Lazy Sunday with Mr. Show Pack

As the calendar reads “August”, the sun is shining on the North Coast, even if the Indians are still looking up at the (gasp) Royals this late in the season. Since errands must be run to accommodate a trip to Vegas next weekend for a Bachelor Party, let’s get going on a Lazy Sunday:

With all of the trades happening involving big-name players (or players that USED to be big-name players), here’s the link to the exceptional Baseball America Trade Central 2008 page, which weighs in on all of the comings and goings in MLB in this busy time.

Sports Illustrated puts the Tribe in the “Winner” ledger of the Trading Deadline Season, saying that “They were the one team to get a big-time prospect. ‘LaPorta's going to hit forty home runs in the majors some year,’ one GM said. Plus, the catcher they got from the Dodgers for the serviceable and versatile Casey Blake, Carlos Santana, is a pretty good one who has no evil ways.”

With all the “big names” (sorry if I don’t see Pudge and The Kid at the end of their respective roads as “big names” anymore) that changed addresses, it’s nice to see that the Indians could have come up with the one difference-maker in terms of young talent. It also throws off the idea that the Indians dealt Sabathia “too early” if LaPorta was the best youngster that was available.

While it is nice to think that the CC and Blake deal will come out in the wash as well as the Colon deal, here’s a fascinating look back at the Expos deal and how universally praised Montreal GM Omar Minaya was for the move and how unflinchingly panned Tribe GM Mark Shapiro was at the time. Of course, just like Jhonny after his LASIK, we now see 20/20 on this move and others – but it’s interesting to see how perception about a trade at the time of the trade can evolve as the principal parts in the deal develop throughout the course of the next few years.

On the topic of new acquisitions and how they fit into the prospect mix, a couple of the boys at LGT, namely serial posters afh4 and APV, came up with an updated Top 25 list for Indians’ prospects, taking into account the acquisitions of the last few weeks.
Numbers 25 to 11 can be found here.
Numbers 10 to 1 are here.

On to topics involving current Featherheads, Terry Pluto addresses the “Shoppach to C, Vic to 1B in 2009” talk (something summarily dismissed by Hoynes in his mailbag…not linked if you’re looking), laying out the same argument you’ve heard here – in that Shoppach has outperformed any of the viable 1B options (Matt The Door not withstanding) and is positioning himself nicely to be a regular in 2009.

Sheldon Ocker examines the same topic from the Garko point of view, preaching patience for Garko at 1B and doubting that Victor’s move down the 1B line is “high on anyone's list of priorities.”

I don’t get this line of thinking as Shoppach has shown that he’s capable of providing some offensive punch from behind the plate and moving Victor to 1B may actually help him offensively by limiting the wear and tear of everyday catching on his body. He becomes, essentially, the backup C then and gives the roster greater flexibility in the process to perhaps carry an extra OF (ahem...Chootierrez) or keep a player that may be out of options (ahem...Marte) . Ocker (and everyone else) seems to forget that Garko has an option remaining for next year, so the Indians aren’t forced into carrying him on the 25-0man roster out of Goodyear next year.

To me, if Shoppach and Garko keep hitting in the manner that they do, it would be foolish to hand Garko the 1B job next year (or expect Aubrey to step in or slot LaPorta there if that hole in LF is still apparent) and relegate Shoppach back to the backup C role.

Of course, the Shoppach situation was one of the topics hit on during the TV show on Wednesday. The sound is still a touch off (a hat tip to serial poster Joshua Whitman for attempting to sync them up himself…and may still try to get them just right), so it’s kind of like watching a Kung Fu movie, only with two white guys in polos in the YouTube clips.

Regardless, here are the uploads to YouTube from the show, with topics ranging from Run TMC, the “Beard Quotient” on the team, Tasty Pizza at the corner of Richmond and Mayfield, Jon Meloan, and taking calls from the...um, colorful(?) world of Sports Talk:
Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV
Part V
Part VI

Since the sound and video (as I said) are a little off and it is a little long in the tooth…if the 6 parts didn’t clue you in, maybe it’s something that you can enjoy while watching the comedic stylings of Matt Ginter this afternoon as he attempts to replicate the success that Jeremy Sowers (for 6 innings, at least) and Paul Byrd found against the Twinkies.