Archive for November, 2011

One of the more interesting Indians-related stories to break last week was the news that Cincinnati Reds GM Walt Jocketty had talked to the Tribe about trading Yonder Alonso to Cleveland. We already know that Matt LaPorta is likely to lose his spot as the Indians’ starting first baseman, but with apologies to Shelley Duncan there isn’t a clear in-house alternative. Chris Antonetti said earlier this month that the front office had “some creative ideas” for upgrading the Tribe’s offense. A trade for Alonso would certainly fit the bill. There’s no doubt that Alonso’s long-term ceiling is higher than LaPorta’s [...]

That Matt LaPorta‘s job is in jeopardy is clear. MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian wrote last month that the Indians haven’t guaranteed their 2011 starting first baseman a roster spot for 2012, and the Plain Dealer‘s Terry Pluto doesn’t think LaPorta is cut out even for platoon work. Even non-Cleveland fans can see the writing on the wall: MLB Trade Rumors’ Mark Polishuk wrote that he wouldn’t be a “major obstacle” to the Tribe possibly trading for Yonder Alonso. And with just cause. LaPorta hit just .247 with 11 homers, 53 RBI, and a .711 OPS (93 wRC+) in 2011 while playing questionable defense [...]

The Cleveland Indians continued their already-busy offseason this weekend by dealing infielder Luis Valbuena to the Blue Jays for “cash considerations.” Seeing Valbuena moved wasn’t a surprise: his tenure with the Tribe effectively ended when he was designated for assignment last week to make room on the 40-man roster for prospects the team wanted to protect from the upcoming Rule 5 Draft. On the surface, Valbuena’s departure doesn’t appear to be much of a loss. In his 229-game MLB career (all but 18 games of which have come in Cleveland) he has an atrocious .226/.286/.344 triple-slash (66 wRC+) and -1.7 fWAR; over [...]

When the BBWAA released the results of its 2011 AL Rookie of the Year vote last week, a funny thing happened: not a single Cleveland Indians player got a vote. I didn’t expect a Tribe rookie to win, a surprising team whose rise was fueled by young players being completely snubbed seemed a little bit wrong. That’s why, in this edition of the Weekly Wroundtable, we ask: Who was your Indians Rookie of the Year? In addition to Ed Carroll and myself, Indians Prospect Insider‘s Andrew Zajac was kind enough to offer his thoughts on who the Tribe’s top gumshoe [...]

After a slump that lasted through June and July, the Indians looked more like the team that had stormed out of the gates to start the year in August. They also got a preview of what Jason Kipnis will provide to the lineup for years to come. Playing in just 11 games, Kipnis made his presenence felt with five home runs, 13 runs scored and had an OPS of 1.151 while showing flashes of defensive greatness at second base. The Indians were also helped by trade deadline acquisition Kosuke Fukudome and early season phenom Jack Hannahan. Hannahan, who isn’t known [...]

This week, the Cleveland Indians announced that they had re-signed Grady Sizemore to a one-year, $5 million million deal for 2012 (plus incentives that could push his salary to $9 million). It looks like a great move—if he ends up injured again the Indians could regret the deal, but the risk seems well worth the potential reward. It looks great from a subjective standpoint, too. Fan sentiment had largely turned against Sizemore by the end of the season—he’s no longer the face of the franchise and most Tribe fans agreed that picking up his $9 million option would have been [...]

Today—as I’m sure you know—is Thanksgiving, the only day of the year when all we have to do to rationalize completely pigging out at dinner is to spend a few minutes expressing gratitude for everything nice in our lives. What better time, then, for Cleveland Indians fans to think about why we’re lucky to have our team? Yes, it’s rough to be a fan in Northeast Ohio—that’s why our blogs have names like “Waiting for Next Year” and “Cleveland Sports Torture“—but our teams couldn’t break our hearts if we didn’t give them our hearts to begin with. Need some help [...]

Every once in awhile, my Cleveland cynicism erodes, and I realize once again just how much I love the sport of baseball, and in particular, Cleveland Indians baseball. For awhile there, that cynicism helped me to look at things objectively, which is why I supported the Indians’ decision to decline Grady Sizemore’s $9 million option. It made perfect sense to decline the option; Grady had averaged just 70 games a season from 2009 – 2011, so a small-market team couldn’t afford to hand him $9 million and hope it worked out. But underneath the hard shell, my heart hurt. I knew some [...]

When the Cleveland Indians declined his $9 million option for 2012, it looked as though Grady Sizemore‘s tenure with the Tribe was over. Turns out that wasn’t the case. The Indians announced Wednesday that they had re-signed their former face of the franchise to a one-year deal worth $5 million with a series of incentives that could bump his salary up to $9 million—the same amount he would have earned had Cleveland picked up his original option.

Normally, the run up to the Rule 5 Draft is a time for players that seem close to being MLB-ready and have some potential as big-league players to be rostered. In the draft, any minor-leaguer with more than three or four years of MiLB experience (depending on how old they were when they signed) can be claimed and taken by one of the other 29 teams, so each club tries to protect its core prospects by adding them to their 40-man rosters. That’s why it was so puzzling that Scott Barnes, Danny Salazar and Juan Diaz were added to the Indians’ [...]