White and Pomeranz were scratched from their Saturday Night appearances. While it was reported that Jimenez was also scratched, he did ultimately pitche the first inning in Colorado, striking out two batters, while giving up four runs and four walks. As he walked into the dugout, Rockies manager Jim Tracy was seen talking to the 6'4" pitcher, and it was immediately followed by a hug-fest in the Rockies dugout. He didn't return to the mound in the second.
Jimenez, 27, is 55-44 in his career, with a lifetime 3.60 ERA, all for the Rockies. He became a household name on April 17, 2010, when he pitched the first no-hitter in Colorado Rockies history, against the Atlanta Braves. He won 11 of his first 12 games last season, and was the third pitcher in history to do it with an ERA below 1.00. He was selected to start the 2010 All-Star game with a 15-1 record and a 2.20 ERA. Jimenez would finish the season 19-8, with a 2.88 ERA, finishing third in the Cy Young voting.
Jimenez is currently in the third year of a four-year contract that he signed prior to the 2009 season. He's set to make $4.2 million in 2012, and has two club options in 2013 for $5.75 million and 2014 for $8 million. Both option years have $500,000 bonuses should he finish 2nd or 3rd in the Cy Young voting, and a $1,000,000 bonus should he win it. He can also receive $50,000 dollar bumps for pitching 200, 210, 220, 230 and 240 innings. Since he was traded, Jimenez can void the 2014 option.
Pomeranz was the Tribe's 2011 first round pick, and has been absolutely electric in his first season with the club. In 15 starts with Kinston, Pomeranz was 3-2 with a league leading 1.87 ERA. In 77 innings, he gave up only 56 hits, 16 earned runs and 32 walks, while striking out 95. He was recently promoted to Kinston, and in three starts, was 0-1 with a 2.57 ERA. In 14 innings, he gave up ten hits, four runs and six walks, while striking out 17.
White was the Indians' 2010 first rounder, and dominated from the start. He started in Kinston last season, and in eight starts, was 2-3 with a 2.86 ERA. He pitched 44 innings, giving up 32 hits and 14 earned runs, while walking 19, and striking out 41. He improved on those numbers after getting called up to Kinston in late may. He went 8-7, with a 2.28 ERA in 106 2/3 innings. He gave up 91 hits, 27 earned runs and 27 walks, while striking out 76 batters.
In 2011, he was promoted to Columbus. He would only make four starts, but was even more impressive than he was in 2010. In 23 2/3 innings, he gave up 19 hits, five earned runs and five walks, while striking out 28 batters.
White was then called up to bigs on April 30th to take Carlos Carrasco's spot in the rotation after he was placed on the DL. White would go on to make three starts, going 1-0 in the process. He gave up 14 hits, six earned runs and nine walks in 15 innings, while striking out 13. White was pulled after three innings during his last start with a finger ligament strain, and ultimately placed on the 60-day DL. The plan was to bring the big righty back in August in a relief role.
Joe Gardner was this site's pitcher of the year in 2010, and was the third round selection for the Indians in 2009. Overall, Gardner went 13-6 with a 2.75 ERA in 28 starts. He pitched 147 1/3 innings, giving up 102 hits and 62 walks, while striking out an impressive 142 batters. His win total and strikeouts were the best in the organization. His 2011 season hasn't been impressive at all, going 7-8 with a 4.99 ERA in 19 starts. He pitched in 97 1/3 inning, giving up 108 hits and 47 walks, while striking out 60. He was shut down for a bit earlier in the year with dead arm, and you have to wonder if the near150 innings pitched burned this season out.
Matt McBride was the Tribes 2nd rounder in 2006. He wasn't projecting as anything more than a fringe player in the organization, but was having a tremendous season in Akron this year, hitting .297, with 14 homers and 53 RBI. Overall, McBride has hit .282 in his career, with 69 homers and 349 RBI.
In all, the Rockies get the 3rd, 4th and 10th rated prospects in the system, which come in the form of two former first rounders, a former second rounder, and a former third rounder. The Indians bring in the Rockies current Ace to anchor their staff.
While I'm dying to throw out my opinion, I'll save it for another piece tomorrow, after I digest all of this in and perhaps gain some new perspective. Tony will also be adding his news and notes as they become available, so keep tuning in to IPI for all the latest...
More on this deal as it comes together.
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18 comments:
That just looks like an insanely bad deal for the Indians. Vastly overvaluing their current starting lineup--adding a pitcher does nothing for this year and next. White and Pomeranz was bad enough, to throw another guy with some potential like Gardner in there is just disgusting. Are they getting Tulowitzki as well? Unless White's finger goes all Adam Miller and Pomeranz blows out his elbow tomorrow, I don't see any way this can work out in the Indians' favor.
A rookie/putz GM exposed.
PANIC in the Tribe's FO. Terrible deal.
You guys are so dumb, this is an amazing deal. Ubaldo has done better at the major league than what both those guys has done at the double A level. They just traded for a guy who is locked in his prime for cheap, and actually has the arm strength to contribute through the rest of this year and the next. Meanwhile pomeranz would still be getting stretched out to make it that many innings. While pomeranz is trying to develop a third pitch, ubaldo has a legit major league 5. Finally an aggressive move. For every prospect that has done well, I can name 3 that hasn't. If you could've traded our prized prospect LaPorta for an ace two years ago then would you have? No you'd probably say that was dumb too.
I would have been very 'cool' with the deal if it had been a package such as White (although I LOVE the kid), one of the 2B prospects and a few other B-level prospects. BUT, it kills me seeing White AND Pom. Gardner....EH.
As Tony mentioned earlier, when the Indians dealt Sabathia and Lee, they were hammered for not getting enough...IE...only one top ten prospect each. In comparison...this deal seems insane...three top tens. Jimenez is an impressive starter, no doubt about it, but they absolutely gave up a lot to get him. The deal doesn't seem balanced with those...not even close...
I like "aggressive," so we'll just have to see if this one pans out.
There's a bunch of tidbits in this deal that are worrisome...but it could pay off in a big way between now and 2013.
And for every trade or free agent acquisition of an established starter that works out, I can name 3 that didn't. The things is, the Indians don't NEED starting pitching. They need a 1st baseman and an outfield. Is Jimenez going to pitch much better than Huff has his last 2 starts? I just don't see Jimenez helping them reach the playoffs this year by any means, even if he puts up a sub-3 ERA from here on otu, and next year I figure he's a marginal upgrade over White ... maybe. It wouldn't be surprising at all if White pitched better than Jimenez next year. We're talking about a pitcher who's average fastball went from 96.1 in '09-'10 to an Alex White-ian 93.4 this year. No red flag there?
The only possible bonus is maybe this gives the current team a psychological lift and does push them to make a run here. I think that's an extremely long shot.
Well just look at Ubaldo's home-road splits. Away from Colorado he has a sub 3 ERA. To be able to send Ubaldo and Masterson to the mound twice every 5 games, that's very impressive. I am the biggest Pomeranz and White fan out there, but realistically, they don't help this team like Jimenez can for another 2-3 years, if ever. The Tribe are much deeper with the younger, lower level, prospects and that has allowed them to make a move like this.
I agree Dave, I think Pomeranz is legit, kills me to see him go. But the difference in this trade is Ubaldo is signed. This would be like trading for CC 3 years prior to when he was, and the year before he finished 3rd in Cy Young voting.
To be honest, the key to this trade is what the Indians do with their current crop of unsigned draft picks. If they go out and sign #2 pick, RH Dillon Howard, and #20 pick, LH Dillon Peters, this could all pan out. Both are first round talents...but will take big money to sign. Perhaps Cleveland's all-in with Pomeranz and White has a contingency plan...signing these two kids to big deals.
Still a lot to shake out here.
@Jim:
But Ubaldo will stick around till at least 2013, maybe 2014, how many year did Sabathia have left? He was a rental. Lee had one year left?
This guy is a guy you can hang onto for a couple of years, neither CC or Lee had that going for them so of course Ubaldo is going to cost you more.
I am not a fan of Peters. Read many reports about him being a finesse lefty in the mold of Sowers. Howard, on the other hand, is legit.
Again...Sabathia off a Cy Young season...and was hotter than Hades when the deal took place...more or less offsets "rental" defense. Lee had a year and a half left, and was going to Philly, who could afford to re-sign him (and would have too, if not for Halladay, and ended up re-signing him anyways).
I don't disagree with you in general, but with these two...different story.
@Jim,
If he passes his physical he can provide the Tribe with a legit ace to counter Verlander for 2.5 - 3.5 years, we could only HOPE that Pomeranz and White could provide that kind of performance.
I think it was a little steep, but I think that the potential pay off could be huge.
As per Dillon Peters...He's small...5'11", but touches 94-95 on the gun, but lives in the 91-93 range. He has a plus slider and curve. He is similar to our Sowers, Laffey "mold," with a little extra juice, and the potential to increase velocity...
Howard is definitely the better of the two, but Peters projects better than Sowers and Laffey...of course...he's a high school kid...so who knows...
@llama
I don't disagree that there's a lot of positive to this deal...I think I said as much. That said, they gave up way more than they've ever gotten for players that aren't even arguably better than Jimenez.
It's an interesting balance/counterbalance to the Indians' trades over the years.
This was an aggressive move...no doubt about it, but it was a steep price to pay for a team that HAS to build from the system. There are now NO sure-fire ace starters in the entire organization. They have some nice pieces in McAllister and Gomez and McFarland...
Now, I like the fact that the Indians are trying to win, and win right now...but when you sell two of your top four prospects, and three of your top ten, you should likely address your biggest need...
Did they?
@Jim,
Well you know the saying, you always need more pitching. Granted, they need to get some offensive pieces and guys like Ludwick and Fukudome aren't really substantial pieces, but if Choo can come back healthy and return to his old form then you've got an impact bat right there. Maybe knowing the job is his to lose will help Kipnis out, who knows.
Adding Donald to the big league roster is an upgrade over Cabrera, maybe Sizemore can come back and provide us with offense similar to what we saw from him at the beginning of the year. We need offense, and most of the offense that the team has is sitting on the DL. I can see why they'd trade for a big pitcher rather than try to get a bat like Pence.
They better work on getting Ubaldo signed for longer than those 2 years, otherwise he'll be walking when the rest of the core is finally hitting their prime.
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