This guy here is dead.
This is not the time to begin a total rebuild. For one thing, what would the Indians rebuild with? The building blocks should have come from the trades of Cy Young winners CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee. Those two deals have brought a center fielder in Michael Brantley and a backup catcher in Lou Marson. Carlos Carrasco figures to join the rotation next year following his recovery from Tommy John surgery, but no one sees him as a front of the rotation starter. Utility man Jason Donald replaced Hafner on the roster Thursday, but if the Indians thought so highly of him, why did they go out and trade for Brent Lillibridge?
As for Matt LaPorta, who has spent all but a minute or two of this season at Class AAA Columbus, it’s hard to believe he’s going to be in the organization next year. He may get a call between now and the end of the season, but if the same people stay in charge, it’s hard to see him playing an important role in the future of the Tribe.
The core of the team is thin: Brantley, Asdrubal Cabrera, Carlos Santana, Jason Kipnis, Justin Masterson, Ubaldo Jimenez, Zach McAllister, Vinnie Pestano and Chris Perez. Shin-Soo Choo has the talent to be part of it, but he’ll be a free agent after the 2013 season and has rebuffed the Indians’ repeated attempts to sign him to an extension. If the Indians want to bring new talent into the organization, trading Choo would be a good start before he escapes.
Choo doesn’t have the market value of a Cy Young winner, but it’s interesting that he was recently dropped from his highly productive role in the leadoff spot to the No. 3 spot. Is his RBI ability being showcased?
Reader Comments and Retorts
Go to end of page
Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.
1. Dock Ellis on AcidThis team isn't going to be a serious contender before 2015-6 at the absolute earliest. There's no pitching, there's no left fielder, there's no first baseman, and there's no money forthcoming to go get any of those things. Unless Shapiro can teach Antonetti the Jedi mind tricks he used to get opposing GMs to give him Sizemore, Hafner, Cabrera, Choo, and Santana, the only way the Indians contend is if they draft a contender.
And given the Indians' recent draft history, I wouldn't hold my breath.
Only the first one is a real problem. As is, they're an above-average offense. And MLB abounds with guys other orgs gave up on and had nice runs -- Pena, Encarnacion, Bautista, anybody on the A's, Morse, Melky, Gaby Sanchez, Ludwick, LaHair -- and they just need to find the next one of those. Why they weren't in on Sanchez or, earlier, Youk is an interesting question. They can certainly build a good offense here.
But yeah the piteching is a mess and there's no cheap way to fix a starting rotation. They desperately need a Jimenez bounceback and for Zach McAllister to be for real (peripherals look solid) and then they've got to find a cheap league-average guy or two. Who's the current Jon Garland?
Sign Johnny Damon.
I don't know the point at which it becomes an organizational blind spot instead of a weird string of coincidences, but if we're not there yet, we're sure as heck getting there.
Hmmm, I had no idea the Jake was such a pitchers park. I had no idea the Twins offense is on fire -- Trevor Plouffe is carrying a 130 OPS+, Ryan Doumit is at 125 and Justin Morneau has bounced back to solid.
This, along with hoping that the real Masterson is the 2011 version not the 2012 version. I'm not holding my breath, but the Indians certainly have the potential to get close to 90 wins next year (we said contending, not making the playoffs), and it would really help if their cheap veteran hey-we-used-to-be-good! pickups were even mediocre instead of 2012 Damon/Lowe.
In other words: They have to be pretty much perfect with their scouting and coaching. The joys of small market baseball!
Yeah, very good question. Especially since they've established they had a player the Red Sox preferred to Lillibridge.
They were in on Youkilis. Supposedly it would have cost them Tomlin, which is a great move in retrospect, but for a team that needed pitching more than hitting, probably understandable. And at the time they had Chisenhall up and hitting pretty well.
Morneau has actually been better than solid against RHP - .309/.379/.568, basically the same hitter he's always been. But he hasn't done a thing against LHP - .215/.259/.308. He's always had significant splits, but not quite to this level.
Josh Willingham also has a 150 OPS+!
You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.
<< Back to main