They are affectionately known as the feather heads in some circles. Is it possible after today’s trade that we will call the Cleveland Indians thick headed? Wednesday, July 29, 2009, the Tribe traded last year’s Cy Young Award winner, Cliff Lee AND outfielder Ben Francisco to the Philadelphia Phillies for four minor league prospects. Somehow, the Phillies did not have to give up any of their top four rated prospects. The Phillies landed a top echelon pitcher from the 
Philly got what they wanted and still kept Kyle Drabek, their first round pick in 2006 and major league rookie (7 wins against 1 loss) J.A.Happ. Two ballyhooed minor league outfielders, Michael Taylor and Dominic Brown remain in their organization as well. The Philly’s did not pursue Roy Halladay from Toronto because Toronto INSISTED on Drabek and Happ. The Tribe even had Cliff Lee under contract through next year, so it wasn’t as if they were land-locked on having to move him like they did with C.C. Sabathia last year. In fact, the Indians are the only major league team to have had two consecutive pitchers win the Cy Young Award, and then get traded in two consecutive seasons. Only in Cleveland would this occur. Think about it… A team sorely in need of pitching trades away not one, but two Cy Young Award winning pitchers and didn’t even have the fortitude to pry away at least one top, can’t miss prospect. The Indians received, Triple-A pitcher Carlos Carrasco, infielder Jason Donald and catcher Lou Marson along with Single-A pitcher Jason Knapp
Indians General Manager, Mark Shapiro was quoted as saying in the AP article of 7-29-09 by Rob Maaddi, who wrote the story, “At the root of this deal was balancing the conviction of our ability to compete in 2010 with the opportunity to impact the team’s construction for years to come,” In English, this means that the Indians just dumped $8 million in salary with Lee and have all but given up on contending next season, but at least we have some people to add to our minor league teams that do not cost as much.
That is what impacting the team’s construction means. Cleveland ownership has been very frugal. And what on earth does, “was balancing the conviction of our ability to compete in 2010” mean? I say it means that management is convinced that they will not be contenders next year anyhow, with or without Lee. The glory years of the 1990’s seem so far away. Yet, Shapiro must have felt that this was the best he could get in return for Lee and Francisco. This, despite the fact, that the Dodgers, Redsox, Angels and Brewers were reported to want Cliff Lee too. Didn’t Shapiro ever hear of a seller’s market or using leverage?
I will not break down the numbers in the article. The stats are easily researched on line. It is the mentality and futility of the Cleveland sports fan that has me concerned. With the Indians, it is often about ownership that does not have the money to field a winning team. With the Cavaliers, it is about finally having that one dominant player to give us hope, but have to constantly worry about if he will stay here. With the Browns, rumored to be a member of the National Football League, it was seeing Art Modell move the team, three years without a team, and now a team that is one of the worse teams of the past ten years.
Being a Cleveland sports fan is like finally buying a brand new car and then not driving it so that it won’t get dirty. We have suffered so many years supporting the teams and when a suspect trade is made like it was today, it only frustrates us even more. In other towns, you hear, “Wait until next year.” In Cleveland, it’s “Wait until three years from now.” It’s not as if this year was a total loss. I looked it up and even though the Indians record is 42-60, they are 42-0 when scoring more runs than their opponents.
