Maybe Terry Pluto will write a book about it five years, but I (as well as others) wonder about Shapiro's comments during that half inning about "getting Wedge a reliever and going on vacation", almost as if it was a done deal, and then nothing happening at the deadline. Would a deal being in place that included F-Cab, (a deal that Shapiro felt confident would happen) all of the sudden fall through and leave us with the present situation of DFA'ing F-Cab post trading deadline? Would something like lead to F-Cab not being DFA'd before the deadline?

"...why not DFA him a week earlier, and force the issue on the trade market?"

Cuz it's sucky suck suck week in Indianville?

You weren't alone in thinking FC was a very exciting young arm two years ago, a closer in waiting. I'm definitely in that cohort. In fact, I'd lay down money that a lot of scouts employed by major league budgets thought the same. And you could argue that that hasn't changed in terms of his projection. As he leaves the 25 man, he has 39 K's in 33 innings. He is the definition of filthy when he's on, and he's had at least two stretches in the bigs where he proved it.

It's pretty obvious its a matter of a tweak in mechanics and some confidence and he could be a big payoff. But we couldn't afford to keep him on the roster, as evidenced by DFA.

Now my vent, with the proviso that not all criticisms are based on habitual "we're cursed and I'm going to salivate now" reflex: WhyTF didn't Shap spend the prospects he's been cultivating to get a relief pitcher with some experience that could have been in the spot where Jensen Lewis was tonite? I kept looking at Benoit shutting us down and saying to my junior GM self, we could have had  him in our own dugout. Yesterday.

FCab has value and could have been included in a package to fill the shoes Lewis was forced to step into tonite. He made mistakes you'd expect from a guy who went from AA to a tight ML game where there's a lot on the line. We are past the point where we should even be in that situation - the core team is here now and in a playoff race and we needed a bullpen arm and Shap could have gotten one and didn't. Cabrera and Francisco have a lot of value and should have been on the table at a minimum for anything that would help this team to the playoffs. I have no idea what offers were out there, but I have a hard time believing that we couldn't have swung a deal for a decent arm with some experience.

Vent over. I'm sure Shap isn't relaxing just yet. And he can only affect so much - the onus is on the guys playing on the field. They just have to play better so that facebook doesn't get put in that situation to begin with.

I kept looking at Benoit shutting us down and saying to my junior GM self, we could have had  him in our own dugout. Yesterday.

Heh. Feels better knowing that I wasn't the only one ruminating on this while I listened to the awful finale of tonight's game.

At this point, I would trade the Indians bullpen for the Rangers bullpen, even without Gagne.

I have to agree. The timing of the move makes little, if any, sense.

My best guess, is that Shap already had some preliminary talks in the works going into the July 31 deadline, Wedge finally said he couldn't wait anymore, and Shap DFAed him trying to complete earlier deals that he had discussions on.