Clevelinks, January 31: Hafner to Yankees and Omar Gets a Job

Welcome to Clevelinks, a new feature recapping the previous day or weekend’s Indians news and Wahoo’s on First commentary, as well as the best Tribe analysis from other sites.

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Indians News

• The Yankees are reportedly nearing a deal with Travis Hafner. Nothing is certain yet, but this clearly diminishes the Tribe’s chances of bringing Pronk back for 2013.
• Just a few months after retiring as a player, Omar Vizquel has a new job: roving infield instructor for the Angels.

Wahoo’s on First Highlights

• Merritt wondered who the Indians’ equivalent of Stan Musial is.
• Steve suggested the Tribe sign Hideki Okajima.

Tribe Analysis

• Dennis Manoloff offers some advice to Indians players for 2013, from the specific (Carlos Santana: “When hitting, make sure toe-tap doesn’t go back to being a leg lift.”) to the not very helpful (Ubaldo Jimenez and Justin Masterson: “Significantly improve in all areas.”)
• Jacob Rosen from WaitingForNextYear isn’t worried about the upcoming onslaught of strikeouts.
• Ryan Pinheiro at It’s Pronounced “Lajaway” argues for returning Michael Brantley to the leadoff spot.

Shameless Self-Promotion

• Voting is underway for the 2013 SABR Analytics Research awards yesterday at SABR.org, Baseball Prospectus, FanGraphs, and The Hardball Times. I am among the nominees in the “Contemporary Baseball Commentary” category (the second one on the ballot) for an article I wrote entitled “Did Hall of Fame’s Founders Want Voters to Judge With Their Eyes?”. If you like my work I would appreciate your support; either way, please take a few minutes to read and support some of the best baseball writing around.