I was driving to work when I heard of the plane crashing in New York. I got to work in time to see the second plane crash into the other tower and, of course, the aftermath of the towers collapsing.
Baseball is a game and we all can get very impassioned about our game. However, I think to a person, this country is united. The esprit de corp generated by the terrorism of September 11, 2011 has not been lost. That day will remain in the collective memory of Americans and, I hope, the whole world, as should the dates and details of other seemingly inhuman acts should that bring our resolve to be a decent, caring, compassionate species that reviles against behavior this type of behavior and these types of acts.
As far as baseball goes, I have to laugh when I read know writers like Terry Pluto and Dennis Mannoloff pile on the Jerad Head's struggles in his 23 ABs with the Indians. What they fail to tell you is that Head played his first pro ball at 23 coming from the little college of Washburn KS. He wasn't even drafted. He was a huge work in progress when the Indians drafted him. He is so new to pro ball that he is not even going to be a 6-year minor league free agent this winter. So, he isn't exactly like the plethora of AAAA players who have failed at the major league level who the Indians bring in here seemingly every year when they could be using their own rookies.
Yeah, Head struggled mightily here. But he was coming down from a hot streak when he was called up and, truth be told, he does have some holes in his swing. However, so does Shelly Duncan, Austin Kearns, etc. The difference is that Head hasn't failed at multiple major league attempts like so many AAAA players have. Sure, Head needs to be introspective this winter and figure out how to plug the holes in his game. However, to minimize what Head is and might be is bush league and I have told both Pluto and Mannoloff that in e-mails.
Along the same lines Pluto writes that the Indians are probably going to bring Jack Hannahan back. So, Hannahan is having a career year and, as a result, the Indians are thinking of bringing him back? The guy is a AAAA player and, most likely, will revert to being a AAAA player. His OPS was about .630 before this year and so this year is most likely an aberration. The Indians have painted themselves in a corner with this Ubaldo Jimenez trade. They need to go all in to put this team in a position to win the next two years and Jack Hannahan, Chad Durbin and Shelly Duncan are NOT going all in. And, even if they don't want to go all in next year and spend a lot of money, it makes no sense to keep these AAAA players on their roster when they have minor leaguers who deserve and need a good look.
If you are going to keep Jason Donald on your roster you need more pop out of your other utility infielder than you get with Jack Hannahan, outstanding defense notwithstanding.
So, the writers for the Cleveland Indians did not distinguish themselves this week. They parroted what they heard from the Indians FO. They should have more sense than that. Next thing you know they will be talking about how we should bring Shelly Duncan back based on his recent 7 game stretch that stands out in his otherwise lackluster, AAAA-like 170+ game big league career that spans over 4 years. These guys would have been good writers in the kingdom where the emperor had no clothes.
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