Goodbye Ace
The Indians, out of contention since April, finally did the inevitable and made a deadline trade. Cliff Lee and Ben Francisco are now Phillies and in return the Tribe gets four prospects. The Phillies did not give the Tribe any of the big time prospects that the Blue Jays were asking for for Roy Halladay though. One of the players received, Lou Marson, appears to be a move to also trade Victor Martinez. Hopefully the Indians scouts are making the right choice. Jason Knapp is apparently a big right handed flame thrower who is currently in single-A ball. Sounds good until you find out that the guy has already been shut down this year with shoulder fatigue. Hopefully this is just a product of an innings increase this year and not an Anthony Reyes type deal where the young man can't stay healthy. Losing Ben Francisco is not a huge loss as the Indians have a plethora of outfielders and Francisco really has not proven he could be an every day starting outfielder.
In other bright Cleveland news, Braylon Edwards has been placed on the non-football injury list with who knows what kind of injury. The Browns did manage to sign 2nd round pick Mohamed Massaquoi leaving Brian Robiskie as the only holdout. The Browns will hopefully start the season with more than one receiver, but lets not hold our breath. Can't wait for Syndric Steptoe to be our #1. Awesome.