» Cleveland Indians

In my prior post (http://www.majorleagueblogging.com/major-league-baseball/trade-david-wright-to-the-red-sox/), I referenced a potential trade from Joseph Delgrippo of Bleacher Report where David Wright and Fernando Martinez would go to the Red Sox for Jacoby Ellsbury, Clay Buchholz, Lars Anderson, and 2 of Michael Bowden, Daniel Bard, or Justin Masterson. This is a lot, and I’d be surprised to see that much going the Mets way. The Mets obviously and blatantly need to be shaken up from the core-on-down – and then some. If this bullpen went with the team last year, maybe we’d have won the penant. Maybe we’d be 10 games up this year, but neither is the case, and although eventually the Mets will have John Maine, Oliver Perez, Billy Wagner, JJ Putz, Jose Reyes, and Carlos Beltran coming off the DL at random, unknown times, and although my David Wright Passion Bucket has always been full, that trade scenario from Delgrippo of Bleacher Report (http://bleacherreport.com/articles/213365-new-york-mets-need-to-make-a-trade-for-the-future) sounds very intriguing. To assure such a trade and a top-down shake-up why not send both Wright & Reyes to the Sawx?

So, here – naturally, are more crazy trade scenarios. Let’s play Mets GM:

1) David Wright/3b; Jose Reyes/ss; Oliver Perez/sp (& his salary) for Jacoby Ellsbury/of; Clay Buchholz/sp; Michael Bowden/sp; Daniel Bard/sp; and Lars Anderson/1b. The Mets could send a 3rd tier pitching prospect  (Scott Shaw/Mike Antonini/Scott Moviel) or young cf prospect their way in addition. This provides the Red Sox with their future ss & 3b and one dominant lineup.

2) After the Mets acquire 3 top-notch pitching prospects, their others (Jon Niese/Brad Holt/Jenrry Mejia) become a little more expendable. Jenrry Mejia is catching eyes finally. So the Mets could then trade Jon Niese/sp; Brad Holt/sp; Wilmer Flores/Robinson Tejada/or Reese Havens/ss for Roy Halladay. If not Flores/Tejada/Havens then Maybe Ryan Church/of + John Maine/sp, but it seems the Blue Jays will want a ss prospect along with sp prospects for Doc Halladay. The Mets could potentially offer Church + Maine in addition to the deal for Alex Rios/of, if the Jays would like not to pay his contract.

3) Finally, contingent on the above deal, the Mets could offer Fernando Martinez and Ryan Church/of or Daniel Murphy and Nick Evans/of-1b in addition to Mike Pelfrey or John Maine for Victor Martinez/c from the Cleveland Indians.

So for an easy view:

1-Wright, Reyes, Oliver & Salary for Ellsbury, Lars, Buchholz, Bowden, Bard

2-Niese, Holt, Tejada/Flores/Havens or Maine & Church for Halladay

3-F.Martinez & Church or Dan Murphy & Evans + Pelfrey or Maine for V.Martinez

There are some potential 2010 Free Agents the Mets could look at for their infield as rentals before the other 2 ss that don’t get traded (Tejada/Flores/Havens) and Jefry Marte/3b are ready for the infield (Adrian Beltre and Orlando Hudson included). So the 2010-2012 Mets Lineup could look as follows: Jacoby Ellsbury/cf-Robinson Tejada/2b-Victor Martinez/c-Carlos Beltran/rf-Lars Anderson/1b-Fernando Martinez or Daniel Murphy/lf-Jefry Marte/3b-Reese Havens/2b

Even better, the 2010-2012 Mets Rotation could look as follows: Roy Halladay-Johan Santana-Mike Pelfrey/John Maine-Clay Buchholz-Michael Bowden/Daniel Bard/Jenrry Mejia/Fernando Nieve(why not).

Not only is this team quite talented but very young – it does create a nice payroll with only 5 players with expensive contracts (Beltran,VMartinez,Santana,Halladay,Krod).

Guys like Halladay and Vmart can more than keep the team in contention right now with such a rotation, while the young Sawx pitching prospects can dominate with Santana and a resigned Halladay there-after.

Scold away.

Some Cross Referencing here – According to Ed Price of AOL Fanhouse via MLB Trade Rumors (http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/), the Mets are talking trade with the Cleveland Indians. The talk surrounds Mark Derosa/infield-outfield. I think he can be valuable at ss/2b/1b/of. However, he’s batting only .255 with a .322 obp. Like MLB Trade rumors says, and it’s as obvious as it gets, the Indians will want the entire 4+ million off the books. I don’t have a problem with that, I just don’t want to give up any top notch talent or even a 2nd tier prospect…Unless of course we can also land a SP, such as Cliff Lee or more probable, Fausto Carmona in the deal. Then i’d give up 2 or 3 2nd teir prospects – Brad Holt or Jon Niese (sp) + Reese Havens or Wilmer Flores (ss) + maybe a Carlos Guzman (of). MLB Trade Rumors previously said that the Indians may be tired of waiting for Fausto Carmona to regain his dominance (http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2009/05/is-cleveland-losing-patience-with-fausto-carmona.html). I think we have a few more sp that will be considered a little bit more talented than Niese in another year or two, and in my opinion, Fausto Carmona + Mark Derosa will help us this year a lot more than Jon Niese. Derosa can plug in at ss until Reyes is back, 1b along with Daniel Murphy until Delgado is back, and OF in place of Church/Sheffield/Murphy. He can even plug in at 3b when Wright needs a break. And oh yeah, he can plug in at 2b when Castillo needs a break/get hurt – especially now that Alex Cora is also hurt. I think Derosa is a no brainer if he comes cheap enough – I just hope we can get Cliff Lee/Fausto Carmona as well (obviously we’d have to add Fernando Martinez/of + another SP prospect for Lee if the Indians don’t think they’ll be in the race). Ideally, we can somehow land Victor Martinez/c-1b, but I won’t get out of hand.

It’s been a few years since I’ve been able to really enjoy a full season of baseball. Joining the military kept me out of the loop in a lot of aspects of life for probably about the first year. Then I got about half a season in before I was sent to England – a country where baseball is almost unheard of. Football on the other hand is all that is spoken of here, and not the pig skin kind that most of this crowd will find at the front lines of their thought. Opening day this April was broadcast on our military satellite service, so I was happily reintroduced to my love for the game, the atmosphere, and how much I missed home.

Coming back into the game now, I see a lot of new names, and faces – a lot of the players I had come to know from teams have been traded, retired, or apparently are free agents now. I’ve been a long time Cubs fan, but had the pleasure of watching a Rangers game last year, and quite enjoyed it. Add to that the probability of me going to college in Texas in a couple years, I figured I’d start to learn the team. I’m not new to disappointment, certainly, as I’ve grown accustomed to a history of failed Cubbie seasons.

It’s no secret that the Rangers aren’t among the best teams in baseball having only made a few playoff appearances in a little over a decade, and never really making it very far when they did. I’ve listened to the first five games they’ve played this season; and found a good amount of excitement in three of them, with an equal amount of disappointment in three of them (not totaling six, just found issue in one of their wins). Their first two games against the Indians went surprisingly well. The third game was a little tense, that’s about when the Rangers’ pitching problem(s) started to rear its ugly head. Scott Feldman came in relief to give up four runs in just two innings. Luckily the Texas offense was able to counter the inefficiency of their pitching counterparts, shooting them to a 12-8 victory over the tribe.

Then it was off to Detroit – a team that had lost two games out of a series of four against the Blue Jays. The Rangers’ performance in their first against the Tigers was abysmal, to put it nicely. This was Kris Benson’s first start of the regular season and if there were any question to him making starting rotation on a regular basis, surely that question is bordering the answer of “no”. Benson gave up eight runs in five innings.

Game two at Detroit was a little more positive – it wasn’t a blowout loss, but surely one the Rangers could have, and should have pulled off – if they could add just a little tweaking to their defense, and obviously their pitching. It was a 4-3 final for the Tigers.

So now the Rangers sit on a no-more-than-average 3-2 record. While it is still extremely early in the season, it has been made incredibly clear; work is needed on pitching and defense. Also, I think it wouldn’t hurt if they started wearing red on a regular basis, maybe for luck.

For someone reacquainting himself with the faces, and names of the league, some standout so far on the Rangers roster: Elvis Andrus, a promising rookie with incredible speed. Salty, Blalock, Hamilton, Cruz, Byrd, Young – well quite frankly the whole roster given that my primary devotion now lies with the Rangers.

I know spring training is a time to try  new things, to find the best player for the right position, to form the best line up, etc. But can somebody explain to me what the Indians are trying to do by putting their infielders in the outfield? Before going into spring training, rumors were circling around Cleveland that Ryan Garko could see time in the outfield to make room for both Victor Martinez and Kelly Shoppach in the infield. Garko has seen some playing time in the outfield so far this spring training. Is Garko an outfielder? No! He is a 1st baseman and a catcher. What is the rationale behind this?

In today’s loss to the Rangers, the Indians chose to have Josh Barfield play in the outfield. Is there a good explanation for this? No. It’s just Wedge’s way of trying to keep average players around. Does he really think Barfield will ever have a chance in the outfield come April? I sure hope not. Between Sizemore, Francisco, Choo, Dellucci and even Crowe, I think the Indians outfield is pretty well stocked. Do the Indians really need to keep a below average hitter on the team? Besides, that position in the outfield is filled by Dellucci.

So what’s next for the Indians this spring training? Cliff Lee playing catcher? There doesn’t seem to be any rationa decisions down in Goodyear. Instead of looking like a team who is getting ready for a 162 game season, it looks like the local little league team.

Welcome to My World
“There are more important things in life other than baseball, I just haven’t figured out what they are yet”. When I saw the oppurtunity to write about the Cleveland Indians, I knew that I could not pass this up. It’s not every day I find the oppurtunity to do 2 things that I love, talking about the Indians and blogging. My name is Jen and welcome to my world. I was born and raised in Northeast Ohio and grew up on Indians baseball. Hopefully you’ll enjoy reading about the Indians as much as I love talking about them. And I do promise you this, I will not comment on how “hot” Grady Sizemore is or how good Victor Martinez looks in his baseball pants. I might be a girl, but trust me, I can talk baseball.

Indians at .500 in Cactus Leauge
With the first week of Spring Traning games almost over, the Indians have hit .500 by beating the Colorado Rockies today 6-4. Trevor Crowe and Jhonny Peralta both went 2-3 with 2 hits and 2 runs scored. The win goes to Zach Jackson who threw 2 innings giving up 4 hits and 1 run with one strike out.  Jack Cassel picked up the save.

Sizemore out of line-up again on Sunday
CF Grady Sizemore was out of the line-up again on Sunday due to a groin injury. Sizemore has not played since Thursday. On Friday, it was announced that Sizemore would not be playing in the World Baseball Classic due to this groin injury and Shane Victorino will be taking his spot on the roster. In an interview with Eric Wedge, Sportstime Ohio announcers Matt Underwood and Rick Manning asked Wedge about Sizemore’s injury. Wedge stated they are not concered with Sizemore not being ready for Opening Day. By not playing in the WBC, it will allow him to get the proper rest he will need to be back to full strengh come opening day.

Closer Wood Throws 2nd Bullpen Session
New Indians closer Kerry Wood, threw for the second day in a bullpen session. Wood threw 40 pitches and says he feels no soreness in his back, which sidelined him for the first few games of Spring Training.