No, not at all. The only guy from the Lee deal who was even qualified for this list is Knapp, who is #7 on the Sally League list. What I’m saying is that among the guys we had in the system before the Lee and Martinez (and other) deals, only one pitcher appears on either one of these lists — Alexander Perez, at the unexciting #17 spot.

Shapiro said explicitly that the lack of high-ceiling pitching in the pipeline was a gaping concern, one that drove every single mid-season trade we made. Much has been made of the financial drivers of the Indians’ dramatic decisions in July. My own view is that the talent problem is what forced the financial issue — had the pitching talent been there, at every level, we could have struggled through the financial problems.

Falling off the depth chart of useful pitchers in the last two years: Westbrook, Carmona, Miller, Perez, Lewis (one or both), (un-block) Miller (re-block), KDLC. Perhaps more significantly, while we had Rondon-Gomez-KDLC coming up from the high minors a year ago, we didn’t appear to have anyone remotely comparable to that making that jump a year later. Just APerez.