Building your foundation on a house of cards.

So Grady Sizemore is hurt again!  A lower back strain caused by bending over to field a ground ball.  That's something that a lot of the 50+ guys who read this can relate to.  The problem is that Grady is not 50+ and is getting paid a heck of a lot more than almost of that gender/age group.

The Indians made a $5 million gamble on Grady because, after the Ubaldo Jimenez trade any thought of turning the other direction, cutting Grady loose and rebuilding went right out the window.  The Indians HAD to cut the best deal with Grady they could and hope against hope that he was healthy and productive this year. 

It looks like that gamble may have failed.  Looking at the outfielders they were able to gather up this winter tells you that they had to gamble on Grady.  GM Antonnetti said that almost all of these guys had big league experience.  Isn't that like someone suggesting to you that you should eat at a restaurant just because the health department hasn't closed it down....yet?  Face it, all of the guys in camp to replace Sizemore are AAAA types or, at best, 4th outfielders in the majors.  AT BEST.  Yeah, we might be able to catch some lightning in a bottle and the winner of the replace Grady lottery might give us 30 to 60 days of above average production before they come back down to their AAAA/utility/minor league free agent/career average level.  At this point that is all that we can hope for.

You know, at this point Grady should probably just retire and save the Indians the $5 million.  That would be the standup thing to do.  But the Indians wouldn't allow that.  They will play this out to the end hoping for a miracle.

But when you set up the foundation of your 20 story building on a house of cards this is what often happens.  THAT is what they pay GMs NOT to do.  I hate to say it but this season and the next few for the Indians may be the beginnings of a new book and movie.  The title will probably be something like 'Idiot Ball'.