http://buffalonews.typepad.com/insidepitch/2007/07/cleveland----pl.html

"The word here is simple: The Tribe has put struggling reliever Fernando Cabrera on waivers and has Laffey on call for when Cabrera is either claimed or goes unclaimed and can be sent to Buffalo. But you never admit a player is sitting out on waivers and that's apparently why there's all this KGB intrigue."

I guess they think that having Laffey as a middle reliever is the best for his development (which should be the largest consideration for this type of move). This has not been the standard protocol for the tribe before, but Westbrook worked out this way.  The way Lee and Westbrook have been going he may get a chance to pitch enough innings in a low leverage environment.

Especially E5 and all his "voodoo" scenarios. But yes, now that I recall, he never actually proclaims anything concrete, just vague generalities. Just like the palm readers and fortune tellers. "Does it begin with the letter J?"

http://espn.go.com/mlb/s/transanctionsprimer.html

I have no idea what year this is from.

Perez had prior relief experience, both in the minors and the majors. Stanford had two starts, and was kept in long relief because they had to to keep him. Jensen Lewis had proved his adjustment to the role before being promoted. Laffey is the youngest and least experienced of the lot and is in a steady groove as a starter. Doesn't sound like a Shap kind of move.

We'll see. It does sound like the word from above has tightened everyone's "official" story somewhat. No more winking and nudging and alternate narratives. Altho the last Buffalo blog post today had the phrase "Indian starter Laffey" artfully crossed out and followed by "Buffalo starter Laffey". Oh look - a "typo"! (nudge, wink).

also (no exclamation point) i just can't see cabrera not being picked up by someone like the whitesox who couldn't be much worse off even if cabrera is terrible then they are now with their terrible relievers and have a shot of striking gold down the road...

None of this is making sense to me either. So, Laffey replaces Cabrera and when Fultz comes of the DL we have Laffey, Fultz, Perez and Stanford all working out of the BP (4 lefties). Plus Laffey's last start was interrupted so that he'd be fresh for BP work...some day? And it's just coincidence that Laffey's next projected start would now coincide with Lee's. I'm not buying it. The whole way this has been handled is fishy. I've got a buddy who is close with an agent who swears (he doesn't attribute this to the agent in any way) that there is a 3 club deal in works that is complicated and requiring some time to work out. He won't tell me anything else and swears he'd be in deep ** with his agent friend if he said more.

Wrong.  If Laffey gets put on the 40, he's staying on it for a while.  Someone else (Luna, et al.) will get booted if there's a 40 crunch.

Correct me if I'm wrong here. So reading the Law article, I understand there are two ways to lose one's ability to move freely to the minors.

The first is running out of option years by being on the 40-man, but not being on the 25-man in 3 separate years, thus using up all 3 option years. Thus the only way to go back to the minors is via irrecovable waivers.

The second way being if 3 calendar years have elapsed since the first appearance on the 25-man roster, but s. Then you can go back to the minors via revocable waivers.

So the first situation applies to Fernando? I see that we brought him up in 2004 in August, so I guess being in Buffalo the rest of that season would make that his first option year.

Haha I guess I was holding out hope that the second situation applied to him and that we could get a feel for what would happen on waivers before we exposed him.

It's the kind of GENIUS Shapiro is know for!

"There is a rule rarely invoked in baseball that creates a situation where a player who has options remaining still has to clear waivers to be sent on an optional assignment. If the assignment is to begin at least three full calendar years from the date of the player's first appearance on a 25-man roster, then the player can not be sent on an optional assignment without first clearing major league waivers. These waivers are revocable, and players usually clear those waivers without incident."

So Cliff would have to go through revocable waivers, correct?

Lofton to Cleveland for a mid-level prospect. Brian Barton's name has been mentioned.

Isringhausen and Duncan to Cleveland, Cards get Lee + prospect.

I'd tend to think the first holds some water. Ben goes back to Buffalo, Kenny gets the platoon with Michaels, Barton jumps closer to the big leagues.