It’s been no secret of my disdain for now former Indians third baseman Jhonny Peralta, who has been traded to the Detroit Tigers.

So who did the Indians receive for Peralta?

Who cares! Did you read the above sentence? SOMEONE ACTUALLY TOOK JHONNY PERALTA OFF THE TRIBE’S HANDS!

Ok, ok, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t break down the trade. The Indians received Class A left-hander Giovanni Soto. Soto apparently isn’t just filler either, as he has a a 2.61 ERA in 16 starts. He has struck out 76 batters and walked 25 in 82 2/3 innings and hasn’t allowed more than three earned runs in any start. That’s not too shabby. Soto will report to Class A Lake County.

Before you go lament the loss of another Tribesman to trade, remember this: Peralta was basically a dead man walking (and I’m not referring to his play). His option was not going to be picked up, and while it is conceivable that the Indians could have resigned him to a one or two year deal, but really, did anyone want that?

No, this trade, regardless of who the Indians recived, is a great move for the Indians. This clears the way for a Jared Goedert September call-up, as well as plenty of time for a Marte Par-tay.When Lonnie Chisenhall is ready in a year or two, we won’t have to worry about Peralta’s lazy ass blocking anyone from playing time.

(By the way, Andy Marte’s new nickname is El Gato. He’s a freaking cat, he has nine lives. You just can’t get rid of him!)

The fact that the Indians got something that may be of value to them for Peralta is a huge coup. Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski must be on crack or something. I wonder if Shapiro/Antonetti tried to slip in Kerry Wood or Austin Kearns. Sheesh.

No matter what happens the rest of the time up until the trade deadline, the Indians are winners in getting rid of Peralta. I wish I was better with computers. I’d make a montage of Peralta grounding into double plays.

What is it with Indians rookie starting pitchers this year?

So far, Mitch Talbot has had a positive experience as the #4 starter in the rotation, as a rookie.

Jeanmar Gomez allowed no earned runs in seven innings in his spot start versus the Detroit Tigers.

And Josh Tomlin, my “sacrificial lamb,” threw up a gem last night against the New York Yankees, allowing a run on three hits, no walks, two strikeouts in seven-plus innings.

It’s probably more of a coincidence than anything else, given the fact that both Gomez and Tomlin have yet to make a second start.

But regardless, I’m not going to get all excited over Tomlin’s debut. I don’t want to take anything away from the kid – he was fantastic. He did everything he was supposed to do and has definitely earned another start. But I’m not getting pumped over this guy, as his stuff isn’t great and he might even get relegated to the bullpen eventually. This may seem like me being sour grapes over him (I mean, I called him a sacrificial lamb and now I’m bashing his stuff) but it’s really not. Not all players called up from the minors are going to be studs. Some are just role players, or worse, roster filler. I’m not sure what Tomlin is yet, but I’m pretty sure he won’t end up being a stud.

But as for last night, Tomlin was a stud in  the Tribe’s 4-1 victory over the Yankees, and the Indians did not give up A-Rod’s 600th home run, meaning that I have only two games to get through in order to win $5 from a friend. The bet is simple – he says an Indian will give up the 600th HR, and I have faith in my boys, for some inexplicable reason, that they will keep A-Rod in the park. Winner gets five bucks.

So here’s hoping Fausto Carmona can help me win five bones. And if you’re looking for a reason to go out to the ballpark, Thursday is one of those fantastic dollar dog nights, so get on that.

Win this shirt from Alternative Hero!

Hey everybody, the nice guys over at Alternative Hero have hooked me up with a couple funny Cleveland shirts. While I can’t say I totally agree with the shirt, I do think it’s funny, and I have two XL shirts to give away (sorry, I don’t have any other sizes).

But I’m not just gonna give them to you. No, you have to work for these bundles of goodness. So I have a little bit of trade deadline trivia for you.

Using only trades, I want you to link former Indians catcher Eddie Taubensee to current Indians reliever Joe Smith.

Think of it as six degrees of separation, only with trades. You only need to use one player in the trade to continue the link. I’m not going to tell you where to find this information, only that it can be found online.

Or, you could just buy one of the shirts from Alternative Hero yourself.

Personally, I’d try to win it. If no one gives me a correct answer within a week I will post a new question and be terribly disappointed in all of you.

Anyways, e-mail me at edcarroll34@gmail.com with the subject line “Alternative Hero T-Shirt Giveaway” and your answer in the body. You don’t need to have the whole trade lineage (although I’ll be more impressed if you do), just the players that were directly involved in this linkage. Please also provide your name and shipping address. I have two shirts to giveaway and I will go by the timestamp on the e-mails. Good luck everyone!

As you can see from the title, Andy Marte is inexplicably still a Cleveland Indian.

Marte was not designated for assignment to make room for Josh Tomlin to make tonight’s start. Instead, Michael Brantley was optioned to AAA Columbus to make space on the 25-man roster and infielder Wes Hodges was designated for assignment to clear room off of the 40-man roster.

I really question the Indians’ judgment here. Hodges was nothing special. He’s 25, had a .739 OPS in Columbus with 9 home runs. But he was a second round pick in 2006, so it’s another draft failure for the Tribe. But I’m not upset over the decision to DFA Hodges. He didn’t have anywhere to play and he is nothing special. But there’s the fact that the Indians didn’t have to DFA anyone if they didn’t want to do so. Carlos Carrasco, David Huff, and Jeanmar Gomez are all on the 40-man roster and would have only required a player being sent down.

Instead, the Indians lose a player, giving up on yet another early draft pick. I hate just giving away players like this when there’s really no point in doing so. Tomlin had a nice WHIP at AAA (1.081) but is giving him a sacrificial lamb start against the Yankees really worth losing a player over?

So rest easy, Andy Marte, you have a job in the big leagues for at least one more day. Let the Marte Par-tay continue!

RHP Josh Tomlin will make his major league debut for the Tribe when he starts Tuesday night versus the Yankees in place of Aaron Laffey, who is on the DL with left shoulder fatigue. Tomlin, 25, had a 2.86 ERA in 20 appearances (17 starts) for the Columbus Clippers. Since Tomlin was not on the 40-man roster, a move will have to be made prior to the game to clear space on the roster.

According to this blurb about Tomlin on mlb.com, right hander Carlos Carrasco’s (already on the 40-man roster) recent elbow stiffness was not a factor into the decision, and Jenmar Gomez (on the 40-man), who was fantastic in his spot start versus the Tigers and David Huff (on the 40-man) were also considered … but the Indians decided they needed to make a roster move instead just to give this guy a start?

So while Dan Haren has been dealt to the Angels – seemingly bumping Jake Westbrook up in line in the trade queue, Westbrook still hasn’t been dealt yet, as he throws tonight versus the Yankees, it makes you wonder why the Indians rushed to get this guy up here. His stats are decent, but he’s not one of out top prospects, and the rush to make a roster move just seems silly.

The Indians effectively bought themselves two weeks to make a roster move when they switched RF Shin-Soo Choo from the DL and placed Laffey on the DL. Makes you wonder why they’d only use four days of it. Makes you think they already knew what they were going to do, barring a trade.

It’s pretty sure it’s going to be Andy Marte, and I’m not gonna lie, I might get a little sentimental on here tomorrow. I am a Marte supporter, although it’s become more of a joke than anything else. My very first post at Deep Left Field made a case for Andy Marte. Some might say I have a man-crush on Marte, it’s more like that I went way out on a limb for him and I refuse to come off that limb, because while I most likely am wrong about Marte, if I’m right, I can hold it over everyone’s head, because everyone hates this guy but me. But he does need a change of scenery. He will never be given a chance to succeed in Cleveland. Not by the management, not by the fans, and not by the media (although he will always have a home in Deep Left Field). Of course, Marte has somehow stuck on this club for years now, without us getting rid of him, so I won’t be surprised if Andy Marte is still donning a Cleveland #25 after tomorrow.

But if he isn’t … expect a song or poem here tomorrow.

Hey everyone, Fansided’s Call to the Pen is doing a series of collaborative posts by the MLB network on what each team should do at the trade deadline. I think it’s too early to trade Fausto Carmona, and even though you would be “selling high,” you’d also be selling out your fans that have already been put through the ringer this season. For the lazy, here’s what I wrote:

As the trade deadline fast approaches, the Indians are running out of time to rid themselves of the flotsam and jetsam that is clogging up their major league roster. Unfortunately for the Indians, the guy teams seem to have the most interest in, Indians All-Star Fausto Carmona, is also the guy the Tribe probably shouldn’t trade unless they get their socks knocked off with an offer. For a guy like Carmona, who is still under team control for at least another two years, the Indians should ask for at least one ML-ready player and a couple high ceiling prospects. It’s a high asking price, but Carmona is still valuable to this team.

Regardless of what the Indians do with Carmona, the Tribe still should see what they can get for guys like Jake Westbrook and Austin Kearns. Outside of Carmona, these are probably the most attractive players the Indians have available for a trade. No matter where Westbrook and Kearns go, the only thing the Indians should be bringing back is young players. The whole reason of trading these guys is to get more playing time for the kids, so why should they trade veterans for more veterans? But if outgoing GM Mark Shapiro wants a swan song, he needs to land something of value for closer Kerry Wood (currently on the DL with a blister on his right index finger) and/or 3B Jhonny Peralta (who’s in the midst of yet another mediocre season and whose option will most definitely not be picked up). It will be extremely hard to find takers for Wood and Peralta, but if Shapiro is able to do so, he needs to make the deal.

I want to hear from you guys though. What do you think the Indians should do at this deadline. Be realistic, but feel free to be bold, and let me know!

WFNY’s Da Clip Show is something I recently started reading. It’s an easy to read digest to help you catch up on the week in Columbus Clippers baseball, and helps you keep an eye on the players who will be wearing the Tribe uni in the future.

The DiaTribe does its usual Lazy Sunday, with a look at player values, salaries, and potential trade targets. Yeah, he names the usual suspects. Still a good read.

The Tribe Daily has some conspiricy theories involving Jhonny Peralta’s inside the park homer. Other news and notes as well.

Castrovince doing his usual thorough work on all things Tribe in his CastroTurf blog. Speculation as to who will be sent down/DFA’ed/traded in order to make space for Shin-Soo Choo and Asdrubal Cabrera.

And Castro goes more in depth into this decision over at Indians.com.

RF Shin-Soo Choo and SS Asdrubal Cabrera are both expected to be in uniform on Friday versus the Tampa Bay Rays. They will both get rehab at bats with the Akron Aeros Monday through Wednesday. Originally, manager Manny Acta didn’t think Choo needed to go on a rehab assignment, but Choo insisted that he see some live pitching before coming back to the big leagues. This is great news on Choo, who initially looked like he’d be lost for at least two months. Luckily, surgery was avoided and Choo will be back in a matter of days.

As for Cabrera, he is 3-for-10 in three games with the Aeros and was 2-for-6 in two games with Class A Mahoning Valley. The Indians wanted him to get around 30 ABs before coming back to Cleveland after a fractured right forearm.

Grady Sizemore is the only position player left on the DL. He is out for the season after having micro fracture surgery on his left knee.

Not sure who the Indians will send down to make room for Choo and Cabrera, but I’d have to guess Michael Brantley is a prime target for one of the roster spots. The Tribe might also try to make a trade (Austin Kearns, Jake Westbrook maybe?) to free up a spot.

In case you haven’t noticed, and judging by the attendance, you haven’t, the Indians handily swept the Detroit Tigers in a four-game series this weekend:

Kerry Wood was placed on the DL (again) on Saturday with a blister on his right index finger. This most likely murders any chance the Indians had of trading him prior to the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline. While he still could be traded afterward, it’s very unlikely the Tribe will get anything of value for him now. The best-case scenario is now that someone claims him off waivers and the Indians get off the hook for the remainder of his ungodly salary. Jensen Lewis was recalled to fill his roster spot.

How bout the performance by Jeanmar Gomez on Sunday? Making a one-and-done spot start instead of David Huff (more on that later) Gomez sparkled and helped out the pen by going seven strong innings without giving up an unearned run. Gomez’s reward? Sent back down to AAA Columbus. Gomez has probably placed himself in line for a September call-up, and Jess Todd was recalled to take his roster spot.

So why didn’t the spot start go to Huff? Well, minutes after the Tribe brass told Huff he’d be called up to make the start (and to keep it under wraps), a tweet came out on a Twitter account confirmed as formerly belonging to Huff stated that he would be called up for Sunday’s start. Huff and his agent have denied posting the tweet, with his agent saying this:

“If word got out about Huff possibly throwing a spot start on Sunday, it was not David’s doing. He did not post anything on Twitter about any of this; in fact, his own account was terminated over a month ago. And if stuff gets out and circulates over the Internet or Twitter or whatever, well, welcome to 2010.”
-Jim McDowell, David Huff’s agent

Understandably, the Indians were upset that 15 minutes after they told this to Huff, it was posted on the Internet. Twitter is dangerous folks, it’ll cost you a spot start.

Jhonny Peralta hit an inside the park home run Sunday. Read that again: JHONNY PERALTA hit an inside the park home run!! He’s like the second slowest guy on the team behind Hafner! Absolutely amazing.

My man Andy Marte played the entire series, hit a home run, and played stellar defense throughout the weekend. This, of course, has renewed hope in me that maybe he doesn’t completely suck. Stay tuned for more chapters in the exciting career of Andy Marte!

Here’s a link to a brief Tribe midseason update. Should be nothing new if you’re a regular reader or a follower of the Tribe, but it’s got some good (and not so good) highlights:

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=9911977

And Paul at The DiaTribe does a trade primer:

http://clevelandtribeblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/stepping-into-second-half.html

Enjoy!