I’m really pleased with this deal, and applaud Shapiro for taking extreme advantage of the highest trade value Casey Blake has or will ever have. Santana looks like a great guy to have in the mill for 2010 or so, and I’m looking forward to him.

I guess I’m just curious about Meloan, and am wondering if anyone knows anything about him beyond the numbers, because the shift from 2007 to 2008 is pretty extreme in terms of K/9, BB, and HBP, and ERA, all for the worse this year. Has he spent this entire season as a starter? Is he a headcase? Struggling in late innings? What made the Dodgers think he should start when his relief stats were so strong?

press conference at 4pm

meloan is a fireballer and i’m very optimistic that the has a future at the end of a bullpen in his career. i play in a 75 man roster sim fantasy league and we have extensive minor league scouting and involvement so i’ve been watching meloan for a while.

meloan is listed by sickels at minorleagueball.com as the dodgers 5th best prospect while santana didn’t crack the preseason top 20. while his numbers are staggering, this is clearly santana’s breakout year.

this article from last summer talks about meloan (http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/daily/frontpage/57436.php) and had this to say:
“Rotoworld called Meloan the “game’s best pure relief prospect…He has the arsenal to start, but because of his maximum-effort delivery, the Dodgers figured that putting him in the pen was the best way to keep him healthy. It looks like they were right,” Rotoworld wrote. With a 92-94 mph fastball and a pair of strikeout breaking balls, he could prove to be a long-term closer.”

interestingly, meloan was college teammates with trevor crowe at arizona.

Who’s excited to watch Casey try to hit off CC in like 3 weeks? Milwaukee travels to LA the weekend of Aug 15, 16, and 17. I think it’s wonderful we’re trading all our guys to the NL, that way I don’t have to start hating them.

Is Wedge on suicide watch yet?

So in the past two days Crowe, Laffey, Meloan and Reyes were all sent to Buffalo. Who was moved to make room for them?

Mark Schwab of WTAM confirms that Meloan will be moved to the bullpen in Buffalo

Andy Gonzalez called up to take Blake’s spot on the roster

Perdomo would have been exposed to the Rule 5 this winter assuming he wasn’t added to the 40-man (which it’s really doubtful he would have), right?

Press conference now live on WTAM

Also – which pitcher is going where to clear a spot for Fausto?

Cards fan here. Sorry to see Reyes go but happy he is getting a fresh start to play. Could you guys tell me a little more about him and maybe I can answer some of your questions about Reyes

Hafner moved to 60 Day DL

Shapiro on Santana – “rare combination of plate discipline and run production”

Shapiro: Dodger prospects scouted extensively for potential CC deal

I wonder where they’re assigning Santana. Matt McBride just got brought up to Kinston.

Shapiro: Santana could fall back to 3B/outfield if defense not ready at C

Shapiro: “We’re not closed for busines. We have nothing active right now” but scenarios might develop over the next week.

Shap says he doesn’t anticipate any more deals at this time, we have nothing active right now, but he remains open/receptive to overtures from other teams.

Guess that means we keep Byrd.

Is it me, or do we actually have a lot of interesting catching depth? In addition to have Vic and Shoppach locked up in Cleveland, we’ve got Chris Gimenez playing primarily at C in Buffalo, Wyatt Toregas doing his Babe Ruth impersonation in Akron, Santana and McBride in Kinston, Richard Martinez in Lake County, and Robert Alcombrack in Mahoning Valley. That’s about as deep as we are at any position.

Lights-out closer of your 2009 World Champion Cleveland Indians…Jon Meloan. I can see it now.

A Look at the Tribe’s New Prospects (Kevin T. Czerwinski / MLB.com)

This front office never ceases to amaze me. I’d rather have the two guys we got from LA for Blake than the four guys that PGH got from the Yankees for Nady and D. Marte. Not even close, IMHO.

It’s Mr. 39 OPS+! God I love 2008.

So does the acquisition of Santana mean acquiring Lucroy is less likely now as the PTBNL?

Also!! Is is just me, or does Shapiro always acquire (or deal) a catcher at the deadline ;) Our last two deadline deals involved Max Ramirez.

Wow, the writeup over at TrueBlueLA is brutal. Those guys are not happy with this trade.

Shap (WTAM): We hope to bring Casey back next year.

Some things the BA handbook just taught me that I hadn’t seen mentioned:

Meloan was a starter at Arizona, going 27-2 over his lat two year. His fastball is 89-94 and he has a mid-80s slider. He does have some mechanics issues and he missed time in 2006 due to “elbow soreness.”

Santana is actually a converted catcher-prior to the instructional league following 2006 he was an outfielder. He is apparently an “athlete” who is expected to eventually suceed behind the plate. Plus arm.

Interestingly, coming into this year, Santana wasn’t even the best catching prospect in the organization-that was a guy named Lucas May who Santana has blown by this year. Santana is 18 months younger, a level lower, and OPSing 200 points better.

Sadly, neither Tom, Mastny or Indonesia have a K in them.

Keith Law on the prospects from the Dodgers (while noting that Casey is a “statue at third base”):

Carlos Santana is a recent convert from third base to catcher, and like most players converted to the position, he has an above-average arm. He’s also a good receiver and has unusually good plate discipline. He has a compact swing and generates power through hard contact and upper-body strength. He projects as an everyday catcher with great defense, average power and an average to above-average hit tool.

Jonathan Meloan has worked this year as a starter with awful results. It’s no surprise, as he projected all along as a good reliever. He works with a solid-average 88-92 mph fastball, but he’s effective because he has two plus offspeed pitches, a 12-6 curveball with great depth and an 86-87 mph cutter with a long, late break. His downside is that despite his size (he’s 6-3), he gets no downhill plane on his pitches and tends to leave his fastball up in the zone.

Meloan could probably pitch in Cleveland’s bullpen this year, and at worst should be in it in April of 2009. Long term, he should be an above-average short reliever, maybe even an unconventional closer because he can miss so many bats in spite of the average velocity.

Overall, he says it’s a great return for Blake. He then summed up Blake’s career in Cleveland:

When you consider that Cleveland signed Blake as a minor-league free agent on a one-year deal in 2003, received almost five years of big-league production and flipped him for two prospects, the ROI on the original deal must be off the charts.

Also, the LA Times is reporting that the Dodgers are shopping Andy LaRoche for relief pitching or middle infield help. I wonder if Shapiro ever talked about getting him back in the Blake trade if the Tribe offered a reliever too.

Anthony Reyes has the worst pitching mechanics this side of Mark Prior.

A good point:

With Perdomo being a Rule 5 eligible pick this year the Indians probably preferred not to wait and find out and instead traded him for something of value now in order not to lose him for nothing in December.

Meloan made his Buffalo debut this afternoon in relief of Halama. He gave up a weak leadoff single, which was followed by a SB and sac bunt, leaving a runner on third with one out. Meloan then induced two straight popups to end the threat. I really hope the Tribe doesn’t try to make the guy a starter, as his record in the LA system suggests he’s got good bullpen stuff.