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I just read this on Dispatch from the GM who traded Shin-Soo Choo - Baseball Nation
Man I hate the fact he owns up to it. It isn't as much fun throwing darts at his picture now.
Thursday, Bavasi e-mailed me:
More than anything else, the trades that year were just good old-fashioned disasters.
There was no specific pressure from above to make any specific move at that time. But I was not operating on the same platform they are now. Without going into great detail ... When I got there it was made REAL clear they didn't want any five-year plans … and that I'd get a mulligan in 2004 but, from then on they'd expect consistent improvement toward a postseason. When I say "improvement" I mean relative to our record. So even though we operated under some pressure to tangibly improve on a regular basis, the Choo and Cabrera trades were a product of my own stupidity and good work by the Indians.
By the way, I'm not complaining about the "no five-year plans" attitude. Again, without going into detail ... I knew the score going in.
We had good things to say about Choo at the time. We certainly didn't know what we know now -- what a star he'd be -- but our people liked him, knew he had skills, great make-up and a high sense of responsibility. We had good, smart people. I just blew it.
Man I hate the fact he owns up to it. It isn't as much fun throwing darts at his picture now.