With an eye on the future:

The Indians are hovering at the Atlanta Braves line (.500 mediocrity).  While they still thrash around and make noise like they are going to compete this year while they should be looking to dump Joe Smith, Shelly Duncan, Chad Durbin and Jack Hannaha, the clock is ticking on their 2012 draft slot.

Look, the Indians are going to have to sign one or more FAs this off-season.   There are just no sure thing righthanded bats in the minors and since the Indians continue to refuse to give marginal prospects Jerad Head and Jared Goedert a shot. we will never know if they can do anything.

So we have to sign a big righthanded bat this offseason.

Shapiro has, in his infamous Dellucci and Oldberto signings, showed us that he is not afraid to give up draft picks if he thinks (rightly or wrongly) that a move will put the Indians over the top.  Besides the thought of a redux of that debacle scaring me to death, it does remind me that we kept our first round pick that year because our record from 2006 was just bad enough that we fit right in the bottom half of teams in the majors.

To add to the drama, MLB will put in mandatory draft bonus slotting next year meaning that there will be little or no likelihood that we can pick up a stud prospect later in the draft to make up for losing draft picks.

So, why am I worrying about this now?  Because the Indians are teetering on finishing high enough in the standings that they could actually lose their FIRST round pick if they sign a Type A free agent this winter.  Here is the current draft order with 2011 records.  As you can see below, the White Sox and Reds are very close to us but right now we have the 17th worst record.  We need to finish below the White Sox and Reds.  We need to have the 15th worst record or worse next year.  Go Tribe!  It's a worthy goal in a lost season.

Houston	43	89
Baltimore	52	77
Kansas City	54	78
Minnesota	55	76
Seattle	56	74
Chi Cubs	57	75
Florida	59	72
Oakland	60	71
San Diego	60	72
Pittsburgh	61	70
LA Dodgers	61	69
NY Mets	62	68
Washington	62	68
Colorado	63	69
Chi White Sox	64	65
Cincinnati	65	66
Cleveland	64	64
Toronto	66	65
St. Louis	69	63
San Francisco	70	62
Tampa Bay	71	59
LA Angels	71	60
Detroit	72	59
Arizona	73	59
Texas	75	58
NY Yankees	78	51
Atlanta	79	54
Milwaukee	79	54
Boston	80	51
Philadelphia	83	46