Mr. Shapiro's 2009 Trade Scorecard

I hope everybody is enjoying the holidays and braving the cold. I don't know about you guys, but the I'm ready for some baseball. Two months until spring training, two months until spring training..... With that let's take a stroll down baseball lane and look at Mr. Shapiro's 2009 trades.

Trade #1 (June 28, 2009):

St. Louis Received:

Util Mark DeRosa

Cleveland Received:

RHP Chris Perez

Player to be named later (RHP Jess Todd)

Shapiro marvelously leveraged DeRosa's versatility and hot streak (.799 OPS before trade, .696 OPS after) and got a pair of young righty flamethrowers that ranked as St. Louis' #3 and #4 prospects according to Baseball America. Perez experienced a rocky start and end to his year in Cleveland, but he had a marvelous stretch from July 8-September 5 where he pitched 20.1 scoreless innings and struck out 25. Pretty good for a guy that's not 25 until mid-2010.... he looks like Kerry Wood's incumbent. The lesser part of the deal, Jess Todd, put up an uninspiring 7.66 ERA (4.84 FIP) in his major league debut, but did strikeout 20 in 22.1 IP. With Sowers, Talbot and Grilli competing for the final bullpen spot, Todd will likely get a little more seasoning in AAA to start the season.

Grade: A-/B+

Trades #2, #3, #4, #5:

Indians Trade:

RHP Rafael Betancourt (Colorado)

1B/"OF" Ryan Garko (San Francisco)

RHP Carl Pavano (Minnesota)

C Kelly Shoppach (Tampa Bay)

Indians Receive:

RHP Connor Graham (Colorado)

LHP Scott Barnes (San Francisco)

RHP Yohan Pino (Minnesota)

RHP Mitch Talbot (Tampa Bay)

Even if these trades were just made for salary relief, they'd be worth making. Betancourt and Pavano were type A and B free agents respectively and both accepted arbitration. Thus it would have been too risky to have offered them arb and hoped for draft picks. Garko is ok, but LaPorta is likely much better and even Jordan Brown is similar at a tenth of Garko's arbitration number. Although Shoppach regressed from his superb '08, he's probably at least a league average catcher (his OPS+ the last three seasons: 102, 128, 98). With superstar Carlos Santana posed for a 2010 debut and capable, cheap options in Lou Marson and Wyatt Toregas the Indians had no use for a 3-4 million dollar catcher.

As for the Indians return.... it's pretty bland. Yohan Pino and Mitch Talbot are probably spot starters or maybe long men in the bullpen. It's not bad to have cheap, depth options like them, but Talbot is already out of options and Pino isn't exactly a head turner. According to BA, Barnes ranked as the Giants' 9th best prospect heading into '09 and Graham ranked as Colorado's 12th best prospect. They are both just solid arms with some upside who join the ranks of the likes of Eric Berger, Zach Putnam and Rob Bryson and lend the Indians impressive pitching depth.

Grade: B-/C+

Trade #6 (July 29th, 2009)

Philadelphia Received:

LHP Cliff Lee

OF Ben Francisco

Indians Received:

RHP Carlos Carrasco

RHP Jason Knapp

C Lou Marson

2B/SS Jason Donald

This trade has received its fair share of reactionary bad press. Granted, this deal certainly does not look like a slam dunk at the moment. However, I think it was the best move all things considered. If the Indians had kept Lee, they'd be at best the sixth best team in the AL in 2010 behind the Yankees, Red Sox, Rays, Angels, Rangers and arguably others (Twins, Mariners and A's). Thus it was the most rational decision to spin Lee for the best return as soon as possible in an attempt to cobble together a winner while Grady is still under contract. It's better to utilize the 13 million or so left on Lee's deal and invest that into drafts/international signings.

Furthermore, I believe Carrasco represented the centerpiece of this trade as alluded to by Shapiro in his interview with Castrovince about "undervalued commodities." Carrasco had FIPs of 4.01 (20 starts) and 2.92 (6 games) and K/BB rates of 2.95 and 5.14 at AAA Reading and Columbus respectively. For pete's sake, he's a 22 year old pitcher with extensive experience at AAA who has a plus fastball and curve and a plus plus changeup. He may have composure problems, but he's got time to mature and an excellent coaching staff to help him out. Jason Knapp has an electric arm, but his youth and injuries concern me. He's a great high-risk, high-reward add to this system nonetheless. Marson appears to be a good bet to be a solid, league average catcher which is more than enough considering he'll back up SuperSantana. Jason Donald had a down year, but at a minimum he should be a good utility man. A decent, if unspectacular return.

Grade: C

Trade #7 (July 31, 2009)

Boston Received:

C Victor Martinez

Cleveland Received:

RHP Justin Masterson

LHP Nick Hagadone

RHP Bryan Price

This trade was personally the most difficult to stomach. Victor's lively and festive personality endeared him to me and he easily was my favorite player. However, this team had no use for a good, but aging C/1B even at a reduced salary. Thus Shapiro pulled the trigger on this deal. It may be hard to remember, but Victor had experienced a dismal July. His .530 OPS in July probably sapped his trade value somewhat, but all things considered Shapiro still managed a commendable return. I love Masterson and think he can become a #3 and perhaps a #2 in the mold of Jake Westbrook (and Bill James agrees). According to BA, Nick Hagadone "projects as either a frontline starter or a dynamic reliever" and this enormous lefty should be on the fast track to Cleveland. Bryan Price is another solid arm to throw on the organizational pile.

Grade: A-

It's always tough to go through a rebuild. Thankfully Shapiro, despite public pressure, did what he had to do to put the Indians in a position to compete in a couple years. Anyways, we shall see.....

Alex Trebek

Mr. Shapiro's 2008 Trade Scorecard

On a bitter cold, but beautiful Saturday morning in central Ohio let's take a look at Mr. Shapiro's '08-'09 trades. Shapiro made a name for himself through trades, like this one, so it seems like a good starting point. Now while it's a little presumptuous to judge trades only months after the fact, it's fun nonetheless.

Trade (July 7, 2008):

Brewers Acquires:

LHP CC Sabathia

Clevelands Acquires:

1B/LF Matt LaPorta

Player to be named later (OF Michael Brantley)

RHP Rob Bryson

LHP Zach Jackson

Essentially, this deal gave the tribe a top young slugger, a A ball flamethrower with closer potential, a AAAA filler pitcher and a "significant" piece to be determined at the end of the season. LaPorta continued his rapid rise through the system with an excellent '09 contributing a slash line of .299/.388/.530 at AAA and a .254/.308/.442 line in an 181 AB cameo in Cleveland. Kevin Goldstein recently had this to say about LaPorta in his Future Shock Series on the Indians:

"Reviews on LaPorta's bat aren't what they used to be, but they're still good enough to project as an above-average everyday player at first base or left field, and that means a middle-of-the-order run producer."

That still sounds good to me. Anyways, we'll just skip Zach Jackson and head onwards to Rob Bryson. Mr. Bryson, heralded as a potential closer at the time of the deal, hurt his arm and was on the rehab trail most of '09. However, he managed to pitch a little at the end of the season and appears to be making encouraging progress. He's another quality arm with potential that lends this system its' impressive depth. Finally, the player to be named later was as everybody knows Michael Brantley (thankfully not Taylor Green as the Hardball Times article supposed). Although Brantley's numbers on the surface appear uninspiring at AAA (.267/.350/.361 with 46 steals), he was a victim of bad luck (.288 BABIP) and was very young for his level (he turned 22 midseason). Brantley could probably use some more seasoning at AAA, but I believe that he could be a high-OBP speedster that sets the table for the Indians' impending middle-of-the-order quartet (admit it: Sizemore, Santana, Choo, LaPorta, 3-6 is damn exciting). Here's a recent ranking from Project Prospect that had Brantley as the fifth best CF prospect in baseball. Overall, this was a solid trade that infused high-quality talent into the system.

Grade: B

Trade (July 27, 2008):

LA Dodgers Acquire:

3B Casey Blake

Cleveland Acquires:

C Carlos Santana

RHP Jon Meloan

This trade might be one of Shapiro's gems. Shapiro leveraged Blake's high trade value (.830 OPS at the time of the trade) and got a pair of excellent prospects. Meloan, at the time a reliever converted to a starter, looked to still have back of the bullpen potential and Carlos Santana was having a breakout year for the Dodgers' A+ team. Although Meloan fell out of favor with the organization, was subsequently traded and bounced around a couple organizations in '09, Santana is one of the top 10 prospects in baseball. Mr. Goldstein at BP put it this way:

"All of the tools and skills are there for Santana to be a perennial All-Star."

With that I give this trade a Grade A+.

I'll check in sometime soon to review the 2009 trades, but for now I need to survive this December cold and survive a week of finals. Thanks for stopping by!

Your pal,

Alex Trebek