T Minus 7 and Counting

I've been away from the blog for a few days. My parents were in town and I had a big project due at work, and it's good to have a few minutes to pontificate.

First, the Tribe looked like they were a pretty good team in beating Texas three out of four. They got some timely hitting and pitched just well enough to beat a bad team. Of course, the series was not without drama:

• 6 to Make 3: Friday night, JoeBo had to get 6 outs instead of the customary 3 in the 9th inning as his infield kicked the ball around like the Columbus Crew to make a 3-0 lead going into the inning stand up for a 3-2 victory.
• How is Cliff Lee like Three Mile Island? They both appear prone to potentially dangerous meltdowns. Saturday night, Lee spotted the Rangers to a 5-0 lead in the first, hit Sammy Sosa in the helmet with a pitch, and was caught on camera jawing with Victor Martinez between inning. These are all indications of a bad, bad night. The Indians went on to lose this game and then hold a players only meeting after the game. Yikes. Players only meetings are usually a very bad sign.
• Where in the World is Aaron Laffey? After Lee's meltdown, Aaron Laffey was pulled from a game on Sunday after just 50 pitches, with much speculation that he was going to then come to Cleveland and pitch on short rest , probably in Lee's spot. He apparently cleaned out his locker and the rumors started flying. He's coming to Cleveland. He's getting traded. He's not coming to Cleveland. He's going to Disneyworld. Lee is gone. Lee is still with the team. At this point, Laffey is still with the Bison, Lee is still with the Indians.
• Even a blind squirrel occasionally finds an acorn: Trot Nixon actually made a couple valuable clutch contributions for the team during the Rangers series. Seriously. He got a couple big hits. The bad news is that this actually led to the amazing scene in last night's game where Trot Nixon pinch-hit in the 9th for Franklin Gutierrez.
• Kenny Lofton v. 3.0? Speculation continues to whirl around Kenny Lofton's second potential return to Cleveland. I'm not necessarily against or for this one. I think it would be an interesting move that might bring some people nostalgic for the good old days of the 90s back to the ballpark, and he's certainly a better lefthanded platoon candidate that the Trotster. It would depend on the price. It would have to be pretty low. We got to watch Kenny for a couple games, and he looked pretty good, when we weren't plunking him at the plate.

Last night's game? Well, let's just chalk it up to the baseball gods favoring the good news feel good story of Jon Lester and leave it there, shall we? Westbrook had his traditional one bad inning. The baseball gods made a series of batters who should know better get themselves out in the 4th inning when the Indians had the bases loaded. Jon Lester, lymphoma survivor, gets the win in front of his parents after a long struggle with disease. The Indians would have looked like cads had they beat him like a rented mule. The good news is that we're only 2 back of Detroit still. The bad news is that we still have 3 more with Boston and then a series with the Twins.

So, it's T minus 7 until the trade deadline. The trade deadline always seems to bring out the loonies and conspiracy theorists (hence, the Aaron Laffey Affair). Most people have unrealistic expectations of how trades really work, particularly the balancing of prospects, contracts and salaries. I have a coworker who believes that the Indians need a third baseman and so they should just trade for Miguel Cabrera - that would solve all their problems. Like it would be just that easy. When I try to explain the nuances of making trades and why this would be pretty much unfeasible, he pretty much refuses to accept any of my arguments.

It's hard to argue with people who refuse to see reason. Unfortunately, many of those people who refuse to see reason somehow end up as general managers of baseball teams (yes, I'm talking about you, Dave Littlefield - Victor Martinez for Mike Gonzalez? What planet are you from, dude?). Either they are extremely protective of their prospects (despite the fact that only a few will eventually pan out) because they don't want to make another Larry Anderson for Jeff Bagwell or Doyle Alexander for John Smoltz trade and get reamed by their fans for trading a potential Hall of Famer - or, they pull a Jim Bowden and overvalue their pending free agents by asking the moon and the stars for them (see Soriano, Alfonso) and end up getting nothing.

So, there are very few sellers and many buyers, and the bidding for the main prizes is intense. It looks like this year's main prizes are Octavio Dotel and, potentially, Mark Teixeira. The rumors are flying. It looks like the Royals want Gutierrez in any trade for Dotel while the Indians are offering Francisco. There's very little incentive for the Royals to trade within the division without extracting a premium, and it's highly likely that any team with back-end bullpen arms will be playing Cleveland against Detroit, and possibly New York, who may now be a buyer after all after their hot streak finds them within striking distance of the Red Sox.

What I think we can count on is that Shapiro, unlike his predecessor, will not make a stupid trade just to make a trade at the deadline. And that's about all we can ask. Would it be nice to pick up a left-handed outfielder so Trot can ride the bench more and have more time for piemaking? Sure. Would it be nice to have another impact arm in the pen? Absolutely. Could we get help for the pen from withinn the organization? Maybe. Jensen Lewis has looked pretty good in his last couple outings. Maybe Aaron Laffey is ready. Maybe Eddie Mujica will find what he had last year. Maybe Ferdinand Cabrera can turn it around.

A team on a title run has to have some things like that happen along the way, but I'm not sure I want to count on any of these things. We've already been fortunate with Carmona, and the resurgence of Casey Blake, and the phenomenal play of Kelly Shoppach at times. The Tribe is contending despite getting mediocre pitching from 2 of its starters. You can only count on so much good fortune. Now is the time that Mark Shapiro needs to go out and make some more good fortune for this team.