A Lazy Sunday of Waiting...

Another Lazy Sunday, another episode of “As C.C. Turns” here as the Indians fall deeper and deeper into the abyss that their 2008 season has become.

While I’m not going to pretend that you come here for breaking news, I feel some sort of odd obligation to catch anyone up who’s not been hitting the “Refresh” button on their computer since Friday:
Most of the C.C. trade talk has come out via Ken Rosenthal, who spent his Independence Day reporting that the Brewers were throwing some highly-touted AA players (namely Matt LaPorta, shown to the right, and Alcides Escobar) in the mix for Sabathia then followed that up with a piece on what other teams could be in the fray, notably mentioning the Dodgers, and Tom Haudricourt from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, who says that the Indians are holding all of the cards right now and thinks that the Tribe will get back to Brewers’ GM Doug Melvin tonight or tomorrow. Incidentally, Haudricourt reported today that he expected an answer in time for C.C. to (potentially) make a start on Tuesday, so hold tight.

Interestingly, a number of names being bandied about in these C.C. talks made Baseball America’s 2008 mid-season All-Star team (with a nod to serial poster Halifax), with the Brewers’ Mat Gamel, Alcides Escobar, AND Matt LaPorta all having the best seasons at their respective positions in all of MiLB…at least according to BA.

You know, maybe we’ve been going about this the wrong way – maybe we should be looking to trade C.C. for Jack Zduriencik, the Brewers’ executive responsible for the Brewers’ surplus of riches in the minor leagues with a talent-laden team full of youngsters topside. As long as Milwaukee doesn’t ask us to throw in Antonetti, I’m putting my weight firmly behind this move.

On all of these trade talks, I’m not sure if Matt LaPorta (if, in fact, he is that big bat) is the type of player that would fill the team need of a player who would be playing for the Tribe in 2008 and legitimately contributing 2009 for the Indians (and not just transitioning to MLB), but he better be or else 2009 quickly starts to look like (depending upon what happens outside of a deal like this) a year of developing some of these players, with an eye on 2010.
That is something I’m not interested in because, as Buster Olney points out, things are not as dire for the Indians in 2009 as some would have you believe.

On the non-Brewers front and in what could be a fascinating turn of events, Dodgers’ GM Ned Colletti has said that he’s looking for an offensive SS and is willing to trade some of their prized prospects to acquire said offensive SS, as long as he’s not just a rent-a-player. In case you were wondering, Jhonny Peralta’s 12 HR rank tied for 2nd in MLB among SS, and his contract runs through 2010 with a 2011 club option for $7M.

Did you notice that Peralta started his stint of hitting in the #4 hole on Sunday, June 22nd in Dodger Stadium, Asdrubal Cabrera (when he’s not losing his cool on AAA umps) has played 21 of his 23 games in Buffalo as a SS, and one of the names connected to C.C. is a slick-fielding SS (Escobar) in the Brewers’ system?

Could the Indians deal Sabathia and get LaPorta or Gamel and Escobar AND get a player like James Loney or Matt Kemp for Jhonny Peralta (while the Tribe may be compelled to throw something else in) because Jhonny fills a need for the Dodgers today?

No local fishwraps make the cut (unsurprisingly) on the trade talk as they all seem to be getting their information from the likes of Rosenthal and Haudricout anyway, so I’ll just cut out the middle man. As an aside, is anyone else amazed in the least bit that the Indians’ beat reporters have nothing to add to the discussion or even put a Haudricourt-esque effort out there?

On the non-C.C. front, Terry Pluto (who has already turned the page on the season) touches on some of the questions that need to be answered as 2008 plays itself out, showing some love to Josh Barfield, Jordan Brown, Tribe minor league guru Tony Lastoria, whose site he plugs at the end of his column. Leave to the folks at cleveland.com to NOT hyperlink Tony’s site in the online edition.

Finally, Joe Posnanski shares some thoughts on the team of his boyhood and their current state of affairs, touching on the “Grady to the middle of the lineup” argument, among other topics.

Still quite a bit up in the air with this C.C. thing…can you feel it coming in the air tonight?