Yanks trade Tewksbury for Tribe's Franco

[bernieh]

CLEVELAND --- The Cleveland Indians today announced the first trade of the 1986: Take Two season, sending shortstop Julio Franco to the New York Yankees in exchange for righthanded starting pitcher Bob Tewksbury.

The move is seen as one that greatly helps both ballclubs - the Yankees have been in need of a reliable shortstop since the days of Bucky Dent, and seemingly have enough starting pitching options to part with Tewksbury. Cleveland has been plagued by inconsistent pitching the past few seasons, and Cleveland hopes Tewksbury will provide some stability.

Cleveland manager Paul Cousineau told reporters the trade fills Cleveland's biggest priority-pitching, and even though Tewksbury's role will be as a starter, Cousineau believes that Tewksbury's acquisition will actually help the entire pitching staff. "Tewksbury's addition will allow the rotation to slot down a spot," Cousineau explained, "and will allow the Indians to avoid using Neal Heaton in the rotation, as he (Heaton) will be moved to the long-man role."

Indians management apparently felt Franco was expendable, given the large pitching need. However, critics were quick to point out that the only viable shortstop remaining on the Indians roster is RF Cory Snyder, who will now take a 4e44 rating into the infield, which will put a lot of pressure on second baseman Tony Bernazard.

Julio Franco was entering his fourth season as the Indians shortstop, and in 160 games last season hit .288 with 97 runs and 90 RBI's. Franco was originally signed as an undrafted free agent by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1978, and was part of the five player Phillies package sent to the Indians in 1982 for Von Hayes.

Bob Tewksbury was selected by the Yankees in the 1981 amateur draft (19th round), and started the 1986 season in New York's rotation after climbing through the Yankees minor league system the past few years.

Both players will be in uniform for games with their new teams on Friday night - Tewksbury will join the Indians in Cleveland against the Detroit Tigers and Franco will be in the starting lineup at Yankee Stadium when New York takes on the Milwaukee Brewers.

[chazhain]

Unless you're intentional trying to recreate a 100-loss season for the much maligned Indians, this is the worst trade imaginable. I hope you realize that the game engine checks the shortstop's defense twice as much as any other player. So if you stick Cory Snyder in there on an everyday basis, he's going to set a record for errors. You'd better ask the strat masters if you can bring up Jay Bell from the minors .. otherwise it's all over. And all you got was Bob Tewksbury?!? You may know Indians baseball, but you don't know jack about strat...

[The Biomechanical Man]

This is a great trade for the Yankees and a terrible one for the Indians, for the reasons stated in the posts above. Unless the Indians make another move to bring in a shortstop with reasonable defense, the Indians will sink as fast as a wreck explored by Jacques Cousteau.

[chazhain]

How sad that the most remarkable thing that occurred in the game was a shortstop who didn't boot the ball... The great grandson of John Gochnaur (current holder of the AL seasonal errors record at 98) will be touring the country in his Winnebago following Snyder and heckling him into the record books.

[jtsmorrow]

Julio is the man!

Already a seasoned veteran in 1986 and still going strong today.