***Adam Miller is back pitching in the fall instructional league and has signed a minor league contract with the Indians as he was a 6-year minor league free agent. I guess this was necessary for him to continue his rehab with us but it also exposes him to the Rule 5 draft. A question I have to ask is would it have made more sense to let him remain in minor league free agent until after the Rule 5 draft so he wouldn't be exposed to that draft, as he is now.
***I will have an article later but my guess is that Indians had the youngest playoff rosters in the IL, CL and Midwest Leagues. Certainly in the IL they had the fewest AAAA players of any of the playoff teams, maybe counting the PCL, as well. This is a testament to the DEPTH of our system.
***I saw a recent blog article from a known FO supporter that rationalized the Indians' late season winning ways that dropped them about 4-5 spots in the draft this next June. I wonder if the writer realizes that this drops the Indians down 4-5 spots in EVERY round? Also, an analysis like that is begging to be picked apart as its premise was too simplistic for the complex system that is the draft. Sometimes teams draft guys like Casey Weathers or Matt Bush and this really skews the results. A better way of looking at it is if you compare how the players ranked, talent-wise, at draft time and how they ended up as players. This removes stupidity and cheapness from the equation. Face it, there is no rationalizing that these meaningless September winning streaks while all the rest of the loser teams are tanking it or winning just enough to keep a top slot, are costing us BIG TIME. It's all about draft options and we have a lot less at #8 than we would have had at #4, no matter how the FO supporters try to spin it.
***I'd really like to see us package Andy Marte and Trevor Crowe for an AZL or GCL top 20 prospect or two. The Yankees have a couple of interesting ones I mean, Brian Bixler brought one (Jesus Brito) to Pittsburgh. The Branyan trade to Seattle proves, once again, that there ARE suckers out there. You just have to find them.
***I guess we are now done with the 'There was not market for Cliff Lee because he wasn't highly sought after' argument. Good sales people make their own market, especially when they have good products to sell. The returns on the Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia deals look more pathetic every day.
***I noted that Baseball America completed their league rankings. The most humerous commetn I read from a known FO-supportive blogger was wondering if the Indians had no high-ranked prospects because most of their teams played in the Midwest. Priceless! Fact is that the Indians don't have a lot of high end prospects, despite their recent bad records (i.e., high draft slots) and veteran-for-prospect trades. The team with the supposed deepest farm system in baseball had a total of SIX guys ranked in the top 20 prospects of the 6 US leagues they had teams in. In the bottom three levels (low A, shortseason A and rookie leagues) they had ZERO guys ranked in the top 20 of these leagues. Here are some thoughts:
1. Arizona League - This league was mostly Latin players and it reflects the Indians' philosophy of not signing expensive Latin amateurs. While I approve of that in most cases I would like to see the Indians take the plunge every year for a $2 million guy. Just one. Also, their signing of their top HS guys at or near the deadline hurt them here.
2. NY-Penn League - Ditto for signing of their top college guys late. However, this team should have been populated by guys from the AZL team last year, as well and that shows how questionable most of our 2009 HS and Latin signees are and points out, once again, if you don't draft quality guys who have dropped, you usually get nothing out of the draft after the first couple of rounds.
3. Midwest League - Another example of a bunch of low end prospects can win. Guys from the NY-Penn and AZL 2009 teams should have populated this list showing how devoid of prospects those teams were. Yeah, some of the top picks are looking good but, after that, it looks like we just mailed it in.
4. Carolina, Eastern and IL. - Here is where the depth starts to show up but note that we had only one guy higher than #6 in any of those leagues (Santana) which means, at best, we are looking at solid ML careers but not superstardom from Chisenhall, White and Kipnis and #4-5 starter upside for Carrasco (even though I think it may be a lot higher) and 4th outfielder status for Jordan Henry (we have somewhere on the order of 100 prospects and ML outfielders who fit that profile, however).
Note that we were better than league average (20 prospects divided by # teams in the league) in FOUR of those 6 leagues. The Yankees beat us in prospects in the IL and EL. Heck, so did the Pirates in the IL.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Put me in coach, I'm ready to play
One of my pet peeves with the Indians, especially recently, is their maddening infatuation with AAAA and fringe major league/career backup players. This year they started a season where they had little or no chance of even playing .500 ball with FIVE of those guys on the roster: Mark Grudzielanek, Jamey Wright, Austin Kearns, Mike Redmond and Russell Branyan.
Now if a team doesn't have prospect alternatives then sometimes those teams are forced to use these types of veterans, guys who have ML experience and who are willing to sit on a ML bench and know how to come off that bench. As I said, at the beginning of the season there were plenty of alternatives for these guys with the likes of Trevor Crowe, Wyatt Toregas, Jess Todd, Frank Hermann, Jason Donald, Chris Gimenez and even Josh Rodriguez and Wes Hodges ready for extended ML shots. Obviously injuries to Jordan Brown and others muddied the water as far as prospects getting good ML shots in a lost season, but still, we were CRAWLING with prospects we could have plugged in instead of these guys.
However, even if you hold to the premise that a number of Indians' prospects weren't ML-ready at the beginning of the season, it is hard to argue statistically that they weren't ready by the middle of the season and certainly they were ready by September.
That is what puzzles me. In addition to the AAAA guys who started the season, we had to endure AAAA guys like Jayson Nix, Anderson Hernandez, Justin Germano and Shelly Duncan getting significant playing time during the middle of a season INSTEAD of seeing our own prospects. All of these AAAA position players showed why they own this AAAA designation and why they had been kicked to the curb by their former employer(s). Plus, even though Justin Germano performed well, his history shows he is a AAAA player. In the meantime our prospects were putting up monster numbers.
AND, even if you want to drink that Koolaid and say that our prospects needed more seasoning all the way up to close to the end of August, it is hard to argue that giving those prospects September callups was the wrong thing to do. September callups of Drew Sutton and Luke Carlin, both of whom were acquired as minor league, essentially FREE signings and are well on their way, or already at, AAAA status, were unforgiveable slaps at our real prospects. You have guys in your organization who have put up MONSTROUS years and your September callups were more AAAA guys? Embarassing.
In addition, by September you knew what you had in Trevor Crowe and Andy Marte. The former, with plenty of playing time, proved himself to be a dime-a-dozen 4th outfielder. The latter proved that his prospect star had faded. Both had established themselves pretty convincingly as AAAA players by then. They both could have had their playing time eliminated and given to other guys and Marte could have easily been DFA'd at no real loss to the Indians.
This trend has GOT to stop. There is no reason that some or all of these guys should not have seen ML time this year, especially in light of the pathetic AAAA guys who paraded through Cleveland during the season.
Some fans want to explain this away as the guys aren't really ready or that bringing up a bunch of prospects will create 40-man roster issues in the off-season and these guys might be lost to waivers if they are DFA'd. Some even claim that these "prospects" aren't really prospects at all, just AAA guys waiting to happen.
Well, if you think that a 27 year old super-utility guy like Head is not a prospect then what do you think the 27-year old Sutton who is with his 3rd organization is? Plus, Sutton had all of about 15 minutes with the organization when he was called up to Cleveland and Head, in his 5th season as a loyal, hardworking employee of this organization, was polishing off a great season by leading Columbus to the AAA championship.
I am SICK AND TIRED in 90+ loss seasons that are, essentially, over by Memorial Day if not opening day, of seeing undeserving, irrelevant or AAAA/fringe major league guys like Niuman Romero, Luis Vizcaino, Greg Aquino, Jose Veras, Vinnie Chulk, etc. (2009) and Grudz, Redmond, Kearns, Nix, Duncan, Hernandez, Wright, Sutton and Carlin (2010) get ML playing time when our minor leaguers who are having GREAT seasons and who have been scratching and clawing for years just to get one little taste of the majors, are constantly passed over and not even given the ML experience that they deserve based on their performance and their servitude to this organization.
I think it is disgraceful and I really, really think the Indians need to rethink how they treat their employees to say nothing about maybe rethinking their scouting process as many times guys perform better when they get a chance than when they are struggling to get that chance and are stuck at AAA (see Brandon Phillips and Jeremy Guthrie as prime examples of that).
Let's change this method of operation, Indians. It is embarassing to the organization and spits in the faces of players who have been dreaming of playing in the majors since they were little kids and have earned, by their performance, a chance to prove they belong in the majors.
Now if a team doesn't have prospect alternatives then sometimes those teams are forced to use these types of veterans, guys who have ML experience and who are willing to sit on a ML bench and know how to come off that bench. As I said, at the beginning of the season there were plenty of alternatives for these guys with the likes of Trevor Crowe, Wyatt Toregas, Jess Todd, Frank Hermann, Jason Donald, Chris Gimenez and even Josh Rodriguez and Wes Hodges ready for extended ML shots. Obviously injuries to Jordan Brown and others muddied the water as far as prospects getting good ML shots in a lost season, but still, we were CRAWLING with prospects we could have plugged in instead of these guys.
However, even if you hold to the premise that a number of Indians' prospects weren't ML-ready at the beginning of the season, it is hard to argue statistically that they weren't ready by the middle of the season and certainly they were ready by September.
That is what puzzles me. In addition to the AAAA guys who started the season, we had to endure AAAA guys like Jayson Nix, Anderson Hernandez, Justin Germano and Shelly Duncan getting significant playing time during the middle of a season INSTEAD of seeing our own prospects. All of these AAAA position players showed why they own this AAAA designation and why they had been kicked to the curb by their former employer(s). Plus, even though Justin Germano performed well, his history shows he is a AAAA player. In the meantime our prospects were putting up monster numbers.
AND, even if you want to drink that Koolaid and say that our prospects needed more seasoning all the way up to close to the end of August, it is hard to argue that giving those prospects September callups was the wrong thing to do. September callups of Drew Sutton and Luke Carlin, both of whom were acquired as minor league, essentially FREE signings and are well on their way, or already at, AAAA status, were unforgiveable slaps at our real prospects. You have guys in your organization who have put up MONSTROUS years and your September callups were more AAAA guys? Embarassing.
In addition, by September you knew what you had in Trevor Crowe and Andy Marte. The former, with plenty of playing time, proved himself to be a dime-a-dozen 4th outfielder. The latter proved that his prospect star had faded. Both had established themselves pretty convincingly as AAAA players by then. They both could have had their playing time eliminated and given to other guys and Marte could have easily been DFA'd at no real loss to the Indians.
This trend has GOT to stop. There is no reason that some or all of these guys should not have seen ML time this year, especially in light of the pathetic AAAA guys who paraded through Cleveland during the season.
Some fans want to explain this away as the guys aren't really ready or that bringing up a bunch of prospects will create 40-man roster issues in the off-season and these guys might be lost to waivers if they are DFA'd. Some even claim that these "prospects" aren't really prospects at all, just AAA guys waiting to happen.
Well, if you think that a 27 year old super-utility guy like Head is not a prospect then what do you think the 27-year old Sutton who is with his 3rd organization is? Plus, Sutton had all of about 15 minutes with the organization when he was called up to Cleveland and Head, in his 5th season as a loyal, hardworking employee of this organization, was polishing off a great season by leading Columbus to the AAA championship.
I am SICK AND TIRED in 90+ loss seasons that are, essentially, over by Memorial Day if not opening day, of seeing undeserving, irrelevant or AAAA/fringe major league guys like Niuman Romero, Luis Vizcaino, Greg Aquino, Jose Veras, Vinnie Chulk, etc. (2009) and Grudz, Redmond, Kearns, Nix, Duncan, Hernandez, Wright, Sutton and Carlin (2010) get ML playing time when our minor leaguers who are having GREAT seasons and who have been scratching and clawing for years just to get one little taste of the majors, are constantly passed over and not even given the ML experience that they deserve based on their performance and their servitude to this organization.
I think it is disgraceful and I really, really think the Indians need to rethink how they treat their employees to say nothing about maybe rethinking their scouting process as many times guys perform better when they get a chance than when they are struggling to get that chance and are stuck at AAA (see Brandon Phillips and Jeremy Guthrie as prime examples of that).
Let's change this method of operation, Indians. It is embarassing to the organization and spits in the faces of players who have been dreaming of playing in the majors since they were little kids and have earned, by their performance, a chance to prove they belong in the majors.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Free agents and the Cleveland Indians
In the 90s signing veteran free agents was part of the catalyst that made the Indians a winner. Guys like Dennis Martinez and Orel Hershiser are almost legend and Kevin Millwood wasand made us forget about the disasters that were Wayne Garland and Rick Dempsey (he really did cost us a first round draft pick!).
However, now that we are in another rebuilding mode, I wanted to comment on free agent signings. Watching the playoffs and seeing how dominant Kerry Wood is made me look at the stats. Wood made a miraculous turnaround when he was traded to the Yankees, giving up one earning run in 24 innings after giving up 14 in 20 innings with the Indians. Even though his month-to-month stats before the trade were trending up (11 ERA in May and about 3.5 in June and July) it was nowhere near the bump he had after the trade. While that bump and his continued health saved us a few hundred thousand dollars that the Yankees paid for, it is still bothersome to me that this dramatic change occurred. We were paying this guy $10 million a year and the best one month ERA he could post for us was last August when he went 1.64?!?! He never was under 3 in any other month in his 1 1/2 years here. Sorry, the bump in performance when he went to the Yankees is just a little too coincidental for my liking. Plus, do we all realize that the guy has now moved himself up to a Type B free agent? Wouldn't that be a kick in the pants if we saved a few hundred thousand and, for that money, the Yankees got his performance PLUS a first round draft pick.
This is my point. The guy was not a bad signing IF he performed well, which was questionable from the start as we paid a king's ransom for a guy who had closed for exactly one year of his career and was oft-injured. He would have even been good trade bait if he was pitching well and we were out of the race. Problem is, from looking at the stats, it appeared the guy mailed it in during his time here making him almost untradeable (props to Shapiro for saving ANYTHING in dumping him) and only turned it on when he went to the Yankees, where he really cared about what the team did.
That's the problem with free agency and the Cleveland Indians. It appears almost impossible for Shapiro to repeat his performance taht like to him signing guys who are class acts like Martinez and Hershiser as he seems to now wind up with the guys who are only here for the paycheck like Wood and, for me, the infamous Dellucci and Hernandez duo that cost us two high draft picks and a lot of needlessly wasted money a couple of years ago. The latter group seems to not want to strain themselves too much to help out our team or make our city proud to have them here.
While all free agents are mercenaries who probably could give a crap about the uniform other than they have to play at some level to keep getting paid well, some hide it well or, in fact, appreciate the team and city that are paying them enough to make a real effort both on and off the field.
The pendulum has now swung back to where the Indians are not making good free agent signings. Hopefully the pendulum starts swinging back as we now appear to be primed for another run at the playoffs starting next year or in 2012. With the Indians talking about signing a quality thirdbaseman this winter, I am hoping that we are not getting Delllucci version 2.0 or, even worse, making another Kerry Wood-like signing.
I don't have the answer on how to sign the right free agents but this franchise has to do better at identifying the proper free agents. I think it is more about identifying WHICH of the talented players available have the appropriate personality and drive rather than just throwing money at talent. If you can't find the Martinez/Hershiser types or the bargain basement Millwood types, I would rather just go with some young guys, take my lumps and then reload next off-season. As I will point out in a later piece, you can only diss your own prospects for so long. At some point, you gotta take the leap and play these guys.
However, now that we are in another rebuilding mode, I wanted to comment on free agent signings. Watching the playoffs and seeing how dominant Kerry Wood is made me look at the stats. Wood made a miraculous turnaround when he was traded to the Yankees, giving up one earning run in 24 innings after giving up 14 in 20 innings with the Indians. Even though his month-to-month stats before the trade were trending up (11 ERA in May and about 3.5 in June and July) it was nowhere near the bump he had after the trade. While that bump and his continued health saved us a few hundred thousand dollars that the Yankees paid for, it is still bothersome to me that this dramatic change occurred. We were paying this guy $10 million a year and the best one month ERA he could post for us was last August when he went 1.64?!?! He never was under 3 in any other month in his 1 1/2 years here. Sorry, the bump in performance when he went to the Yankees is just a little too coincidental for my liking. Plus, do we all realize that the guy has now moved himself up to a Type B free agent? Wouldn't that be a kick in the pants if we saved a few hundred thousand and, for that money, the Yankees got his performance PLUS a first round draft pick.
This is my point. The guy was not a bad signing IF he performed well, which was questionable from the start as we paid a king's ransom for a guy who had closed for exactly one year of his career and was oft-injured. He would have even been good trade bait if he was pitching well and we were out of the race. Problem is, from looking at the stats, it appeared the guy mailed it in during his time here making him almost untradeable (props to Shapiro for saving ANYTHING in dumping him) and only turned it on when he went to the Yankees, where he really cared about what the team did.
That's the problem with free agency and the Cleveland Indians. It appears almost impossible for Shapiro to repeat his performance taht like to him signing guys who are class acts like Martinez and Hershiser as he seems to now wind up with the guys who are only here for the paycheck like Wood and, for me, the infamous Dellucci and Hernandez duo that cost us two high draft picks and a lot of needlessly wasted money a couple of years ago. The latter group seems to not want to strain themselves too much to help out our team or make our city proud to have them here.
While all free agents are mercenaries who probably could give a crap about the uniform other than they have to play at some level to keep getting paid well, some hide it well or, in fact, appreciate the team and city that are paying them enough to make a real effort both on and off the field.
The pendulum has now swung back to where the Indians are not making good free agent signings. Hopefully the pendulum starts swinging back as we now appear to be primed for another run at the playoffs starting next year or in 2012. With the Indians talking about signing a quality thirdbaseman this winter, I am hoping that we are not getting Delllucci version 2.0 or, even worse, making another Kerry Wood-like signing.
I don't have the answer on how to sign the right free agents but this franchise has to do better at identifying the proper free agents. I think it is more about identifying WHICH of the talented players available have the appropriate personality and drive rather than just throwing money at talent. If you can't find the Martinez/Hershiser types or the bargain basement Millwood types, I would rather just go with some young guys, take my lumps and then reload next off-season. As I will point out in a later piece, you can only diss your own prospects for so long. At some point, you gotta take the leap and play these guys.
Monday, October 4, 2010
We're off and running!
Hello from a lifelong Indians fan. I have written many articles on various topics regarding baseball and the Clevelan Indians. These articles span topics such as the first year player draft, Rule 5 draft, instructional league, extended spring training and others. Some of these articles are plagerized even to today. I have written for the Cleveland Fan and Indians Prospect Insider.
I have also posted on many Cleveland Indians' fan sites over the years and have been kicked off most. Not for bad language but, rather, because my opinion is considered too negative and I like to focus on what needs to be fixed rather than what is going well. When you have consecutive 90 loss seasons with only a marginal chance for better in 2011, not much is going well.
OK, let's start with the facts:
If you are here you are:
What I am is ant-front office stupidity, anti-dissing prospects in favor of minor league free agents and overpriced free agent mercenaries who don't give a crap about Cleveland other than it is a paycheck. I am pro spending lots of money SMARTLY on the draft every year and have been for years before it recently came into vogue on most Indians' fan boards and with the Indians, themselves.
Despite popular belief I am supportive of all prospect rating systems and individuals to a degree but do respect the veteran publications, specifically Baseball America, who have been doing this for years.
So, if you want my opinion, welcome. If you don't then don't hang around.
Dennis Nosco
I have also posted on many Cleveland Indians' fan sites over the years and have been kicked off most. Not for bad language but, rather, because my opinion is considered too negative and I like to focus on what needs to be fixed rather than what is going well. When you have consecutive 90 loss seasons with only a marginal chance for better in 2011, not much is going well.
OK, let's start with the facts:
If you are here you are:
- probably a fan of the Cleveland Indians
- are curious to see what will be posted here
- not turned off to my opinion
What I am is ant-front office stupidity, anti-dissing prospects in favor of minor league free agents and overpriced free agent mercenaries who don't give a crap about Cleveland other than it is a paycheck. I am pro spending lots of money SMARTLY on the draft every year and have been for years before it recently came into vogue on most Indians' fan boards and with the Indians, themselves.
Despite popular belief I am supportive of all prospect rating systems and individuals to a degree but do respect the veteran publications, specifically Baseball America, who have been doing this for years.
So, if you want my opinion, welcome. If you don't then don't hang around.
Dennis Nosco
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)