Brandon Phillips Trade Finalized

[swerb]

http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/plaindea ... thispage=3

Let's see, the Reds get a starting second baseman in Brandon Phillips and the Indians get a Class A right-hander in Jeff Stevens.

That's how the curtain fell on the Phillips trade Tuesday when the Indians picked Stevens off a list of Reds prospects. Stevens was 2-4 with a 4.43 ERA in six starts at Class A Dayton this year. He had 43 strikeouts in 42 2/3 innings.

He was the Reds' sixth-round pick last year and will report to Class A Lake County.

[pup]

Well, that worked out well. At least we have Ramon Vasquez and/or Lou Merloni!

[swerb]

It makes the Ricky Gutierrez signing look genius by comparison.

If nothing else, it's a wake up call for the Indians org. To this point in the Shapwedgro Regime, each move the Indians made to ship out a questionable character guy had pretty much panned out.

They got burned here.

[pup]

The funny thing was Milton Bradley did have character issues. He was a pain in the ass. All Brandon Phillips wanted to do was play.

[pup]

The Reds just gave up a better prospect to the Twins to get Juan Freaking Castro than we got from them for Brandon Phillips.