Tuesday, November 27, 2007

The Hot Stove So Far

The offseason so far:
  • Indians sign Japanese reliever Masahide Kobayashi. The price was right ($6 million for 2 years with a club option for a third). If it works, great. If it doesn't, we haven't lost much money.
  • Indians pick up options for Byrd, Fultz, Borowski. Again, the price was right.
  • Eric Wedge - manager of the year. Well-deserved
  • Grady Sizemore wins Gold Glove. Good thing they don't parse the outfield awards by position. He's good, but Torii Hunter wins a centerfield GG.
  • Mark Shapiro, Executive of the Year. Also well-deserved.
  • Juan Lara injured in car accident. Extremely sad. How fast must that motorcycle have been going. Best wishes for recovery, Juan.
  • Indians protect Adam Miller, Reid Santos, Wyatt Torregas, Scott Lewis and Tony Sipp from Rule 5 draft by placing them on 40-man roster. No surprises here.
  • White Sox overpay reliever Scott Linebrink and trade Jon Garland for Orlando Cabrera. Seriously, how does Kenny Williams keep his job? These are awful moves. However, as long as the White Sox are under the delusion that they don't have to blow the team up and rebuild, they're likely to post 7o win seasons, and that's fine with me.
  • Detroit Tigers send good young pitching to Atlanta for Edgar Renteria. Sure, this allows them to move Carlos Guillen to first base where he won't be hurting the team (or himself, for that matter) defensively, they're going to miss that good young pitching sooner than they think. Kenny Rogers might not be back and Zumaya is already out. I'm not saying the Tigers are old, but the new team motto is "Hey, you, get off our lawn!"
  • A-Rod resigns with Yankees. Yawn.
  • Lowell resigns with Red Sox. Yawn
  • Francisco Cordero signs with Reds. Great, now they're poised to make a run at fourth in the NL Central. Who pitches the 6th, 7th and 8th?
  • Kerry Wood resigns with Cubs. Yawn.
  • Brewers sign Jason Kendall after trading Jonny Estrada for Guillermo Mota. Estrada must really have been awful for a team to be excited about putting Kendall behind the plate. He's a shadow of his former self. Good think he's back playing in AAAA ball.
  • Phillies acquire Brad Lidge and Eric Bruntlett for Michael Bourne and a couple prospects. I'm hard pressed to see how this makes Houston any better. I think they could have got more for Lidge if they'd held out a little longer.

In other sports:

  • Holy cow, the Browns are 7-4, and if their season ended today they'd make the playoffs. Someone check Hades for snow. I have to admit that I'm really surprised. The offensive line has gelled, Derek Anderson made the Great Leap Forward, and Jamal Lewis still has something left in the tank.
  • In what alternate universe does Anderson Verajao make $10 million/year? Now he wants traded. Who would give him the money he seeks. Sorry, Sideshow Bob. At least he gets to sit out the season in Brazil.
  • How 'bout them Blue Jackets? They might actually be playoff contenders this year. It's about time. If anyone had doubts that Ken Hitchcock is a miracle worker, this may put them to rest.

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Do the 40-Man Shuffle!

In Indians transaction news -

  • Options picked up for Byrd, Borowski and Fultz. These were all pretty much no-brainers. Borowski is cheap for a closer at $4 million, even if his saves induce stress. Fultz, at $1.5 million, can be jettisoned like Oldberto Hernandez if he tanks - it's a good bullpen depth option for the Tribe, especially if he reverts to his form at the beginning of last season, when he was actually pretty good. Byrd - well, despite the HGH stuff, a #4 pitcher at $7.5 million is a bargain for a team like the Tribe.
  • So long Luis Rivas and Matt Miller. Miller was released. Rivas was outrighted to Buffalo. Rivas opted for free agency. Mike Koplove was outrighted to Buffalo as well and taken off the 40-man roster.
  • The Trotster, K-Love and Chris Gomez have filed for free agency. It is highly unlikely the Tribe will offer arbitration to any of them.

So, all this leaves the 40-man roster at 34 players. Everyone is paring their rosters to prepare for the upcoming Rule 5 minor league draft.

According to Tony Lastoria, here are the guys who are currently eligible for the draft on December 6, 2007:

  • Barton, Brian D
  • Bunkelman, Cody R
  • Burton, TJ J
  • Butia, Mike W
  • Buzachero, Bubbie D
  • Camacaro, Armando J
  • Cevette, Dan E
  • Constanza, Jose G
  • Cooper, Jason M
  • Cumberbatch, Cirilo E
  • De La Cruz, Christopher A
  • Finegan, Brian J
  • Gimenez, Chris P
  • Goleski, Ryan S
  • Haad, Yamid
  • Harris, Jeffrey A
  • Hoyman, Justin K
  • Larkin, Shaun M
  • Lewis, Scott E
  • Miller, Adam W
  • Mulhern, Ryan T
  • Newsom, Randy
  • Niesel, Christopher W
  • Nottingham, Shawn M
  • Panther, Nathan E
  • Perdomo, Luis M
  • Pesco, Nick J
  • Pinckney, Brandon M
  • Riera, Jorge
  • Roehl, Scott D
  • Romero, Niuman J
  • Rundles, Richard L
  • Santos, Reid G
  • Sipp, Tony M
  • Smith, Sean H
  • Southerland, Chip F
  • Tavarez, Argenis F
  • Toregas, Wyatt R
  • Valdes, Juan M
  • Valdez, Luis C
  • Wallace, David H
  • Whitney, Matthew J

Protecting Adam Miller, Tony Sipp and Scott Lewis is pretty much a given. Most likely Brian Barton gets 40-man status as well. That leaves two spots up in the air for the likes of Sean Smith, Toregas, Cumberbatch and Santos. Some team might take a chance of Whitney - guys with power potential don't grow on trees, but most likely his injury history will scare most teams off. Goleski is pretty much blocked, and I don't think the Indians would mind if another team took him off their hands. Another team might also take a chance on a career minor leaguer like Jason Cooper for outfield depth. Overall, it is highly unlikely that the Indians will lose someone that they are seriously counting on for the future in this year's draft.

Friday, November 2, 2007

Now What?

I've taken a few days to get the season out of my system. I've moved past denial into acceptance, and I'm ready for Hot Stove.

Here are the issues that the Tribe needs to face during the offseason, as I see them, in no particular order:

  • Pronk's Mojo - Pronk's Mojo must be found. First priority. It's out there, people - keep looking!
  • Who's on Third? - Andy Marte is out of options. It's time to fish or cut bait with Andy Marte. If Andy Marte can be a right handed power bat in the bottom of this order, that would be huge for the Tribe. That also frees Casey Blake to be Super Utility Grizzly(SUG), a role for which he is ideally suited.
  • Whither CC? - I suspect that negotiations on an extension for CC have already started. The only way CC is not on this roster at the end of the 2008 season is if the Indians are 20 games out at the All-Star break. I don't see that happening. I think 2007 has only made this team hungrier for 2008 and the Tribe's best shot to win it all is with CC on the mound, despite his poor post-season performances. CC appears to be one who is very capable of learning and growing from his mistakes. Chalk up the 2007 postseason for CC as a learning experience.
  • How Do You Solve a Problem Like the Byrdman? - Three weeks ago, picking up Paul Byrd's option was a drop dead no-brainer. At $8 million for a veteran #4 starter, Byrd is cheap in today's baseball economy. Then came the HGH controversy. Without getting into any conspiracy theories about the allegation's timing, it is fortuitous for the Indians that this came out before the Tribe was required to notify Byrd whether they were going to pick up his option, as the team can fully assess the ramifications before saying "yes." I think they pick up his option and slot him at #4. The free agent market for pitching is pretty thin, and Byrd's clubhouse presence cannot be ignored.
  • Who's the #5 Starter? - It's going to be a fun battle this spring to see who is the number 5 guy. Aaron Laffey is a left-handed ground ball specialist. Can lefty Cliff Lee get his pitching and attitude together and flash back to 2004 form? Is "Atom" Miller ready? Was Jeremy Sowers a flash in the pan with his Jamie Moyer like junkballing? Do you trade one or any of these guys for offseason help? If Adam Miller is ready, then I think you have to add his power arm to this rotation, with Aaron Laffey as a swing guy out of the pen. Is there a team out there who would be willing to take a chance on Cliff Lee in return for a prospect or two? I think Shapiro has to explore that option in the offseason. I think we've seen the last of Lee in Tribewear.
  • Who Closes? - Gotta be Joe Knows Closing. His option is cheap, and unless Shapiro does something radical like bring in Mariano Rivera, we're in for more tightrope walking in the 9th next season. Senor Slow will continue to be the high leverage guy in the late innings.
  • Crowded House in the Outfield - No, not the Finn boys from Kiwi land, but the logjam of bodies in the outfield. We know K-Love will be gone. Gutierrez appears to have solved the right field problem, so that pretty much leaves Jason Michaels, David Dellucci, Ben Francisco and Shin Soo Choo fighting it out for playing time in left field. Can the platoon of Michaels and Dellucci perform next year as advertised? Choo is out of options. Neither one has anything left to prove at AAA. Do we see them carry 5 outfielders, with Choo/Gutierrez platooning in right and Dellucci/Michaels platooning in left. If so, then it limits the team as to bench help in the infield. Look for Shapiro to try to move either Francisco or Choo in the offseason, perhaps packaged with a pitcher (Lee or Sowers?), either for prospects or a talented corner outfield bat.
  • How Do You Solve a Problem Like Josh Barfield? - The causes for the complete nosedive of Josh Barfield in 2007 are totally mysterious. Sophomore slump? League change? Did he lose some lucky object in his move to Cleveland? Is he under some kind of voodoo curse? At any rate, it looks like he and Cabrera will go into Spring Training fighting it out for the second base job, and it looks every bit like this is Cabrera's job to lose. Barfield probably starts the year at Buffalo to see if he can find anything resembling plate discipline. After this horrendous season, his trade value is at an all-time low, so he's not going anywhere.
  • Retire the Chief - It's time. In fact, it's way past time. As someone with a very small percentage of Native ancestry, I understand why it's offensive, and as a fan, it bothers me that people cannot root for my team because they find its symbol offensive. It's one thing to root against a team because you find the players (Albert Belle anyone?) or the city not to your liking. It's another when the mascot mocks and trivializes your ancestry and heritage. We could also change the name while we're at it so we don't have any more idiots showing up at the park in headdresses with their faces painted red. Man, that was embarrassing. Symbols matter. Get a fresh start, Tribe. Put Chief Wahoo in the rear view mirror.
  • Trades? - This team really doesn't have to do much in the offseason trade market. A power hitting corner outfielder for left field would be nice. Additional bullpen help is always a good idea if the price is right, as building a bullpen is a crapshoot every year (see Cabrera, Fernando or the 2006 Indians). If the past is any guideline, whatever Shapiro does will probably be something we don't see coming.