Bye, Byrdie

One of my favorite Indians got traded yesterday, basically for nothing. And I'm glad.

Paul Byrd is the only modern major leaguer who still throws his hands back before his windup, which sort of makes him the Mark Moseley of pitching. And he's a nice guy who cracks a lot of jokes. I think I'd enjoy having a beer with him. But his contract was up at the end of the year, and as Mark Shapiro said, trading him provides the Indians with some "payroll relief" -- $2 million worth. If you can avoid paying $2 million for a pitcher who's not signed for next year when your team is out of playoff contention, why shouldn't you do it?

I know it seems like they could have gotten a decent prospect for Byrd, but I'm pretty sure if there had been a better deal out there, Shapiro would have taken it. And it does suck that he went to the Red Sox. He was the last pitcher to beat the Red Sox in 2007, but we all know what happened after that. I've come to think of the Red Sox as the "other Yankees," just because it seems inevitable every year that at least one of those teams will make the playoffs. And the Red Sox are probably going to do it again this year, as they're in the lead for the AL Wild Card, and they're better than the White Sox or Twins. (Thank the stars, the Yankees probably won't get in, though I'll feel a lot better when they're actually eliminated.)

But in addition to the $2 million, this will also give some of the younger guys a chance to pitch to major leaguers this year, and that has value too. Keeping Byrd might have meant the Indians would finish 76-86 this year instead of 74-88, but letting him go might mean they'll go 91-71 instead of 89-73 next year. Yes, I plucked those numbers out of the air, but that's a reasonable guess. There's a lot of talent in this Cleveland Indians organization.

And remember, they won the World Series just 60 years ago.