The Astros traded left-handed pitcher Jeriome Robertson yesterday to the Cleveland Indians for two minor league outfielders. Although Robertson was in the starting rotation for the Astros last season, he was expendable this season because of the Astros’ off-season acquisition of Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte, and the re-emergence of Carlos Hernandez, who was injured last season, but is a better prospect than Robertson.
The Chronicle article on this deal is a good example of the poor reporting that the mainstream media provides on professional sports in general. Essentially, the Chronicle took the Astros’ press release on the trade, rearranged a few words, and then published it as a story. Consequently, the story relates that the Astros’ extraordinary pitching depth gave them the opportunity to pick up two promising outfielders in exchange for a solid starter pitcher in Robertson who led the Astros’ staff last season with 15 wins.
Now, let’s talk reality. Robertson is a marginal talent who won 15 games last season mostly because the Astros happened to score an above-average amount of runs in the games he pitched. His real pitching statistics were well below average for a National League starting pitcher. Here’s what the more objective Baseball Prospectus 2004 has to say about Robertson:

“Author of a 15-9 record despite allowing nearly 14 baserunners per nine innings, Robertson was rated the sixth-luckiest starter in the majors according to Michael Wolverton’s Support-Neutral W/L Report at BaseballProspectus.com, and such luch rarely lasts (new teammate Andy Pettitte was the luckiest–uh-oh). The Astros did not expect much more than an ambulatory fill-guy after shuttling in Robertson to replace the departed Shane Reynolds, and that’s really all they got. Though thought of as a groundball pitcher, his GB/FB rate of 1.16 ranked him a shade below the median NL starter. If he’s to keep his rotation spot as a finesse lefty, he’ll need to induce more dribblers to take advantage of Adam Everett and keep the ball as far away from centerfielder Biggio as possible.”

Baseball Prospectus is more optimistic on the 22 year old Willie Taveras, one of the minor leaguers that the Astros picked up in the deal:

“Speed on the bases, grace in the field, and patience at the plate, you could say Taveras has several things going for him. It’s enought to get him listed as the best prospect on Kinston [Cleveland’s minor league A team], but he was available in the Rule 5 draft. There, he was snagged by the Astros, where he might stick in their “Biggio’s Legs” roster spot.”

Luke Scott, the other minor leaguer involved in the deal, is a 25 year old who split time between Cleveland’s class A and AA teams last year. A 25 year old playing class A ball is not much of a prospect. In fact, Baseball Prospectus does not even list him as a prospect, which is not a good sign.
Accordingly, despite the Chronicle misleading report, this was not much of a deal. The upside on Taveras more than makes up for the nominal loss of Robertson. But don’t expect much from Robertson at Cleveland or from either of the minor leaguers at Houston, at least this season.