Clevelinks, February 1: Hafner to New York and Trucks to Arizona

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 New York Yankees agreed to sign Travis Hafner. It’s reportedly a one-year deal with a $2 million base salary and performance incentives.
• Another former Indian found a new home Thursday: Ryan Garko. The Tribe’s third-round pick in the 2003 amateur draft, Garko hit .283/.355/.450 in parts of five seasons with Cleveland before he was traded to the Giants for Scott Barnes in 2009.
• Cleveland announced the signing of reliever Matt Capps to a minor-league deal. Capps, 29, has a 3.52 ERA and 138 saves in his eight-year MLB career but struggled with injuries in 2012.
• Counting down the days until baseball starts again? Good news: the Indians’ equipment trucks left for Arizona Thursday.

Wahoo’s on First Highlights

• Katrina made the case for moving Carlos Santana to DH and making Lou Marson the everyday catcher.
• Steve explained why the Indians signed Nate Spears.

Tribe Analysis

• Jacob Rosen at WaitingForNextYear has the highlights from Omar Vizquel’s appearance at the Akron Shaw Jewish Community Center.
• Indians Baseball Insider’s Steve Orbanek profiles new Cleveland farmhand Mike McDade.
• Laurel Widler from Did the Tribe Win Last Night? interviewed Tribe prospect Shawn Armstrong.
• Jason Lukehart from Let’s Go Tribe lists the best No. 3 hitters in Indians history.
• It’s Pronounced Lajaway’s Ryan McCrystal looks at five remaining free agents who could interest the Tribe.

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.