May I introduce your 2012 Cleveland Indians

I have said it before: The Indians gave away a lot of talent this winter.  So far, it has not panned out:

Ubaldo Jimenez has not only been a bad pitcher this spring, now he looks like a head case.  He cost us 4 prospects: Drew Pomeranz, Alex White, Joe Gardner and Matt McBride. 

Kevin Slowey has been optioned to the minors.  He cost us Zach Putnam, maybe a top 10 and certainly a top 20 prospect in this organization. 

Aaaron Cunningham is barely hitting over .200 in spring training.  He cost us Cory Burns and Josh Judy.    Cunningham made the team ONLY because he was out of options and because he stunk it up just slightly less than his 'competition'. 

Derek Lowe - Looking like exactly what they bought: an innings eater who will get lit up sometimes (cost us Chris Jones;  may be worth the price and more).  He looks like a solid trade chip in July

Josh Tomlin - If his body hangs together, an excellent #5 and a mediocre #4.

Jeanmar Gomez - I hope his body holds together although we still have Huff, McAlister and Barnes.

Bullpen:  The Perezs, Sipp, Pestano and Joe Smith will be solid if healthy.  Dan Wheeler stinks and so, probably, does Jairo Asencio.  Note that the latter two would have EASILY been replaced by Zach Putnam and Josh Judy and THAT shows how stupid the trades for Cunningham and Slowey were.

The starting lineup:  Duncan is coming off one hot month in his ML life (last September) and that earned him being our starter in LF.  Hanahan is a .230 career hitter and had his career (.250) year last year.  Kotchman had his career year last year and this journeyman is our starter at 1B.    Thus three of our starting players are probably no more than AAAA players coming off career years or,in Duncan's case, one career month.  That is truly pathetic.  You invest heavily in Jimenez and then, the next year, start THREE AAAA players.    The rest of the lineup is solide but the damage is done

The bench:  Besides that Donald and Marson are the career backups they projected to be (and I said they would be) when we made the Cliff Lee trade, Lopez looks solid and Cunningham stinks so 3 of our 4 bench players are ML average, or better, for bench players.  The bench is relatively strong except for Cunningham.

So there you have your 2012 Cleveland Indians.  Remember, that except for the 30-15 start last year, Acta has essentially identical winning percentages for 2010 and 2011.

People, this team is in trouble on paper...and teams that are in trouble on paper don't give up 7 prospects and get very little back in return except increased salary.  That is a recipe for disaster and Chris Antonneti is taking us down that road. 

If we weren't Indians fans I would be worried about some of you and would ask that all sharp objects be removed from your grasp.  But we are Indains fans and that sucking sound we hear from our team in April is actually music to our ears.

So, let the opening day crowd be a sellout and the second day crowd be about 10 times the number of vendors in the stands.  If it was any other way it wouldn't be Cleveland.

Play ball...or whatever semblance of it the 2012 Cleveland Indians try to  fumble through

Championship roster beginning to round into shape

Indians' fans: hope springs eternal in, uh, spring.

As we approach opening day Thursday the Indians 'championship' level roster is falling into place.

Shelly Duncan is the current leader in open 'competition' for who stands out in left field on opening day.  This is actually a reverse competition as it appears the guy with the worst statistics wins with Duncan hitting .178 this spring.

Dan Wheeler celebrated being told he had made the team based on his solid 7.78 ERA by giving up 5 runs on 3 HR to bloat his ERA to 10.78.  I guess he had given it his all giving up runs in his first four outings.  The Indians' braintrust, thinking that his first four outings were an aberration and his last 3 scoreless innnings were who he really is, will now think yesterday's outing was another in a long line of aberrations.  Isn't that contradictory?

Jason Donald is the only one who has earned his extra man spot on the roster and that wasn't deserved either, statistically, until his 4-5 day yesterday.

A check on the expensive off-season moves:

Aaron Cunningham .205 (cost us Cody Burns AND Josh Judy)

Kevin Slowey (6.75 plus getting bombed yesterday in a minor league game) (cost us Zach Putnam)

And then there is Ubaldo Jimenez......

I can't wait for our next big move from Antonnetti.  All of his previous moves have been so good that the next one, made in more desperation than any of the other ones, will surely be a humdinger!

Think minor leagues - Updated Indians' top 75 prospects.

OK, as we approach 2012 baseball I wanted to update my Indians' prospect list.  In the off-season we lost Zach Putnam (#16), Josh Judy (#17), Kelvin de la Cruz (#30) and Cory Burns (#40) from my post 2011 top 50 and got little or nothing back.  But that’s another story.  Without hearing a lot from spring training yet I have updated this prospect list based on transactions and information that I have learned since the end of 2011 and it will be updated again around minor league opening day. 

In summary, my thoughts are: I think Dillon Howard is a BIG risk (thus why I have him at #14).  I have dropped Tyler Sturdevant and Austin Adams a tad due to their current arm injuries and Hector Rondon has dropped due to the same thing.  This farm system is incredibly weak right now and got weaker by the give aways of Putnam, Judy, De la Cruz and Burns.  They are not prime prospects but in a system with as few true prospects as we have, losses of those guys have to be balanced by who we picked up.  That didn’t happen meaning that we are now probably the weakest farm system in the majors, not a position a small market team wants to be in!

1.             Francisco Lindor – SS

2.             Nick Hagadone – LHRP

3.             Tony Wolters – SS

4.             Felix Sterling – RHP

5.             Elvis Araujo – LHP

6.             Dorsyss Paulino - SS

7.             Chun Chen – C

8.             Chen Lee – RHRP

9.             Alexander Perez – LHP

10.          Robbie Aviles – RHSP

11.          LeVon Washington – OF

12.          Scott Barnes – LHSP

13.          Zach McAllister – RHSP

14.          Dillon Howard – RHP

15.          Juan Diaz – SS

16.          Cord Phelps – Utility

17.          Ronny Rodriguez – SS

18.          Luigi Rodriguez OF

19.          Jesus Aguilar – 1B

20.          Alex Lavisky – C

21.          Danny Salazar – RHSP

22.          Bryson Myles – OF

23.          Roberto Perez – C

24.          Jake Lowery – C

25.          Robel Garcia – 3B/OF

26.          Jake Sisco – RHSP

27.          Austin Adams – RHSP

28.          Hector Rondon – RHP

29.          Paulo Espino – RHSP

30.          T.J. McFarland – LHSP

31.          Matt Packer – LHSP

32.          Alex Monsalve – C

33.          Kyle Blair – RHSP

34.          Bryce Stowell – RHRP

35.          Tyler Sturdevant – RHRP

36.          Tyler Holt – OF

37.          Giovanny Urshela – 3B

38.          Beau Mills – 1B

39.          Clayton Cook – RHSP

40.          T.J. House – LHSP

41.          Matt Langwell – RHRP

42.          Thomas Neal – OF

43.          Michael Goodnight – RHSP

44.          Cole Cook – RHSP

45.          Carlos Moncrief – OF

46.          Enosil Tejada – RHRP

47.          Jordan Smith – 3B/OF

48.          Nick Weglarz – OF

49.          Trey Haley - RHRP

50.          Jose Ramirez – SS

51.          Jorge Martinez – 2B

52.          Corey Kluber – RHSP

53.          Wil Roberts – RHSP

54.          Tim Fedroff – OF

55.          Jordan Henry – OF

56.          Rob Bryson – RHRP

57.          GIovanny Soto – RHSP

58.          Brett Brach – RHSP

59.          Eric Berger – LHRP

60.          Cody Allen – RHRP

61.          Mike Rayl - RHSP

62.          Anthony Santander - OF

63.          Kyle Bellows – 3B

64.          Eric Haase – C

65.          Miguel Carmona – RHRP

66.          Ramon Cespedes – RHRP

67.          Moisses Ramirez – RHRP

68.          Jeffry Cleto – RHSP

69.          Erik Gonzales – 2B

70.          Shawn Armstrong – RHRP

71.          Bo Greenwell – OF

72.          Shawn Morimando – RHRP

73.          Tony Dischler – RHRP

74.          Bryan Price – RHRP
75.        Casey Frawley - INF

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'.

Another asset given away for nothing

Cory Burns, Josh Judy, Zach Putnam....now Kelvin De la Cruz.

The Indians 'traded' De la Cruz to Texas after DFAing him to clear a roster spot for Kotchman.

Most of us questioned putting him on the 40-man this winter and now that bonehead move has cost the Indians as, through DFAing him, they had to expose him to waivers and, in so doing, they eventually were backed into a corner to trade him for a little money.

De la Cruz has had injury issues which have limited his development but two things in this situation are true:

1. De la Cruz should NEVER have been put on the 40-man roster to begin with.  He was not ready and he would NOT have been selected in the major league portion of the Rule 5 draft.

2. If they thought so little of De la Cruz they should have DFA'd him this winter and kept a fungible major league asset in Josh Judy.  Yeah, not a great asset but homegrown and lost needlessly.

This move shows yet another example of how pathetically run the Cleveland Indians currently are.  Losing multiple pitching prospects this winter and getting laughable (Cunningham and Slowey) players in return.

All after giving up the future in the Ubaldo Jimenez trade.

Update to 2011 International Signing Period - Latest List

Here is the list of significant Latin signings from players eligible for the 2011 signing period.   The numbers are from the Baseball America rankings.   There are two unsigned players from BA's ranked players (see bottom of list) unless I have just missed their signings.
 

Ranking, Name, Position, Country	Team	Bonus
NR Iosif Bernal, OF, Panama	Atlanta	$230,000
16. Manuel Marcos, OF, Dominican Republic	Boston	$800,000
17. Raimel Flores, SS, Dominican Republic	Boston	$900,000
NR Dioscar Romero, RHP, Venezuela	Boston	$600,000
NR Luis Martinez, RHP, Venezuela	Chicago WS	$250,000
8. Marck Malave, C, Venezuela	Chicago Cubs	????
9. Luis Enrique Acosta, SS, Dominican Republic	Chicago Cubs	$1.1 million
30. Ricardo Marcano, 3B, Venezuela	Chicago Cubs	????
39. Jonathan Perez, RHP, Venezuela	Cincinnati	$825,000
38. Soid Marquez, RHP, Venezuela	Cincinnati	????
14. Dorssys Paulino, SS, Dominican Republic	Cleveland	$1.1 million
29. Anthony Santander, OF, Venezuela	Cleveland	$385,000
NR Fancisco Miguel, OF, Dominican Republic	Cleveland	$200,000
27. Antonio Senzatela, RHP, Venezuela	Colorado	????
26. Adelin Santa, 3B, Dominican Republic	Detroit	$750,000
13. Luis Reynoso, SS, Dominican Republic	Houston	$700,000
40. Arturo Michelena, SS, Venezuela	Houston	$220,000
NR Harold Arauz, RHP, Panama	Houston	$300,000
1. Elier Hernandez, OF, Dominican Republic	Kansas City	$3.05 million
12. Adalberto Mondesi, SS, Dominican Republic	Kansas City	$2 million
22. Miguel Gonzalez, RHP, Dominican Republic	Minnesota	$650,000
28. Mauricio Silva, RHP, Venezuela	Minnesota	$370,000
24. Jose Garcia, C, Venezuela	NY Mets	$800,000
20. Miguel Andujar, 3B, Dominican Republic	NY Yankees	$750,000
34. Sanber Pimentel, OF/1B, Dominican Republic	Oakland	????
37. Yairo Munoz, SS, Dominican Republic	Oakland	$280,000
25. Carlos Tocci, OF, Venezuela	Philadelphia	$759,000
15. Harold Ramirez, OF, Colombia	Pittsburgh	$1.1 million
23. Elvis Escobar, OF, Venezuela	Pittsburgh	$570,000
7. Jose Ruiz, C, Venezuela	San Diego	$1.1 million
18. Franmil Reyes, OF, Dominican Republic	San Diego	$700,000
3. Victor Sanchez, RHP, Venezuela	Seattle	$2 million plus
11. Helsin Martinez, OF, Dominican Republic	Seattle	$2 million
35. Jose Godoy, C, Venezuela	St. Louis	$200,000
NR Dewin Perez, :LHP, Colombia	St. Louis	$450,000
36. Eric Otanez, C, Dominican Republic	Tampa Bay	????
2. Ronald Guzman, OF, Dominican Republic	Texas	$3.5 million
10. Nomar Mazara, OF, Dominican Republic	Texas	$5.0 million
19. Yohander Mendez, LHP, Venezuea	Texas	$1.5 million
NR Eduard Pinto OF, Venezuela	Texas	$300,000
4. Roberto Osuna, RHP, Mexico	Toronto	????
5. Wilmer Becerra, SS/OF, Venezuela	Toronto	????
6. Dawel Lugo, SS, Dominican Republic	Toronto	$1.3 million
21. Jesus Gonzalez, OF, Venezuela	Toronto	????
33. Manuel Cordova, RHP, Venezuela	Toronto	?????
31. Manuel Gonzalez, RHP, Dominican Republic
32. Gialy Arias, RHP, Dominican Republic

Musings for an early February morning

•  Russ Canzler cost us $100,000?  Interesting as I am sure Tampa Bay took the best offer.  So why would a team like the Indians get an essentially first base-only guy when they have Duncan who is out of options?  Beats me and beats me why they would pay $100,000 for him.  Remember that Aaron Cunningham (he of the trade that cost us Josh Judy and Cory Burns) is also out of options.  100K is not much but getting Canzler doesn't seem to fit.  Heck, maybe he can turn out to be Casey Blake but without Blake's defense.
• Casey Kotchman?  Not a bad signing as we had to have better defense at first base with our starters.  However, let's remember that this is a domino signing.  Signing Kotchman means that LaPorta is probably going to the minors.  It also means that someone will be bumped off the 40 man roster and, as with Josh Jody, could easily be lost on waivers.  So when we consider Kotchman as a plus, and I do, remember that the incremental increase in talent will be dulled somewhat if LaPorta isn't here and if we lose the guy we DFA off the roster.  Again, this move does nothing to make the huge gamble in getting Jimenez look less fool-hearty.  And also remember that people talk about Pomeranz and White but Joe Gardner who we also lost in the trade is not chopped liver and performed very well after th trade.  As a groundball pitcher Gardner fits the mold of a guy who could get a lot of ML time in Colorado.
• As far as who will be lost from the roster, this will be interesting.  The Indians know much more about the health of Nick Weglarz than we all do.  My money is that he is not healthy and that the Indians will DFA him.    Popular money is on Juan Diaz or Danny Salazar as many fans can't understand why they were rostered this off-season.  One thing the Indians will probably NOT do is DFA Aaron Cunningham because their trade for him (loss of Burns and Judy) would look incredibly stupid at that point.   Aside from Weglarz, who would represent a significant loss for the organization, Ezequiel Carrera looks like someone they might try to sneak through waivers, as well.  As always, with the Indians, this will be an interesting roster move.
• Under this new administration it appears that when this organization is 'done' with a guy they are done with him for good and really don't value him at all.  They obviously don't give a crap about guys like Huff, Crowe, Putnam, Judy and Burns and, now, probably LaPorta.  The issue when an organization has this kind of attiutde that guys like Casey Blake sneak through and end up with good careers elsewhere.  The Indians were like thise regarding Jeremy Guthrie and Brandon Phillips, remember and look how that turned out.
• The Indians have dissed their minor league relief pitching prospects and gone with veteran minor league signings.  Over the past three years the Indians have had the following veteran relief AAAA filler who they have signed to minor league contracts: Chad Durbin, Justin Germano, Mike Gosling, Greg Aquino, Vinnie Chulk, Matt Herges, Tomo Ohka, Rich Rundles, Luis Vizcaino, Jose Veras.and Jamey Wright.  They let those guys pitch instead of giving the innings to their own prospects. Antonnetti said that the guys they brought in on minor league deals this year were brought in because they had a chance to contribute this year.  History would say the Indians have no clue how to pick these guys as none of the above guys had even decent stats here and most looked really bad.   Looking at the list of available relievers who signed minor league deals this off-season, I can spot at least 6 guys who were significantly better than the best AAAA reliever we signed.  Clearly we were bottom feeding and it is interesting we signed a lot of these guys AFTER we lost bullpen prospects and possible major league contributors this year in Putnam, Judy and Burns.  Could it be that the agents for the AAAA relievers smelled blood in the water after our trades and their clients knew from those moves and recent history that they would have the best shot to get ML time with the Indians, despite bad performances in the past and this coming season?  The Indians seem more intent on signing guys who will take the garbage the FO deals out and say 'may I have another, please?' in the hopes of getting a small amount of time in the majors that will come despite not earning it and will be extended beyond all reasonableness even if they pitch poorly in the big leagues.