseball, they consistently make moves that make you scratch your head.  This year's edition was no different, as the Indians traded away proven veterans in Jake Westbrook, Jhonny Peralta, and Austin Kearns.  Don't forget about Kerry Woods, who was shipped to the Yankees who just beat us down 19-4 in the last two games of the series.

It's hard to keep your hopes up for a team that trades away any talent we actually have.  Let's start with Jhonny Peralta.  Granted, some fans never really appreciated Jhonny and thought he didn't deserve a spot in our infield.  When you actually look at his numbers, you realize he has one of the highest fielding percentages at 3rd base in all of baseball. 

Not to mention he at least provided the threat of power, which is more than can be said about most of our players.  Peralta proved the ignorance of this trade by the Indians when he blasted two home-runs in his first game with the Detroit Tigers. 

Jake Westbrook was next to go, as he was essentially given away to the St. Louis Cardinals.  I guess the one thing we can hang our hats on is that players who have never seen success with the Indians are at least getting a chance to prove themselves on teams that actually have a chance of winning.  Westbrook is an impressive talent;  His sinker is one of the hardest pitches to hit in baseball.  Through 7 innings vs. the Yankees last week, he had only given up 2 hits.  Westbrook is a pitcher who has a lot left in the tank.  Why did we trade him? 

How long before Grady Sizemore gets traded for a "prospect" or Asdrubal Cabrera gets swapped for a "player to be named later"?   That's what is so aggravating and bewildering about our current front office.  When have they actually traded our top-talent for a player who can actually come in right away and make a difference?  The trades we make are so dumb, because we always receive a prospect who will start in the minors and if we're lucky we'll see him in 2 years.  While we do have a bright future in those two as well as Choo, Santana, Donald, and Tomlin, there is no guarantee they won't play their way out of Cleveland. 

Generally speaking, Larry Dolan is too cheap to keep players that actually make a difference.  My proposal is that Larry Dolan resigns, and allows Dan Gilbert to run the Cleveland Indians.   He should be ashamed to be the owner who orchestrated trading away Cy-Young winners back-to-back years in Sabathia and Cliff Lee.  What really gets me is that we had a $7 million dollar option on Cliff for this year.  It's pathetic that Larry Dolan can't afford that.  This is professional sports, where the best players make well over that number each year.  Lee was recently dealt from Seattle to Texas, where he has continued to prove that he is one of the best pitchers in the league.  Philadelphia has got to be living in regret over not keeping him alongside Halladay.

Regardless, the Tribe faithful will always remain.. but we certainly deserve better than what our current ownership is providing.  No amount of PR can spin the fact that Larry Dolan can't afford to run a team that can win on a nightly basis.

Dolan is content with simply owning a team, he's not too concerned with how they actually perform on the field.  He's the guy who bought a Porsche, then let it sit in the garage for 20 years because he couldn't afford the premium gas.  It takes money to run a Major League Baseball team.  Stop screwing Indians fans out of a respectable franchise. 

The standings back up this claim - The Indians are 15.5 games back in the divison, and have a stronghold on last place; We're even looking up at the Kansas City Royals.  It's a mockery of what this team should be.

Jhonny Peralta traded to Detroit?

Guess I didn't see this one coming.  Today the Indians traded Jhonny Peralta along with cash to the Detroit Tigers, for a Single A pitcher Giovanni Soto.  Cleveland gives up a good player for an unknown prospect, and within the division?

One of the main reasons this deal probably happened is because the Tigers have lost a ton of players to injury recently and were pretty desperate to make a deal.  Detroit has been hit with the injury bug at the wrong time in the season, losing 3rd baseman Justin Inge, Magglio Ordonez, and Carlos Guillen along with several pitchers. 

Cleveland had a love-hate relationship with Peralta.  Last year he was inconsistent, but this year he had really started playing well.  He had a high fielding percentage at 3rd base, and was batting .246 with 23 doubles, and 7 home runs.  I can't say I'm happy to see him go, but at least this will allow our younger players a chance to develop this year.

Even though the Tiger are 4 games out, they still have the possibility of making a run to the playoffs this year. 

Jhonny will likely get a chance to see some playing time in the immediate future.  I'm still pretty surprised about this move and don't think we should have traded him, but we do add a pitcher who is a talented prospect.

Soto is a 6 foot 3" left-hander who has a 6-6 record in Single A but a low ERA and a high strike-out to ball ratio.  The Indians are trying to build for the future in this move, with the hope that Soto can work his way through the minors.  You don't trade a player like Peralta unless you think it will help you long-term. 

With Carmona, Westrbrook, Masterson, and the emergence of Tomlin, the front office should feel good about our future pitching prospects.  Soto could be a piece but he is still largely unproven;  Single A is far less competitive than AAA.  It remains to be seen if he can pitch against the elite hitters.  Tomlin proved that last night. 

Getting our young players valuable experience this season will benefit us next season where we can hopefully more competitive than 13.5 games out of 1st place within the division.  We've proven that we can beat the Twins in a series in Minnesota and the future of this team looks better everyday.  Hopefully this transfers to the rest of this series with the Yankees, and we take take the series 3-1.  Tomlin proved the Yankee hitters are extremely overrated, and last night wasn't an abiration.  This team is going to be good in the near future, and I'm disappointed Jhonny Peralta won't be a part of it.