but here’s a blog from the an Indians Fan from January of this year:

Want to see him warm up?:

Strikes me as we got an OK AAA pitcher. For Carroll? I think we got robbed. We could REALLY use a solid utility guy right now. BUT with our minor league starters struggles and injuries, Smith might be the first one we call if we had an injury to a starter right now.

you guys get anything extra for Carroll’s bugeyes? That’s gotta be worth something….

Hey, guys … just visiting from LetsGoTribe. You may be interested to know (Redhawk in particular) that over on our side, some folks are annoyed that we gave up a young pitching prospect for merely a utility infielder.

I see both sides of it. On the one hand, we’ve had a number of meh utility infielders over the last few years, and Carroll so far looks like a solid notch above those bozos—I think we need to be a little careful not to under-value a player like him who effortlessly fills holes as they arise, wherever they arise. On the other hand … yeah, it is just a utility player.

As for Smith, on the one hand, he’s a soft-tossing Triple-A guy, weak K rates and couldn’t crack our 40-man roster. On the other hand, our 40-man roster is really overstuffed and includes nine other starting pitchers already—Smith was behind Sowers and Laffey on the depth chart, but on most teams that would make him the #6 starter, just not on the Indians. He isn’t necessarily that much lesser of a pitcher.

The bottom line for me is that he put together a pretty good full season in Triple-A at age 23, which makes him sort of inherently a decent prospect, a potentially useful guy. Don’t be fooled by the 16th round pedigree, either - Smith was a draft-and-follow guy and got a $1 million bonus - serious money in 2002. Smith also has never been on a 40-man roster, and you may get through 2008 without using up an option on him. That means he may not be out of options until 2012, and that flexibility is valuable, too.

All in all, it looks like a fairly even deal, and if both sides have a few fans who are annoyed by it, that probably just means it was a good deal.