devil1197;834492 wrote:I am just looking at this long term.
The Red Sox are stacked, the Yankees are the Yankees, and the West is always tough with LAA/Texas. Beltran added to this lineup still leaves us well short with the talent needed to win against proven, veteran teams.
With the Indians owner and the unwillingness to spend, we cannot afford to give up our top prospects for a rental who will just get us to the playoffs.
The Red Sox will always be stacked...the Yankees will always be stacked. But in a short series anybody can get hot. But you have to give yourself the opportunity by getting to the dance. This year we have a great opportunity to get to the dance, and once that happens, anybody can win. I don't think you can afford to sell yourself short and say 'we don't have enough to win this year, so let's just hang on to all our prospects' hoping that next year the chance will be better. We all know what happened in 2006 and 2008...years where the Tribe was 'supposed' to be contenders for it all. The team fell flat on its face. You have to seize the opportunity when it's there....and it's here RIGHT NOW!
You have to keep in mind that prospects are just that....prospects. They've proved NOTHING...and for every one that turns out to be Sin Soo Choo, you have one that turns out to be Andy Marte. Many more become decent major leaguers, but not necessarily ones that cannot be easily replaced. I would not be opposed to trading a few of those prospects for the opportunity to improve our position NOW, with a PROVEN player.
As far as 'untouchables'...only Chisenhall and our two top pitching prospects. You can't trade Chiz because we just don't have enough depth at 3B.