Tomahawks

Not even the arrival of the 2006 Season Tickets could pull me off of the couch yesterday as a 24-hour bug ravaged me, but the news that Adelphia has signed on with SportsTime Ohio and will show Thursday night’s game is enough to perk me up.

As promised, here’s Sunday’s View from Pluto, with a nice overview of the Marte situation and a breakdown of the Dolans’ spending (which you might remember from a week ago here).

Nothing too exciting happening in the Haven (where the Tribe is 12-5), but some housecleaning nonetheless:
No surprises in the first round of wholesale cuts as most of the guys will be headed to the minors or extended Spring Training.

Wedgie set his rotation for the year. Again, no big surprises as he divides up the lefties (C.C. & Lee) and the sinkerballers (Westbrook & Johnson).


Watching Victor hit out of the DH hole for Venezuela (and bashing a GS) on the same day that Pronk took some grounders at 1B in Spring Training got me thinking.

If Ryan Garko is able to prove his worth as a defensive 1B (as well as Hafner and Martinez at 1B, for that matter), the Indians could have a 3 man rotation of Victor, Pronk, and Garko to play C, 1B, and DH every day. This would keep Victor fresh throughout the year and keep these 3 bats in the lineup at all times. If Shoppach took some AB’s at 1B as well, more power to him; however, this arrangement could give some stability to the lineup (i.e. Pronk 4th, Vic 5th, Garko 7th) while not running the players ragged and burning them out.

Maybe I’m counting Broussard out of the picture prematurely, but it seems to me that versatility is an important value to the Front Office and Wedge. Garko’s versatility (he did win the Johnny Bench Award as the top collegiate catcher) would seem to appeal to the idea that you can fill a majority of positions without having a huge amount of players (unlike the Broussard/Perez platoon of this year, who are both really just 1B) fill them.

Having that rotation would allow the Indians another arm in the bullpen or keep Boone around after the promotion of Marte to play some 2B or 3B. Again, I’m probably about a year ahead of myself (does anyone else think about what our rotation would look like in 2008?), but it has to be buried in somebody’s head that these three players could give each other days off in the field, while not disrupting the continuity of the lineup.

By the way, I see the 2008 rotation as C.C., Adam Miller, Lee, Carmona, and Sowers. That would separate the southpaws.
Not that I’ve given it much thought.