I'm not trying to knock any of Neil the Hun's trades here, but as Jerry would say "What is the deal with all these instant trade grades??"  I know we all want to be excited about what's happening right now, and I am.  I truly believe this team is finally being set up to win in the future.  (I just wish someone could explain it to my dad.  The Old Man is killing me, smalls!)

But might'n it be true that ofttimes we get a bit carried away with the whole "BooYeah we fleeced those hosers!" or "What!?! Only four players for Bay. Oh well, his first half in '09 will probably only be comparable to Raul Ibanez's anyways, so no big loss."

I'm a big Tribe fan as well, and as I watch this dialogue develop, it reminds me a lot of what happened in '02 in Cleveland.  Indians fan have never forgiven Mark Shapiro for trading Robbie Alomar.  I mean, it was like a nuclear (or nukeyoolar, if you're from Texas) bomb went of in that town.  "It's O.K.!" They said.  "We got Alex Escobar, and he's going to make the Ken Griffey Jr. from Seattle look like the Ken Griffey Jr. from Cincinnati!!!"  Alomar forgot how to play baseball  immediately upon arriving in New York and Alex Escobar made it into the Guinness Book of World Records by injuring every part of the body a human is capable of injuring.  As I recall, the total productivity of the 8 players involved in that trade plus a nickel will get you a hot cup of Jack Squat!!!  I'm pretty sure Alomar and Escobar are currently living in a van, down by the river...

A couple of months later, Shapiro shipped the Dominican Buddha Bartolo Colon to Omar Minaya's Expos for Brandon Phillips (YYYYYYEEEEESSSSSSS!!! BOO YEAH!!!) and Lee Stevens and a couple of guys named Clifton Lee and Grady Sizemore.  (Minaya later confessed he made the trade based on some advice he got from a sportswriter from New York. ( "If this works out as well as you say, I'll get you that job in the FO no problem!")  Phillips was the guy who They said needed watching.  Cliff Lee wasn't even considered that much of a steal until last season, which is impressive considering he won 46 games from '04-'06.  He was good enough to get the contract he has now, but Grady was considered the jewel of that trade up until Cliff Lee suddenly decided to stop allowing runs.

So alls I'm saying is, let's be excited, but not get carried away with who "won" or "lost" on the day the trade is made.  That just sounds way too close to Mel Kiper Jr. saying Reggie Bush-is-a-sure-fire Hall-of-Famer nonsense. Let's wait to grade til a little bit further down the road, when we can actually see , definitively, what we've got.  It's cool that the Hun managed to trade Freddy for the Jints #3 prospect according to BA, but let's not forget that this is the same publication that said that Bud Smith was a better prospect than Albert Pujols...