FanPost

Looking back at the CC Sabathia trade

Elsa

Editor's note: LGT member London Tribe went back and found a few comments from a couple different trades, and dropped them into the comments of one of the many posts about either the Masterson or Cabrera trade. It was very cool to see, so I asked him to turn it into a FanPost, and suggested he might make a series out of it. He was good enough to do just that, and this is the first entry. We'll run one a week for a while.

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With Asdrubal Cabrera and Justin Masterson having moved on in recent days, LGT posters are in the familiar position of trying to assess the value of young players coming back into the system in exchange for veterans.

It struck me that over the last few years the Indians have been involved in a number of these type of trades, and the very nature of LGT means that we had a repository of our thoughts from those times. As such, I have gone back into the vaults and tried to capture how we, as a community, reacted at the time of those trades.

I should point out that I won't be attributing comments to anybody. It is not my intention to highlight any individual members of the community, but more to try and capture the prevailing mood of the site at the time. (I've linked to the articles where I found the comments, so you can go and see for yourself who said what, if you really care to know.) If nothing else, it may serve to act as a cautionary tale to anyone who is already convinced that the Indians can somehow be considered as "winners" or "losers" while the ink is still drying on the paperwork.

July 7, 2008

The Indians have traded CC Sabathia for Matt LaPorta, Rob Bryson, Zach Jackson and a PTBNL.

For context, Sabathia was the reigning AL Cy Young winner and the Tribe was just a year removed from a heartbreaking ALCS defeat. As a player, he wasn't particularly comparable to either Cabrera or Masterson but it was a huge trade at the time and LGT responded accordingly.

Needless to say, the trade was hugely emotive and commenters were divided over all elements of it. I'll post several comments here to show as best I can the spread of opinions in the forum, and at the end try and summarise what I felt the prevailing mood was at the time.

My search for reaction to the trade started here. A sampling:

  • "LaPorta is doing very, very well, but that’s what all-bat no-glove guys are supposed to do at 23. Really, if he were such a total can’t-miss major leaguer, wouldn’t he be one already? No? The Brewers are just so awesome they’d leave 25 HRs in the minors for kicks?"
  • "My feeling is that if the Indians get LaPorta, they’ve already done better than the Twins did in the Johan situation.....Andy Laroche and Carlos Carrasco and all the others would be nice, but they are not Matt LaPorta"
  • "I want Escobar AND LaPorta."
  • "I want LaPorta and Gamel"
  • "I don’t know, is Lorenzo Cain even intriguing in the least? 22-year old who can’t even muster an 800 OPS in High A ball? Haven’t we had our fill of these types already?"
  • "Hoynes actually had something to say today. He mentioned the Indians are targeting AA OF Michael Brantley. Now THAT’s the kinda of guy I like to see. Him and LaPorta and this thing looks sweet."

...and my favourite comment of the day:

  • "Also, I’m getting sick of the capital "P" right in the middle of his name. Kind of a hassle."
  • "Blargh. It's a nice haul for CC, to be fair. But, still, I'm more affected than I would have thought."
  • "Someone will loose their job for this trade. The last time I heard a prospect was "guaranteed" was Marte. How is that turning out?"
  • "If they never intended to resign him, then there was a 0% he was going to be an Indian past this year. So we basically just got the #1 prospect in Milwaukee's organisation for nothing"
  • "I'm very excited to get LaPorta. All he has ever done is mash, and boy do the Tribe need someone to mash"
  • "I’m like xxxx said above – just LaPorta would be groovy"
  • "We have not lost CC’s services for next year and beyond YET."
  • "It’s about trust. I trust Shapiro. I hope these new guys work out. I know Shapiro took the best deal, his best shot"

I went here to get a slightly more considered view from the day after:

...and slightly strangely:

  • "I hope LaPorta can grow a moustache"

LGT Reaction in Summary:

By and large, the reaction of the wider forum was one of acceptance. Most were resigned to the idea that Sabathia needed to be traded, although I was shocked to see how many of us were still holding out hope that he might return in the offseason.

Also notable is the widespread feeling that LaPorta was a great return for Sabathia. Aside from some brief discussion of Escobar and Gamel as alternatives, we were mostly delighted that Shapiro had managed to pry such a highly touted prospect from the Brewers.

There was also a lot of discussion around the famed PTBNL. It was unclear at the time who was on the table, but Brantley was certainly our favoured choice. There was also quite a large sub thread that got started because one poster felt LaPorta had yet to achieve enough at the major league level, and he wanted one of those sure fire prospects. He may have been the guy with the best handle on LaPorta's potential.

In retrospect, it seems like this trade was tough to take not only because of how good CC was, but also because of what it signalled. This was the end of an era that was far too short. Gone were the regular playoff appearances of the 90s, instead we were left to face the grim reality of sporadic contention.

I can't see that we held any polls at that time but if we did I would guess that most would have been pragmatic and voted this as making the best of a bad situation.

FanPosts are reader-generated, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Covering the Corner or the Covering the Corner staff.