Checking Back In

The latest dishes cooking on the Hot Stove:

• Casey Blake, Super Utility Mountain Man (SUMM), has reached agreement with the Indians on a $6.15 million contract before arbitration. Management keeps repeating that Blake will be the starter at third, while Ande Marte, out of options, will likely moulder on the bench, getting spot starts and likely not getting anything going. Blake's a good guy to have around because of his versatility, but I remain unchanged in the opinion that the Tribe needs to either play Marte or trade him. Free Andy Marte!
• The Indians apparently no longer have Johan Santana to treat as their personal rented mule. While last year's domination of Santana was enjoyable, I suspect it was also a statistical anomaly, and I'm glad to find that the Twins dealt him to the National League and not to the FEDBU, or the FEDBU-lite. Although it would have been nice to watch either of those teams empty their farm system for Santana, I'm fully aware that this has a big impact on the Indians for 2008. Santana might win 25 games while pitching in AAAA for the Mets. It was also extremely smart of the Twins to extend Justin Morneau and Michael Cuddyer before announcing the Santana trade, if only to placate their fans that they're not completely blowing up the team. How long till the Twins sell high on Joe Nathan?
• The Santana extension has still not happened for the Mets, so CC's price remains unfixed. However, it appears that both CC and Mark Shapiro are saying the right things and keeping negotiations out of the media - in other words, everyone's acting like a grown up so far. Gotta love that about this organization.
• Jorge Julio has been extended an NRI (non-roster invitation) to attend spring training with the Indians. If they can get him to throw quality strikes, and has a great spring, it's a good move - he has closing experience,and he still throws heat.
• Since my last post, the Tribe has also extended Senor Slow. Another fine move to lock up the best of the people you have by Tribe leadership.
• Indians lose Brian Barton (no surprise) and Matt Whitney (big surprise) to Rule 5. I have to believe that Whitney will be back, given the glut at first base of the Nationals. Barton - it would have been nice to have been able to keep Barton, but I find no fault with the guys they did protect instead. It's nice to have so much talent at the upper end of the sytem that you can't protect it all.

I went to the Indians Press Caravan in Columbus last week. It was a zoo. There must have been several hundred people milling about the ballroom at the Columbus Easton Hilton. Some notes from that event:

• It was amusing to see women lined up two deep with cameras to take Grady Sizemore's picture while he talked with the sports talkers from WBNS-AM.
• Tom Hamilton does not believe the Tigers have the pitching to win the AL Central. Neither do I.
• Eric Wedge believes we should just relax in the 9th inning when Joe Knows Closing is on the mound, because it is out of our hands and in the hands of the baseball gods.
• The line for Grady Sizemore's autograph was significantly longer than the line for Scott Lewis' or Jensen Lewis'.
• Eric Wedge radiates confidence and again repeated what we've been hearing from Mark Shapiro about other teams wanting major leaguers on the current roster in trades, rather than prospects, and Wedge was extremely reluctant to give up on anyone on this team.
• According to Wedge, Barfield is almost certain to start the season at Buffalo, specifically to work on his hitting. It seems that The Beaded One is the second baseman next year, period, unless Josh Barfield works some kind of miracle and Cabrera fails to hit.
• When asked about left field, Wedge expressed significant confidence in the Dellucci-Michaels platoon.

In other news:

• Troy Glaus for Scott Rolen? It's hard to believe that the reputations of both of these players have diminished to the point that this deal provokes a yawn on my part.
• Nick Swisher to the Sox - Shapiro is taking a lot of heat on the fan boards for not going hard after Swisher, but it seems to me like Swisher was not available until the White Sox made the A's an offer they couldn't refuse. The White Sox continue to baffle me - they should be blowing this team up and rebuilding, yet they're selling low on their best prospects. It's okay with me if they want to continue to be a 70-win team, but I imagine all 12 Sox fans are puzzlecd by the way their front office is handling this team. Yeah, they're making moves, but it seems like they're making moves just to make moves.
• If the Erik Bedard deal with the O's falls through because Peter Angelos is clueless, then the Tribe should explore trading Sabathia to the M's for a similar package if it seems that CC and management have an unbridgeable negotiating gulf. Adam Jones would look fantastic in left field. Could you imagine an outfield of Adam Jones, Grady Sizemore and Frank the Tank?
• Now that Santana is off the board, it will be interesting to see how the pitching market shapes up for the remaning free agents (Lohse, Livan Hernandez, etc.). Cliff Lee, anyone?
• I have suggested on at least one other forum that, now that the A's are blowing things up, the Indians should make a push for Eric Chavez and Huston Street, with a package built around Marte, and some excess pitching. The A's would have the luxury of playing Marte every day, and the Indians could use a more reliable (albeit injury prone) closer. Blake could back up Chavez when (not if) he gets hurt. Sure, it would be expensive, but it could also help put the Tribe over the top. Chavez is a vacuum cleaner at third, and we have more than our fair share of groundball pitchers.
• The Super Bowl - Yawn.
• Yanks sign Ensberg - do the Yanks really need any more expensive reclamation projects? I guess that's why they're the FEDBU - they can afford to throw bucnhes of guys like Ensberg against the wall in the hopes that one of them will stick, unlike the Indians, who have to be right on every time.
• I'd love to believe Roger Clemens. I just can't. He can trot out as many statistics as he wants, but now he's more than a headhunting punk - he's a headhunting punk on PEDs.
• Mike Hampton is healthy? Heard that before. If you believe that, you'll buy this watch.

Santana, Schmantana

The Cleveland Indians once again made Johan Santana their personal rented mule, this time by beating him savagely during a 4-run first inning and then hanging on for a 4-3 victory.

The Indians came out swinging. Sizemore singled, and then Asbrdrubal "Pearl" Cabrera, making his first start at shortstop in place of Jhonny Peralta, smashed one off the railing in left field to stake the Indians to a 2-0 lead. After a Hafner groundout, Victor Martinez hit one into the left field bleachers for a 3-0 lead. After Garko was retired, Gutierrez doubled, followed by a Lofton single for a 4-0 lead. That turned out to be all the offense the Tribe would need.

Sabathia clearly did not have his best stuff, but he had enough to give the team 6 full innings, and he left with a 4-2 lead. Jensen Lewis made an impressive 1-2-3 appearance in the 7th, and Betancourt gave up a run in the 8th after giving up a triple down the right field line that Gutierrez almost caught.

Joe Knows Closing came on for yet another tension-filled ninth. After giving up a leadoff single to the pestky Jason Tyner, he got the next batter to pop a bunt foul high enough that Victor Martinez could dive under it for the first out. The next batter smashed one right to Ryan Garko, who stepped on first and threw it to second, where Pearl tagged the runner to complete the unusual 3-6 double play to end the game.

Mojo Watch
Cleveland Indians:

This team right now has Full Elvis after sweeping the Twins, winning 9 of their last 11 and beating Santana for the fourth time this season. To put that last into perspective, no team had ever beaten Santana more than twice in a season until this year's Cleveland Indians. This puts the Indians 4.5 games over the Motor City Kitties, who lost again to the Royals, and 8.5 games over the Twinkies.

The Mariners come in tonight for a makeup snow date. Aaron Laffey vs. Horatio Ramirez. The Mariners have lost 5 straight, including a thorough beatdown at home from the Angels of Somewhere in Southern California in their most recent series.