Santana No. 1?!?! I knew he had some potential, but I didn't think it was that kind of player the Dodgers gave up to rent Casey Blake.

Now that's some deadline dealing -- landing the two best prospects in your system. Granted, that may be a comment on the Indians' system and, of course, they might not pay off but that is as good as you can hope to do at the deadline -- especially for Casey Blake!

LaPorta's stock has dropped quite a bit since the trade.

Man, that's a hot #1. Like seven inches from the midday sun.

I would have loved to listen in on the conversation that lead to Colletti trading arguably the #2 catching prospect in baseball for 8 weeks of Casey Blake. Ned Colletti is just awesome.

LaPorta's stock has dropped quite a bit since the trade.

In 127 ABs following a concussion and a .261 BABIP at least in Akron? Fallen agreed, "quite a bit" not so much.

I would have loved to listen in on the conversation that lead to Colletti trading arguably the #2 catching prospect in baseball for 8 weeks of Casey Blake. Ned Colletti is just awesome.

I would guess Coletti's thinking went something like this:

"this kid is 22 and at least 2 years from the Bigs and maybe 5 years from being good. Meanwhile I've got a gaping hole at 2B/3B and if we don't make the playoffs, I'm probably gonna get fired for wasting $27 M on Jones & Pierre."

Say what you want, it worked. And 5 years from now, if Santana's good, Coletti will either have already been fired or be well-entrenched after 8 years on the job ... and almost none of the fans are gonna remember where Santana came from.

Mike, is Green a significantly better prospect than Brantley?

I would guess Coletti's thinking went something like this:

"this kid is 22 and at least 2 years from the Bigs and maybe 5 years from being good. Meanwhile I've got a gaping hole at 2B/3B and if we don't make the playoffs, I'm probably gonna get fired for wasting $27 M on Jones & Pierre."

Say what you want, it worked. And 5 years from now, if Santana's good, Coletti will either have already been fired or be well-entrenched after 8 years on the job ... and almost none of the fans are gonna remember where Santana came from.

Dodgers fans will remember! Well, at least the ones at dodgerthoughts.com

Anyway, the thinking was that the Dodgers weren't sure that Santana could stay at a catcher, and might have to move at 3rd base, where they already had DeWitt and LaRoche. Of course, LaRoche is now traded, and DeWitt may end up at 2nd base, but hindsight is 20/20 and we have no viable 3rd base prospects left outside of DeWitt now. Man, do I love Ned Coletti. The kind of love that can make a person stick a knife into somebody's gall bladder.

Anyway, most trades that involve Dodgers prospects have to get semi-cleared by the Dodgers Scouting director, Logan White, so this isn't totally Ned's fault. And you might not remember the bigger trade proposal with the Indians that involved C.C., Casey Blake and Jamie Carroll for Matt Kemp, Scott Elbert, James McDonald, Carlos Santana, and James Meloan. (Santana and Meloan did get moved for Casey Blake) Really, the Dodgers were going to get screwed by the Indians in any trade. That they traded in the first place with the Indians is the problem. If the Dodgers moved Carlos Santana in the Manny deal, and he ended up as a Pirate, I figure there would be much less hand wringing.

LaPorta's stock has dropped quite a bit since the trade.

He was cut from the Venezuelan Winter League (11-for-67), but the Indians claim he was planning to leave early anyways.

I think Ned thought he has Martin at catcher, so you don't need Santana. I think it's a bad deal but the Dodgers were more or less desperate to get help at the deadline. And Shapiro did a good job extracting his pound of flesh from the Dodgers.

On another note, does every player with the last name of Santana seem awesome? Johan, Ervin, now Carlos. Are there any bad ballplayers with that name?

He was cut from the Venezuelan Winter League (11-for-67), but the Indians claim he was planning to leave early anyways.

Yes, the Indians said he was coming back for Thanksgiving. And we know that Venezuela to Florida is, like, a 9-day flight so the timing was appropriate.

Why is Brantley listed as a 1b/OF? Isn't he a toolsy athlete type with plus speed?

Are there any bad ballplayers with that name?

Rafael Santana was no great shakes.

I knew that one without looking it up. After looking it up, lots of one-year Santanas so I assume they weren't so good and Julio Santana who I don't remember and wasn't very good but wasn't awful. There are/were roughly 7 million minor-league Santanas.

Jesus, 27 Santanas in the minors in 2008 and, apparently, almost all of them drafted in the last couple years? (at least 2 or less years of B-R minors data) Apparently this is the new market inefficiency.

Or is there a new "at least one Santana per organization" rule I don't know about. (Ramirez, Hernandez and Martinez I can understand; also Borbon just cuz it's a cool name; and I think more Cedenos would be good.)

Why is Brantley listed as a 1b/OF? Isn't he a toolsy athlete type with plus speed?

And no power whatsoever. There's no reason anyone should ever want to play him at first, but he played 21 games there for Huntsville last year. That's really odd.

I agree with Mike - there's no reason Brantley should be listed and Wes Hodges shouldn't be. At this point, Hodges is the best third baseman the Indians have. Which is actually kind of scary to me as a Tribe fan.

My guess is they're just moving Brantley around because they're kind of ok with the guy they have under contract to play centerfield for the next three or four years.