Archive for December, 2010

On behalf of Deep Left Field, I’d like to wish you all a Happy Festivus! More information on Festivus can be found here, but it’s basically a holiday that gets away from the commercialism and consumerism of Christmas. It was made famous by the show Seinfeld, as George’s father celebrated the holiday. One of the tenants of Festivus is the airing of grievances, where you tell someone how they wronged you in the past year or however long it’s been since you last saw them. I thought it’d be a good idea to air my grievances against the Indians, and [...]

Before I get started here, I need to touch on a couple of things: First, I’d like to welcome Amanda Hevener to the staff here at Deep Left Field! Her first post went up last Wednesday, and I encourage everyone to take a look at it and show her some love in the comments. I am excited to add another member to the team and look forward to hearing her opinions. Again, welcome Amanda! Also, as everyone knows by now, the Indians lost the best player in their history last Wednesday night. He was more than just a pitcher, he [...]

Bob Feller once told me how much he loved Indians links. Wait, no, I never met him. And I’m not sure he would have known what a link is. But he would have been honored after reading some of the pieces written about him since he passed. Here are a few of them, as well as some other links. As always, this is what the Internet is saying about your Cleveland Indians: We’ll lead off with a little Castrovince, as he checks in over at Castroturf, and shares his memories of returning to Feller’s roots with Feller. I miss reading [...]

Yeah, you read that right. The Indians have been scouting former Tribe ace Bartolo Colon, who is attempting to make a comeback in the big leagues. While Colon hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since 2009, with the White Sox, he has been pitching well in the Dominican League. He has a 1.54 ERA for Aguilas. That’s pretty good, but then again it is the Dominican League, so let’s not put too much stock into it. Colon, who is 37, would almost assuredly get nothing more than a minor league deal with an invite to spring training, if signed by [...]

Finally, some action! If you actually owned an Austin Kearns Indians jersey, don’t re-gift that sucker quite yet, as the Indians have signed Kearns to a one-year major league contract for $1.3 million, plus incentives. The Indians signed Kearns to a minor league contract last offseason, and got quite a bit of bang for their buck. Kearns hit 8 home runs with a .354 OBP, playing mostly part time in left field before he was traded to the New York Yankees in July. The Indians received RHP Zach McAllster in exchange for Kearns, who put up s0-so numbers in Triple-A, [...]

Bob Feller, the legendary Cleveland Indians pitcher from the great teams of the late 1940′s and early 1950′s, passed away yesterday from complications of leukemia. He was 92 years old, and in a city, and franchise, that has been reeling from setbacks, the loss of the ambassador for the Cleveland Indians is a big one. I’m 27 years old. I never saw Feller pitch. I never met the guy, but I know of him through stories and tales. His confidence. His legendary fastball. How he left baseball to enlist in the military during World War II, sacrificing years of his [...]

Remember back when the Indians were in the middle of all of those consecutive sell-outs and everyone whined about how they couldn’t get tickets? Well, times have changed: the team is young and undeveloped, and there are plenty of seats available at Progressive Field. And that’s exactly why you should buy tickets — anything can happen. After all, this is Cleveland.   What if the team goes on a hot streak and has a shot at the play offs? You’ll regret not buying those tickets back in December when they were available at non-reseller prices. Clevelanders go see football games [...]

While the Indians knew there was a good chance they could lose a player in Thursday’s Rule 5 draft, I doubt they expected to lose two with the first two picks. The Pirates selected infielder Josh Rodriguez with the first pick and then the Mariners followed by selecting RHP Jose Flores. The Indians received $50,000 for each player, and the players must remain on the big league roster of their respective teams or be offered back to the Indians for half the price. Rodriguez is a 26-year-old versatile middle infielder who also has experience at third base and in the [...]

The winter meetings have started in Florida, and to no one’s surprise, the Indians are not expected to make any major moves. However the Indians will still be represented at the meetings, and I thought I’d come up with a list of things Indians GM Chris Antonetti can do to keep himself entertained. Write a “Thank You” note to the Pirates for signing Andy Marte. Because now he’s for sure never coming back to the Indians, and I’ll no longer have a reason to write about him. Kick the tires on some of the stopgap third basemen out there. Oh, [...]

A bit of minor news today as the Indians have signed Joe Smith to a one-year contract worth $870,000 to avoid arbitration. The move doesn’t come as a surprise; the Indians hate arbitration (especially with a reliever like Smith), and Smitty is expected to be a key piece of the bullpen going into next year (shudder). The Indians also apparently haven’t given up on Jensen Lewis either. Lewis had an up and down season (almost literally, he was sent down to and called up from Columbus four times), and became eligible for arbitration as a Super Two player (granting him [...]