I know why you're here. Well, at least I'm assuming you are here for that. If you are here for something else, I can't help you.

Because you know this is all about the Shin-Soo Choo Trade. I'm even capitalizing the word trade so that you understand that this is an event. Ubaldo Trade, CC Trade, Cliff Lee Trade. It will even get it's own tag.

There's a lot of moving parts here, so try and stick with me because there's some chain-reaction type things involved from each player and how this deal went down, so I will try and be coherent.

[WHO'S LEAVING?]

I think the best place to start is what the Indians gave up. When all is said and done they sent Choo to Cincinnati, who is the main guy in this whole thing. They also dealt spare parts of Jason Donald, Tony Sipp, and Lars Anderson.

I'll start with the spare parts, because that's all they are.

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Chris Antonetti was well aware of the situation with Shin-Soo Choo. If kept, the Indians would lose Choo at the end of the 2013 season, possibly netting just a compensation draft pick for offering him a contract that he would undoubtedly decline. The Scott Boras client wanted to play for a winner and would be advised by his agent to test the free agent waters and milk the team that signs him for every single cent.

Rather than try to trade Choo at the 2013 Trade Deadline or let him go to free agency, Antonetti maximized Choo’s value in a big way on Tuesday night. After falling short on the framework of an Asdrubal Cabrera trade at the Winter Meetings, Antonetti found a match for the Diamondbacks that filled their needs and filled a gaping hole on the Indians roster. With a glaring need for starting pitching, Antonetti parlayed one of his chief trading chips into a starter that the Indians can rely on for a long time.

In a three-team trade with the Cincinnati Reds and Arizona Diamondbacks, the Indians traded Shin-Soo Choo, Jason Donald to the Reds in exchange for outfielder Drew Stubbs and shortstop Didi Gregorius. Then, the Indians traded Gregorius, Tony Sipp, and Lars Anderson to the Diamondbacks in exchange for Trevor Bauer, Bryan Shaw, and Matt Albers. The net result of the trade for the Indians is that they get Trevor Bauer, Bryan Shaw, Matt Albers and Drew Stubbs for Shin-Soo Choo, Jason Donald, Tony Sipp, and Lars Anderson. The Indians will also send $3.5M to the Reds to account for the salary differences between Choo and Stubbs, according to FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal.

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I was sitting around Sunday night, minding my own business. I like to use Sunday's to get things in order and be lazy.

Like most of us do, of course. By the end of the day though, I'm preparing for the week mentally and organizing what I have to do. All the while, taking in whatever football happens to be on.

With a victory in hand after the day's games and Aaron Rodgers still having to put in his time for my playoff bound team, I was just hoping to reclaim my weekly high score having already watch Adrian Peterson, Jamal Charles, and Vincent Jackson go off.

I quickly lost care for that, because when the Indians make a move, everything else can take a backseat.

This offseason has been one where the Indians have been classified as "aggressive". They've already pulled off a trade to get a utility man in Mike Aviles, and really the guy that would take over for Asdrubal Cabrera if he were to be traded, which continues to be a very strong possibility with as much he could bring in.

And so far in free agency, although they haven't made a huge Marlins-type splash, they've been making strong offers. Shane Victorino, Kevin Youkilis, Nick Swisher, the team clearly is trying to be a player.

They've had their hand in the discussion surrounding just about every available first baseman and corner outfielder available, and while we know Victorino, Jason Bay, and James Lonely will not be signings, we know the Indians tried to make them be.

The latest, before the activity on Sunday night was that the Indians were simply just waiting on Kevin Youkilis and Nick Swisher to decide what was up.

I guess for the Indians, waiting for Youkilis was just something they had no interest in doing.

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True confessions time…I did not anticipate posting a Lazy Sunday today. Without going into too much detail, I’m in the midst of the craziest travel month of my life, one that sees me waking up on this Lazy Sunday from the (almost) Highlands of Scotland, in beautiful Stirling. If that city name sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the site of the famous (or infamous if you’re English, I suppose) Stirling Bridge, the site of William Wallace’s first major victory over English forces in his war for Scottish independence. It was portrayed (inaccurately of course) in the movie Braveheart, in which they somehow omitted the bridge entirely, but that’s a story for another day. Anyway, with an insane international travel schedule that will have me in every corner of her Majesty’s United Kingdom for a week and a half, I didn’t really think I’d have a chance to put up an article this week. And with the Winter Meetings full of sound and fury but ultimatley signifying nothing, there wasn't a whole lot of real, actual Tribe news this week. No, I don't count being "linked" to specific free agents actual news. But we were all bailed out by a brilliant idea from esteemed colleague Adam Van Arsdale, formerly of LetsGoTribe.com.

 

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