By Tony Mazur
Hey kids! Have you always dreamed about becoming a general manager on a Major League Baseball team? No matter what age you may be, I'm positive that you can do a better job that Cleveland Indians' GM Mark Shapiro.
Rumors were swirling all week about the Tribe's third baseman/utility infielder Casey Blake possibly going to a playoff-contending team, which is not surprising. That happened this morning.
Casey Blake has been traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for catcher Carlos Santana (no, not that one) and pitcher Jonathan Meloan.
This has been the second major trade the Indians have conducted this month, the first being the exodus of CC Sabathia to Milwaukee.
I've made it known that I was never the biggest fan of Casey Blake. I still believe he's a dime-a-dozen ballplayer. But come on, can they get SOMEthing out of a deal instead of obscure, no-name players?
I may be young, and I do not have much business experience, but I do not how NOT to run a business.
Going into the 2008 baseball season, the Cleveland Indians' salary was a whopping $78,970,066, which comes in at #16 on the list of team payrolls.
Let's do some math, shall we?
CC is to make $11 million this year, Blake received a disgusting $6.1 million, RHP Jorge Julio made $1 million, and RHP Joe Borowski, before being designated for assignment, made $4 million.
With the acquisitions of 3B Morgan Ensberg and RHP Juan Rincon, the Cleveland Indians team payroll is roughly $61 million. That puts them at 24th on the list of overall team salaries, just above the Kansas City Royals.
The only reason the payroll is that high is because the same players have been resigned. Jake Westbrook, Travis Hafner, Rafael Betancourt, and Fausto Carmona were all signed to big deals in the past year, and each one has not earned their paycheck.
In this day in Major League Baseball, a team cannot win a championship without a $100+ million salary.
This same lesson goes for the Colorado Rockies, and, no matter where they finish this year, the Tampa Bay Rays.
I'd just love to be a fly on the wall in the offices at Ontario and Carnegie.
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Tony, as critical as I have been of the fraudulent doings of this regime, I do really like the two prospects they got back for Blake. The key is that somehow they identified a cheaper owner than the Dolans! Frank McCourt wouldn't pull the trigger on CC purely because of caysh and apparently he was willing to let these two prospects go if the Tribe would pick up the rest of Blake's '08 salary. Of course, the Dolans are saving a lot on CC's salary, so I better stop with the positivity before I sound as credibility-impaired as Diatribe!
As you know, I agree with you on Blake being marginal. As a super-utility player getting 350-400 ABs at various positions, he'd have some real value. Shoehorned into an every-day starting job for a team that doesn't want to pay market rate for real ballplayers ... not so much. Apparently he's going to be LA's every-day third baseman. Their funeral.
--Rick
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