DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Indians thread

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I felt earlier in the year that we could use another arm, but I think I am with most that another bat would be more important.

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I agree with most that a bat would be most important. My only concern would be overpaying in prospects for a half year rental. I think a good RH bat could be had though for a PTBNL or at least a very low level prospect. I wouldn't give up any more for two reasons. One, rarely in recent history is one bat the difference b/w a championship and not (that I can remember). Two, our strength has to be our farm system as we can't spend on FAs like the Yankees and Red Sox. Therefore, I wouldn't deplete it too much in chasing that one year.

I know some guys on WKNR have been floating Hunter Pence as a name, but I think the Astros will ask for the world. He is their only chip on a terrible team that needs a complete rebuild; plus he is under team control until 2013. He will draw a boatload of prospects from a team like the Yankees or Phillies; we can't afford to give up that many prospects.

Excerpt from Paul Hoynes article in yesterday's PD:

There are outfielders available, but it's going to be a seller's market and the market may develop late because so many teams are in contention. The deadline for making trades without placing a player on waivers is July 31. The deadline for making trades with waivers is Aug. 31, so there's still plenty of time to deal.

Some outfielders to consider:

• Ryan Ludwick, San Diego, RH: Former Indian who offers right-handed balance.

• Melky Cabrera, Kansas City, SH: Switch-hitter having a bounce-back year.

• Jeff Francoeur, Kansas City, RH: Indians showed some interest in him during the winter.

• Michael Cuddyer, Minnesota, RH: Could help in the infield and outfield, but are the Twins really out of the AL Central race? And how much would it cost to rent the free-agent-in-waiting for three months?

• Jason Kubel, Minnesota, LH: Probably not a full-time solution in the outfield, but he's a dangerous hitter.

• Others to consider: Juan Rivera, Toronto; Garrett Jones, Pittsburgh; Luke Scott, Baltimore; Josh Willingham, Oakland and Melvin Mora, just released by Arizona.

Go ahead and cross these guys off.

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• Melky Cabrera, Kansas City, SH: Switch-hitter having a bounce-back year.

• Jeff Francoeur, Kansas City, RH: Indians showed some interest in him during the winter.

• Michael Cuddyer, Minnesota, RH: Could help in the infield and outfield, but are the Twins really out of the AL Central race? And how much would it cost to rent the free-agent-in-waiting for three months?

• Jason Kubel, Minnesota, LH: Probably not a full-time solution in the outfield, but he's a dangerous hitter.

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It will cost too much to get inter-division teams to trade players with us. Like is mentioned above Minnesota isn't out of the race yet. They are 8 games back, if they get hot they can get back into the race. A lot of baseball left to be played.

I'm not sure about that. We traded Peralta and Pavano to teams within the division in 2009.

In my opinion this will be a 3 team race. Minny is just too far behind to make a realistic push. They have to catch 3 other teams. They played great in June, and still only jumped 1 team. They dug themselves a very deep hole by going 16-37 to start the year.

Personally I would like to get franceour. A right handed bat, that has had a great year so far. Strong arm in right as well. The perfect replacement for Choo.

i agree, the twins went through their 'hot' stage and are likely going to come back to Earth a bit. they just struggled too much with injuries and inconsistencies out of the gate and it's likely a lost season.

With Choo gone most of the rest of the season, we need another bat. Sure, he was having a bad season and we could probably find anyone to hit .210 from the minors, but this is our chance to find a replacement bat that can be better than Choo (or better than he was playing without having to wait for him to hit his way out of the slump).

IMO, we need to find someone now. The longer we wait, the higher the price will be, we might lose ground in the standings and it's an extra few weeks the new guy can settle down into his role on a new team.

I say strike now.

And yes, Alex White should be back soon. Same with LaPorta. Late July.

I agree, I would like to make a move before the allstar break (to have whatever player we get to join us right after it). but, there are likely to be very few teams even discussing such a trade this early (and that actually could make the price a bit higher as there is less supply).

hopefully, we figure something out because we definitely could use an OF.

Once White comes back, I would think Talbot will be sent down to the minors. Him and Carmona are so hit and miss. When they're bad, it's almost a guaranteed loss. I'm hoping they bring up Gomez to pitch on Thursday. He has been lights out since being sent down to Columbus.

Ugh, Cord Phelps' inability to turn two has cost the Tribe 5 runs.

And they don't score that an error? Please...

Way 2 go Phelps...

And now Cabrera hurt his ankle. He's staying in though.

Definitely not looking like our night ........ but then again, last night wasn't for a while either.

Down 6 will be tough to come back from though.

still can win the series, that's what matters

Yep.

It's funny. I wish that we could take Josh Tomlin's guts and guile and dole them out to guys like Carmona and Carasco. Carasco has to start trusting his stuff. He is still young though. He throws every pitch better than Tomlin .... yet Tomlin is a better pitcher at this point in their respective careers. Tomlin battles each and every pitch ... refuses to walk anyone ever, (13 walks all season in 17 starts) and throws any pitch in any count for strikes. Tomlin also refuses to get rattled. Once the Indians failed to turn that double play today, Carasco's body language said "I'm gonna get beat up now". He needs to get a bit tougher mentally. Hopefully he can do it, because he has the stuff to be a #1 type guy.

Carrasco's fielders gave the Yankees a bunch of extra outs in 2-out situations. I'd be pretty upset too. And can we send Cord Phelps down when we're in the middle of a pennant race? Not the best time to be developing a guy who frankly hasn't looked like he belongs on the major league level at this point. Any time he's in the game it means O-Cab is playing out of position, and that's a bad thing.

I think they're probably going to bring up either Donald or Kipnis and send Phelps down.

The discouraging thing about Phelps is that he was solid defensively in the Minors. Well, something for him to work on for sure.

Carasco still gave up after that error though. that was discouraging. He stopped battling for the rest of the inning, and made it a huge inning. It was a bad play by Phelps ..... and another by Cabrera ...... but Carasco expanded the impact by falling apart.

I'm not saying Carrasco is blameless. Obviously he's not; he's the guy throwing the pitches. Just saying that I can understand the frustration of knowing that he should be sitting in the dugout and instead he's got runners on the corners because Phelps throws a routine GIDP ball in the dirt five feet in front of first base. A team like the Indians simply can't afford to give a lineup like New York's any extra outs, and when I'm busting my butt on the mound and you're screwing up in the field behind me I'm gonna get angry.

I agree. Carlos was clearly rattled when Phelps blew that easy DP. The strike zone was dancing around on him from that point on and when you end up throwing a "get-me-over-the-plate" fastball to these hitters, it's going to get smoked. Hopefully, Carasco will get tougher as he matures. He's really got great stuff.

everything I have read about Phelps in the minors is that his defense has been suspect at 2B. he's made up for it (and more) with his bat, but that he still struggled with his defense there.

Nice win tonight. Masterson is our ace. That is a very dangerous lineup that he shutout tonight. Makes the Victor trade worth it IMO. That was the first shaky outing I've seen from Pestano, but hopefully its just a blip on the radar.

I love Chisenhall's swing.

It's so nice to take 2 of 3 from the Evil Empire.

Zach McAllister will make his debut tomorrow against the Blue Jays.

Kinda funny that he is a kid we got in exchange for ...... Austin Kearns .... last year.

It sure would be nice to have a trade like that work out in our favor .... while the Yankees have nothing to show for it.

http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/story/15296...n-carmonas-turn

McAllister will come up to start Thursday in Carmona's turn

The Sports Xchange
July 6, 2011
The Indians have settled on their starting pitcher for Thursday's game against the Blue Jays, deciding to call up right-hander Zach McAllister from Class AAA Columbus.

Manager Manny Acta revealed the decision Tuesday after Cleveland's 9-2 loss to the Yankees.

Thursday's game would be Fausto Carmona's spot in the rotation, but Carmona was placed on the disabled list Sunday with a strained right quad. Acta said he doesn't think the injury to Carmona is serious and that the right-hander, thanks to the upcoming All-Star break, would miss just the one start.

The Indians had multiple options at Columbus to make the spot start that will go to McAllister. The 23-year-old was acquired by the Indians from the Yankees last year in a midseason trade that sent outfielder Austin Kearns to New York. In 15 starts at Columbus this season, McAllister is 8-3 with a 2.97 ERA.

The other options at Columbus were Jeanmar Gomez, David Huff and Scott Barnes. Gomez is 9-2 with a 2.26 ERA in 13 starts. Huff is 8-2 with a 3.84 ERA in 15 starts, and Barnes is 7-2 with a 3.40 ERA in 13 starts.

The starting depth the Indians have this season at Columbus is a marked improvement from last season. Cleveland has already promoted former first-round pick Alex White from Class AAA earlier in the season. White made three impressive starts before going on the disabled list with a strained ligament in the middle finger of his right hand. He is expected back sometime during the second half of the season.

If Acta is right about Carmona's injury not being serious, McAllister's start Thursday could be a one-shot deal. It's likely that coming out of the All-Star break the Indians will line up their rotation so that Carmona would start the fifth game, which would give him about 2 1/2 weeks between starts.

Copyright (C) 2011 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.

All of those trades in 08 and 09 have made the turnaround possible in such a quick manner. Masterson, Brantley, Laporta, Perez, Santana, Marson, and Carasco all brought in during those 2 years. Plus we have others in the minors that could be brought up in the next year or so. The organization has really hit a home run in all of those trades. A+

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It's so nice to take 2 of 3 from the Evil Empire.

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You can say that again!

I don't catch to many games these days, but I saw this one and the words that come to mind are that they are a scrappy bunch of guys who seem to have really bought into Acta's system and they personify his style.

Got to watch tonight's game from a suite on the third base side. What a perfectly gorgeous night for baseball, and a great game to boot. Only bad thing was that I'm pretty sure there were as many Yankee fans there as there were Tribe fans. Oh well, we were the ones cheering when it was all said and done.

And as much as I hate the Yankees, I still would've loved to have seen Jeter get #3000 in person. Talk about witnessing history...something only 27 others have done in the past 120-some years.

Just bummed that the game was shown on NBC, blanking out "Minute To Win It"...my cousins were on it this week.

another series win. always great to beat the Yankees.

I haven't seen McAllister pitch at all, but the scouting report reminds me of Jake Westbrook, and that would be a hell of a steal for Kearns. The report also compares him to Josh Tomlin, with a higher ceiling, which is also not a bad place to be.

http://www.indiansprospectinsider.com/2011/02/2011-indians-top-50-prospects-31-zach.html

That the team remains competitive and the model works. That model being, "we aren't a big market team, we can't give out HUGE contracts, we have to sell that talent off if we stink at the time, get young guys to build around, try signing them to longterm deals at a discounted rate, and hopefully.....hopefully, we can break through like the Marlins did in 2003."

I know people point to Minnesota and their signing of Mauer as to how it's possible to retain your star. However, there are people questioning that signing this year. He's a huge strain on the payroll, he's been hurt, they are losing (not all his fault), and he won't move to first or DH when the team needs it (at least that's how a recent article perceived his attitude on the situation).

I'm not saying that's a reason to not sign your big stars ever.....but it's a considerartion you must have. Also, see Hafner the past 4 years.

I'm ok with the Indians model. It sucks at times but if you trust your talent evaluators, the team can replenish its cupboards with young guys to build around. Hey....look at the Mets, Cubs, and other big market teams that sign their own and other big FA's and still stink.

This season has been a blast and I'm just going with the flow.