Youth IS Being Served

In Paul Hoynes’ mailbag, a complaint that’s been making its rounds recently, that the Indians are blocking their young players with marginal veterans, is addressed.

The reasoning behind the argument is that the signings of Nixon and Dellucci are the latest in a long line of veterans signed by Shapiro that blocked homegrown talent. The argument continues that it started with Juan Gonzalez blocking Sizemore (which sorted itself out in Spring Training), then continued with Jason Johnson blocking Carmona and Sowers and Danny Graves taking a bullpen spot away from a young reliever last year.

In actuality, the Indians’ history of putting faith in their farm system and youngsters is pretty admirable. Some have panned out (Peralta…for 2005, at least), some have not (Phillips) and very few could have ever imagined that players like Sizemore and Sowers would experience the phenomenal success that they did right away.

The lesson of Brandon Phillips, in 2003, is probably the reason that the Indians don’t just hand starting jobs to any youngsters, making them earn their way onto the team instead. Phillips was given the 2B job, completely flopped, and started a series of events that led to his trade to Cincinnati (which was not the giant gaffe most believe it to be if you look at the complete body of work that Phillips put together from 2003 on…but that’s another discussion for another day). The lesson of Phillips was not to simply hand a young player a job, without having earned it on a consistent basis in MLB or without any competition from a player who has performed consistently in MLB.

That’s why the Indians brought in Nixon and Dellucci to take the place of Gutz and Choo and the bullpen arms to replace the youngsters we saw at the end of last year. If one of the prospects dazzle in AAA, they’ll force their way into the parent club’s plans; but if they struggle, they’re doing it in Buffalo, not Cleveland.

And really, are Nixon, Dellucci, and the bullpen arms really blocking any of their young talent?

Not unless you want to see Gutierrez and Choo cut their teeth on MLB pitching on an everyday basis when this team is poised to contend, or would like to see the Tribe break camp with a bullpen comprised of Betancourt, Cabrera, Miller, Davis, Mastny, Perez, and Mujica.

Judging by interviews with the position players this off-season, they certainly weren’t in favor of doing so. Put it this way – if you’re Grady, sitting in CF, watching the young bullpen blow save after save or watching Choo wave at pitches from LHP, would you have a lot of confidence that these young players will “turn the corner” before another season is frittered away? Or would you rather see Borowski and Foulke trot in from the bullpen to protect a late-inning lead and see professional hitters like Nixon protecting you in the lineup?

And what of allowing some youngsters some space on the roster?
Ah…no, the roster is tremendously young, even with the new players.
To wit, take a look at the ages of the likely 25-man roster on Opening Day:
Martinez – 28
Shoppach – 26
Garko – 26
Barfield – 24
Peralta – 24
Marte – 23
Luna – 27
Blake – 33
Nixon – 32
Sizemore – 24
Dellucci – 33
Michaels – 30
Hafner – 29
Sabathia – 26
Westbrook – 29
Lee – 28
Sowers – 23
Byrd – 36
Borowski – 35
Foulke – 34
Hernandez – 42
Fultz – 33
Betancourt – 31
Cabrera – 25
Davis – 26

So, before the signings of the platoon OF and the bullpen arms, there were 4 guys over the age of 30. Is that an old roster, devoid of young players given a chance to succeed?

If anything, the veteran signings were made to add some experience to a young roster. Because the Indians’ best players all fall under the age of 30, signings like this become a necessity to add some MLB experience to a core of players with a limited amount of service time, not an indication of an organizational strategy to impede the progress of young talent.

Knowing that the Indians remain one of the youngest teams in the Majors and that none of the “blocked” talent is truly ready to contribute, the argument that the Indians keep “blocking” these young players just doesn’t hold water.