Victor Martinez to Boston

The Indians’ decision to trade Victor Martinez kind of surprised me.  Although there was a lot of discussion in the blogosphere that the Tribe would move Martinez too, I thought it would make sense, after moving Mark DeRosa and Cliff Lee, for the Tribe to hold on to Martinez, as their one remaining big star/face-of-the-franchise going into 2010.

One thing a team like the Indians doesn’t want to do is look like the Royals or the Pirates, baseball’s perennial also-rans.  At least, the Indians still have Grady Sizemore, who turns 27 tomorrow and is still young enough to be around when the Indians become good again.  Sizemore is having a terrible season this year, but given his well established career norms, I think it’s just a a fluke bad season.

The Tribe received three young pitchers in exchange for Martinez.  The main chip, Justin Masterson is 24 this year and now an established major league pitcher.  With career numbers of a 3.76 ERA in 160.1 IP with 140 hits allowed, 17 HRs, 65 walks and 135 Ks, he certainly looks like the real deal.

The other two pitchers the Tribe received, Nick Hagadone and Bryan Price, have a ways to go. 23 year old Hagadone had Tommy John surgery to replace his elbow tendon in June 2008, but since coming back this year, he has a 2.52 ERA in 25 IP at Greenville in the Class A Sally League with great ratios.  However, any pitcher his age who’s already had one major arm surgery is a real question mark.

Bryan Price looks better because he’s never had any major arm problems.  He was a first round pick in the 2008 Draft (45th player selected).  Actually, both Masterson (71st in 2006) and Hagadone (55th in 2007) were fairly high draft picks too.

22 year old Price pitched well in eight starts at in the Sally League at the beginning of the year and was promoted to Salem in the A+ Carolina League.  His ERA there after eleven starts is an ugly 6.54, but his other numbers suggest that he’s pitched much better than his ERA indicates and that he’s still a legitimate prospect.  Still, it’s a long way to the majors when A+ hitters are lighting you up.

The Indians perhaps should have gotten more than Hagadone and Price to go with Masterson in exchange for Martinez.

Acquiring Martinez meant that the Red Sox had no place for Adam LaRoche, so they traded him back to the Braves with cashe for Casey Kotchman.  Casey Kotchman is three years younger than LaRoche, but I don’t think much of Kotchman.  He’s a 26 year old 1Bman who has a .752 career OPS.  He’s young enough to get better, but right now he looks like a classic first round draft pick (he was chosen 13th by the Angels in ‘01) bust.

I’ve always liked LaRoche, although he’s no great shakes himself at this point in his career.  Still, it’s a great move for him personally, because he’s back in Atlanta where he broke into the majors and he had his greatest success.  Atlanta’s a good place to hit, and if there’s anywhere that LaRoche will get a fighting chance to become a good hitter again, it’s Atlanta.