Lazy Sunday Feeling Bourn Again

So…any significant news coming out of the Indians lately? Other than pitchers and catchers reporting, signing the 2^nd major free agent in the same offseason and inking one of the best pitchers in the history of Japanese baseball to a minor league contract? This has been the busiest and most newsworthy week or so in any offseason I can remember, and for once all of the news coming out of Cleveland is good news. Everyone was excited enough at the prospect of spring training getting started, as the Indians had several new additions to the club that fans were going to finally get a look at in Wahoo red, white and blue. Then Chris Antonetti and company went out and did something totally unexpected, inking speedster Michael Bourn to bat leadoff and patrol CF, sliding fellow offseason acquisition Drew Stubbs over to RF. It was a move that had been rumored for a couple of weeks, but I don’t think anyone really expected it to happen. I certainly did not. I was happy with the moves the Tribe had already made in the offseason, and was thrilled to see spring training finally getting underway in earnest. But while pitchers were popping fastballs into catcher’s mitts all across the desert, the Indians front office remained busy at work getting manager Terry Francona one last(?) piece to help with sorting out the lineup puzzle. So with an eye towards Goodyear, we’re off on another exciting Lazy Sunday in February…

Even after the Indians signed Mark Reynolds and Nick Swisher, the club still had a gaping hole remaining at the designated hitter slot. There was talk about bringing back Travis Hafner at a deeply discounted rate from what he would have received if the Indians had picked up his 2013 option, but Hafner signed with the Yankees and is currently salivating over the short RF porch in Yankee Stadium. Some speculated that the Indians would look to another hero from times past and bring back Jim Thome, but that was never really an option. I even saw one site speculate that the Indians could be interested in bringing back Manny Ramirez, but that line of “thinking” was never rooted in any sort of reality. Conventional wisdom led most to assume that Francona would use the DH as a rotating day off for his various position players, a couple of which (namely Kipnis and Asdrubal) seemed to tire and tail off towards the end of last season. Supersub Mike Aviles’ presence on the 25-man roster would have made that scenario easy to work out, as Aviles can play 2B/3B/SS and even LF to give pretty much anyone in the lineup a day off. But rather than leave the DH to such a rotation, Antonetti went out and signed Bourn. Bourn was negotiating with the New York Mets, and the Mets were attempting to get major league baseball to soften on the draft pick compensation rule that would have seen the Mets lose their 1^st round pick to the cross-town Yankees if they’d signed Bourn. The deal stalled while the Mets petitioned the Commissioner’s Office, and the Indians swooped in with a contract that guarantees him at least $48 million over the next four years. If Bourn accumulates 550 plate appearances in 2016 (and passes a physical following the season), then a $12 million option kicks in to make the final total of the deal a whopping $60 million over five seasons. Add that to the $56 million that the Indians guaranteed Swisher (with a vesting option that could push it to $70 million), and a quick math tally shows us that the Indians have committed as much as $130 million to two players in a single offseason, albeit two of the top-10 free agents available this winter. That is completely unprecedented in the history of the franchise.

Bourn is one of the fastest players in major league baseball, and that speed helps him to be an elite defender in CF. He’s a two-time all-star and has a pair of Gold Gloves sitting on his mantle, and the defensive metrics rank him as the top CF in all of baseball. By baseball-reference.com’s Wins Above Replacement (WAR) measurements, his glove alone was worth three wins last season in Atlanta. He’ll patrol CF as part of the fastest outfield in baseball, flanked by two other guys who played CF last season in Michael Brantley and Drew Stubbs. Stubbs and his cannon arm will slide over to RF while Brantley and his…less than cannon arm will be running down balls in LF. The grass at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario really will be the place fly balls go to die this summer, provided the front office doesn’t move one of the former CF for pitching depth. And we haven’t even talked about Bourn’s impact with the bat or on the bases yet; he hit a solid .274/.348/.391 with 9 HR and 57 RBI last season, while stealing 42 bases with Atlanta. He’s swiped at least 41 bags in every season since becoming a full-time player in 2008. Every time Bourn gets on base, he’s a real threat to turn a single into a triple like no player we’ve seen in Cleveland since…dare I say it…Kenny Lofton. The Indians as a team stole 110 bases last season. Bourn and Stubbs (30 SB last year, 40 in 2011) have the potential to do that between the two of them in 2013. Bourn’s presence will also let Terry Francona rest Drew Stubbs against lefthanded pitching, as he’s put up some pretty ugly splits against southpaws throughout his career. Lineup flexibility is always a good thing, and we’re not talking about Garko to the OF type of flexibility here.

One of the reasons that the Indians were able to sign Bourn is the new rules regarding draft pick compensation. In case you need a refresher on the new CBA that was agreed upon last season, teams losing free agents are subject to draft pick compensation from signing franchises if the free agent has been offered a one-year tender of $13.3 million by his original club. That dollar amount will vary from season to season, but for this offseason it was set at $13.3 million. Both Swisher and Bourn were tendered that offer by the Yankees and Braves, respectively. “Fortunately” for the Indians, they finished with one of the 10 worst records in baseball last year, and the top-10 picks in the draft are protected. So instead of losing their first and second round picks, the Indians only had to forfeit their 2^nd round pick and the pick they were awarded in the new competitive balance lottery, a sandwich pick between the 2^nd and 3^rd rounds of the draft. There’s a good chance that Bourn would have signed prior to mid-February if the signing team wouldn’t have been forced to give up their 1^st round pick as compensation, so the Indians really lucked out under the new rules. In fact, the Indians can actually thank superagent Scott Boras, because if his client Mark Appel had signed with the Pirates last season, then the Mets would have had the 10^th (and protected) pick in the draft and likely would have signed Bourn. Some are hailing this as proof that the new CBA works; I think it was just a lucky break for this season. The new CBA doesn’t protect small markets as much as it rewards incompetence. The Red Sox have the 7^th pick in the draft, which of course is also a protected pick this year. If the small-market Pirates had signed a marquee free agent, they’d have been penalized by losing their first round pick, #14 overall. The only way the CBA is structured to protect small markets is if you assume that small market teams have no chances to compete and will consistently finish among the bottom 10 teams in baseball year in and year out.

The Indians benefited from the system this time around, but that hardly means that the system works the way it should. Small market teams are still penalized by the hard slotting system in both the draft and the international market, something the Indians are going to have to deal with much more this year than last year because when the club lost their 2^nd and competitive balance sandwich pick, they also lost the corresponding money that went along with the picks. So going way overslot on their 1^st rounder and way underslot on their 2^nd rounder is no longer an option. I hate to include a CBA rant in every one of my articles, but the system just makes so little sense overall that I’m constantly finding new issues with the rules. Such is life though, and credit the Indians front office with seizing on the opportunity to exploit a loophole in the system this year and going all-out. It’s clear that Antonetti and company intend to pick outside of the top-10 next year, and are using their free agent capital this season while that invaluable first round pick is protected. Small market success is about identifying and exploiting inefficiencies, and kudos to the Indians front office for doing just that this offseason.

So with all that said, I do have a couple of minor concerns with the Bourn signing. One, he’s a player who’s value is tied almost entirely to his legs. He’s been a very, very good player due to his legs, but if his speed goes, so does his value. As we’ve discussed, Bourn offers slightly better than league average production at the plate. He strikes out too much and doesn’t walk as much as you’d like from your leadoff hitter. His primary value to the team is in the field and on the basepaths, and if he suffers an injury that saps him of his speed, that’s a huge problem. Back when everyone’s favorite political forecaster Nate Silver was still just a baseball numbers guy, he wrote an article for Baseball Prospectus that illustrated the steep decline that MLB CF undergo around age 32. Bourn will play the 2013 season as a 30 year old. I’m not saying that I expect a dramatic drop-off in production for Bourn after the 2014 season, but the situation bears monitoring. It’s not like Bourn can just slide over to LF and let his bat carry him if he loses a step.

My second concern is that while Bourn is an overall upgrade to the roster (of course), his presence in CF actually lowers the value of all of the players that he’s displacing. Drew Stubbs slides over to RF, where his bat will be slightly less valuable that in CF. Nick Swisher moves to 1B, where his bat will be a little less valuable than in RF. Mark Reynolds moves to DH, where…well, you get the idea. So while Bourn could be worth as many as six wins over a replacement player based on his recent performance, the player he’s replacing is an above-average defender himself, so the upgrade won’t be as dramatic as if he were replacing, say, Johnny Damon in CF. But the overall team defense is definitely upgraded by the move, and it really is going to be fun watching the highlight-level plays day in and day out in the Indians outfield this summer.

All in all, those two concerns are outweighed by the positive aspects of the deal, summed up best (as usual) by the fantastic Jonah Keri over at Grantland. Bourn makes the Indians a better team, of that there can be no doubt. He gives manager Terry Francona more options with the outfield and with the DH position. The dollars in the contract, while significant, are actually extremely reasonable in today’s market; Josh Hamilton, B.J. Upton and Nick Swisher all got more money than Bourn, and it’s entirely possible that Bourn outperforms all of them next year (if Hamilton gets hurt again, that is). Even Torii Hunter got a higher annual value than Bourn when he signed a 2-year, $26 million deal with the Tigers. Shane Victorio, coming off of a .704 OPS, got $39 million for three years! Bourn was looking for a deal in the 5-year, $100 million range earlier this offseason, and the Braves actually moved on to sign B.J. Upton because they thought Bourn would be too expensive. So the deal is an excellent value, particularly with the huge influx of MLB TV revenue that will be flowing into teams’ coffers in the near future. Salaries are poised to explode in the coming seasons, so obtaining an asset of Bourn’s talent for a reasonable cost can be seen as a good investment in talent if nothing else. If Bourn helps headline a new “window of contention” sometime in the next one to five years, then great! Mission accomplished. If not, Antonetti has a reasonably-priced asset that he can flip for younger parts. The signing makes all the sense in the world from both a talent and financial perspective, and if the Indians have acquired their mid-2010’s version of mid-1990’s Kenny Lofton, so much the better. Oh, and the Indians reportedly sold as many season tickets this past Tuesday night as they did in a month last offseason, another added benefit to creating a little buzz in the cold winter months.

Bourn was not the only free agent the Indians brought into the fold this past week, as there were a couple of interesting minor league deals (with accompanying invites to MLB camp in the spring, of course). Jason Giambi, now 42 and fresh off an interview for the Colorado manager’s seat, will compete this spring to be a pinch-hitter and lefthanded DH when the club breaks camp to head North and start the regular season. His career OBP is still a remarkable .403, and Giambi actually had a pretty good season for Colorado in 2011. He hit 13 HR and put up a .260/.335/.603(!) line in 131 at-bats, most of them as a pinch hitter. He hit just one HR in 89 AB last season, and can only be considered a long shot to make the Indians opening day roster. Still, prior to the Bourn signing, that did not stop the twitter GM’s from lamenting the cheapness of the Dolans and the clear bout of insanity that Chris Antonetti was suffering in thinking that Giambi was anything but washed up. People who get worked up and bent out of shape over minor league non-roster invitees (NRI’s) never cease to amaze me, but those fans were quickly quelled by the Bourn signing and we (mercifully) only had to put up with them for a day or so.

The second NRI is a little more intriguing and has a better shot to break camp with the team, as Daisuke Matsuzaka directly addresses the Indians biggest weakness; their starting pitching. Matsuzaka battled injuries and ineffectiveness last season when he went 1-7 with a (hide the women and children) 8.28 ERA and 1.70 WHIP in 11 starts for the Red Sox. It was his first season back on the mound after undergoing Tommy John surgery, so some rust is completely understandable. But he’s now four seasons removed from his outstanding 2008 campaign that saw him go 18-3 with a 2.90 ERA for the Sox, and he’s really never been close to that level of success since. That 2008 season is looking more and more like a BABIP fluke than anything else as the years go by. In 2008, Matsuzaka’s BABIP against was just .260, a full 76 points below his career average of .336. BABIP usually regresses to the mean, and when a guy who is always among the league leaders in walks suddenly stops getting lucky, bad things tend to happen. Maybe 2008 was the last season he was really healthy, or maybe it was the last season he was really lucky. Either way, it’s more than worth a NRI to find out, and Matsuzaka will make just $1.5 million if he makes the 25-man roster out of spring training.

In his first interviews with the Cleveland media after signing, he said that there were two factors that brought him to Cleveland. One, he would get to pitch for manager Terry Francona again. Two, he would be in the American League and get to face his former team, the Boston Red Sox. A healthy, happy and motivated Matsuzaka might just surprise some people this season, and if so Antonetti will look like a genius. If not, it costs absolutely nothing. While the dramatic upgrades in the lineup are nice and were badly-needed, the Indians still have serious issues with their starting pitching. The starting rotation is currently occupied by five “ifs.” IF Masterson can get back to his 2011 form, IF Ubaldo isn’t the complete disaster he was in 2012, IF Brett Myers can return to a starting role, IF Carlos Carrasco comes back healthy and IF Trevor Bauer has learned from his struggles in 2012, then the Indians might have a decent rotation. That’s a lot of “ifs,” and adding Matsuzaka to compete for a spot certainly isn’t going to hurt anything. Anthony Castrovice came up with the most creative (and accurate) analogy for the Indians starting rotation that I’ve seen so far; highway rest stop fast food. In Castro’s words, “You know they’re not likely to blow away your expectations, but you do need them, they do serve a purpose, and you just hold out hope they don’t leave you violently ill.” Well put, Anthony, well put.

Speaking of Trevor Bauer, his former catcher with the Diamondbacks, Miguel Montero, continues to work as hard as possible to shove his entire cleat down his own throat. Montero again this week felt the need to run down Bauer to the media at the Diamondbacks fan fest, saying that the 22-year old “never wanted to listen” to him, among other things. I’ve made my feelings on the Bauer-Montero relationship pretty clear, and I see no reason to change those now.  I still think Montero is coming across as the bad guy in this relationship, and I really can’t believe that Arizona sportswriters don’t have anything more interesting to ask the team about than a player who was traded away two months ago. Maybe they’re trying to justify what was seen as a poor trade by their team’s GM in dealing a top pitching prospect for a great defensive shortstop who has struggled to hit in the minor leagues. Maybe they’re just not that creative, or maybe Montero keeps bringing it up and the quotes make for good copy and are still driving page clicks. Whatever the reason, the controversy doesn’t seem to be going away, and that’s really no fault of Bauer’s at this point. Bauer was contrite and apologetic after the season, calling his teammates and coaches in an attempt to smooth over perceived slights and identify just what it was about him that seemed to rub everyone the wrong way. But his former teammates just can’t seem to let it go, for whatever reason. The more Miguel Montero talks, the better Trevor Bauer sounds. 

Tucked away in that article from Arizonasports.com is a quote from Montero that might be the real reason behind the tension between the players. Montero talks about spring training last year, and says, “since day one in Spring Training I caught him and he killed me because he threw about 100 pitches in the first day.” Seems innocuous enough, but I’m about to share with you a secret known to catchers everywhere; we HATE catching bullpens. We really hate catching bullpens in unseasonably hot weather. And we really hate catching bullpens in hot weather in the preseason when our legs aren’t in shape yet. The first bullpen of the spring is supposed to be like syllabus day. You show up, get to know each other, throw 30 or so pitches and hit the showers. Montero prepared for syllabus day, and Professor Bauer came with a full day’s lecture ready to go. That started the relationship off on the wrong foot, and it just deteriorated from there. To his credit, Bauer has remained extremely professional with respect to his issues in Arizona. Asked about the Montero comments on twitter, Bauer responded “Great thing about the United States. We have the freedom to say whatever we want. Thanks to all the men who fight for that.” Despite many members of the media irresponsibly assuming that one of Bauer’s rap songs that was recorded in December was a response to Montero’s February comments, he’s kept everything above board with respect to his former catcher. Just my additional $.02 on the matter, and I’m really looking forward to Spring Training this year when I can ask Trevor Bauer about it.

Lastly, I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring attention to the Indians recently-released promotional schedule for 2013, which includes some really neat events and giveaways. I’m the proud owner of a gray Justin Masterson jersey that was a giveaway last season, and I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of the shirt. This season, the Indians have several similar jersey giveaways, including a Jason Kipnis jersey (June 15), 1902 replica jersey (July 13), Michael Brantley (July 27) and Nick Swisher (August 24) as well as several caps. There’s the usual assortment of Dollar Dog games (3 in Sept alone!) and fireworks displays. If you’ve never stuck around for one of the Indians fireworks display, I highly recommend it as they are extremely impressive. As expected, the Indians are going to tug at the heartstrings of the fans out there who still long for the glory days of the mid-1990’s with a couple of bobblehead giveaways, Albert Belle (June 1) and Omar Vizquel (July 8). Reportedly, the Albert Belle bobblehead will feature a likeness of the slugger from that magical night in September of 1995 when the Indians were on their way to sweeping the Boston Red Sox in the divisional round of the playoffs. As we all remember, Sox manager Kevin Kennedy asked the umpires to check Belle’s bat, thinking it may be corked. Belle stood in the dugout and pointed to his bicep, informing Kennedy that the “cork” he was looking for was right there. It’s an iconic image of a time when the Indians were near the top of the baseball world, and it’s something that will surely have Tribe fans lining up before the gates even open to ensure that they’re one of the first 10,000 fans who will receive the collectable. The promotional schedule is neat, but here’s hoping that in 2013 fans will be drawn to the stadium more for the winning baseball played inside of it rather than the trinkets given away at the gate. With that said, here’s looking to position battles and guys showing up in the best shape of their lives as spring training gets underway and we all look forward to real baseball a little more than we did at this time last week…

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Quick Look Back on a Lazy Sunday

I know the posts have been few and far between here in the new year, but I promise there's a good reason why. My head has been buried in my annual top prospect countdown, and nearly every writing minute I have of late has been devoted to that. There also hasn't exactly been much news worth breaking down (unless you count "the equipment truck is leaving for Goodyear!" as news). So while I know you're not getting the regular Lazy Sunday that you're accustomed to, just wait until March. I'm going to countdown the top 60 prospects in the Indians organization for you, five at a time, over twelve straight action-packed days. I'm targeting March 3 for the first installment, so thanks for bearing with me until then. Additionally, expect to see at least a quick article every day I'm in Goodyear (March 21-26), including a couple of scheduled interviews that I am really, really excited for. Come March, the DiaTribe will be flowing fast and furious, so thanks for hanging with me until then. I'm not saying there won't be a legit Lazy Sunday between now and then or anything like that, just saying there won't be one every week like there will be during the regular season. If you need your Indians fix, hit me up on Twitter and I'll be happy to answer any questions or anything on there. In the meantime...

For those of you who don't know, my Indians stuff runs on The Cleveland Fan in addition to here on the DT, and my archive of minor league stuff is on there as well. Over on TCF, we decided it would be fun to countdown the top Cleveland athletes to wear each jersey number. I got a little out of the box with my first piece on Kyrie Irving, as while I'm a Cavs fan I know a lot more about the Indians and Browns than the city's hoops team. But the second number I drew was #6, and that was much more in my wheelhouse as one of the greatest players in Indians history wore that digit for his two best seasons in Cleveland. So for your reading pleasure here on a chilly Lazy Sunday, here's my article on Colavito in case you haven't seen it yet.

In 1950, the Indians signed an 18-year old outfielder from the Bronx to a free agent contract. He had dropped out of school as a 16-year old to pursue his professional baseball career, a decision that Rocco Domenico Colavito Jr. would never regret. Colavito grew up a Yankee fan, but his honetown team showed very little interest in the hitting prodigy, so the Indians were able to sign him before his high school class even graduated. Colavito debuted with the Indians for a brief nine-AB audition in 1955 before coming up for good in 1956. In the same summer that Mickey Mantle won the Triple Crown, Colavito tied for 2nd in AL Rookie of the Year voting after a season in which he hit .276/.372/.531 with 22 HR, 65 RBI and more walks (49) than strikeouts (46). With whom did Colavito tie in the vote that year? None other than Baltimore’s Tito Francona, of course. How Colavito and his .903 OPS (and 2.3 WAR) lost out to Chicago’s Luis Aparacio’s .653 OPS (and 1.3 WAR) is beyond me, but that’s neither here nor there. Rookie of the Year or not, a Cleveland legend was born.

Colavito wore #38 in both his rookie and sophomore campaigns, and put together two solid seasons on the North Shore. He slugged 46 HR, drove in 149 runs and posted a .845 OPS back before anyone knew what OPS was. Not bad numbers, but not exactly MVP-worthy either. Prior to the 1958 season, Colavito transitioned to jersey #6. Wearing the new digit, Colavito dominated American League pitching to the tune of a .303/.405/.620 line as a 24-year old in 1958, adding 41 HR, 26 2B and 113 RBI. The 41 HR were just one behind AL leader Mickey Mantle, and helped earn Colavito a 3rd place finish in AL MVP voting that year. When he followed that up by leading the league with 42 HR in 1959, it looked like the Indians would have one of the game’s superstars on their payroll for years to come. Colavito was young, good looking, power hitting and had a cannon for an arm. He was a fan favorite, and by all accounts loved playing in Cleveland. His fantastic 1959 season included a 4-HR game in Baltimore against the Orioles, helping push him to the national spotlight and turning him into a household name among baseball fans around the country. He was the first player in club history to have two 40+ HR seasons, and his .620 SLG in 1958 stood as a team record until 1994.

All that came crashing down when, prior to the 1960 season in a move that still reverberates in Cleveland history, Indians GM Frank “Trader” Lane dealt the popular slugger to the Detroit Tigers. The move occurred on April 17, just days before Opening Day, and if Twitter were around in 1960 you could bet that the Internet would have melted down in Cleveland that day. In fact, if the Internet existed during at all during Frank Lane’s career, he may have crashed it more than once. Lane made more than 400 trades during his various stints as a GM, including the 1960 trade that sent manager Joe Gordon to Detroit in exchange for Tigers manager Jimmy Dykes. Lane even attempted to trade Stan Musial during the 1956 season until the Cardinals owner stepped in and put a stop to those negotiations. Stan Musial! But I digress…Colavito was dealt straight up for OF Harvey Kuenn, a trade that saw the reigning HR champ swapped for the reigning batting champ. Kuenn was actually coming off of a fairly solid season in Detroit, having hit .353/.402/.501 with 42 doubles and 9 HR. The batting average and doubles both led the AL in 1959, but that season represented the high water mark for Kuenn’s career. Prior to the ’59 season, Kuenn had just a .768 career OPS in 6+ seasons in the major leagues. After the 1959 season, he was even worse, putting up a paltry .729 OPS from 1960 until his retirement after the 1966 season. Say what you will about Chris Antonetti, Mark Shapiro and their use of “advanced statistics” like OPS and WAR, but they’d have never made the Colavito trade. Kuenn lasted just one season in Cleveland before Lane shipped him to San Francisco in exchange for Johnny Antonelli and Willie Kirkland.

In his four seasons in Detroit, Colavito continued to be productive but wasn’t nearly as happy or beloved as he was during his time in Cleveland. The Rock averaged 35 HR and 108 RBI with the Tigers, including his best season as a pro in 1961 when he hit .290/.402/.580 with 45 HR and 140 RBI. However, showing that people in Michigan were idiots even back in the 50’s and 60’s, Tigers fans groused about the trade and publicly preferred Kuenn to Colavito. Tigers beat writer Joe Falls was particularly hard on Colavito, as he famously created the Run Not Batted In (RNBI) stat for use specifically in case Colavito dared to strand a runner on base. Can you imagine Jordan Bastain or Paul Hoynes doing that to Nick Swisher in 2013? Wait, let me rephrase that; can you imagine Jordan Bastain doing that to Nick Swisher in 2013? Colavito’s relationship with the fans wasn’t much better; in May of 1961 the slugger went into the stands to confront a drunken Tigers fan (better known by the abbreviation of ‘a Tigers fan’) who had been accosting Colavito’s wife and father. You stay classy, Detroit. Meanwhile, in Colavito’s first game back in Cleveland after the deal, Indians fans hung Frank Lane in effigy to protest the trade.

Following the 1963 season, Colavito was dealt to Kansas City where he had another solid year, hitting .274/.366/.507 with 34 HR and 102 RBI for the Athletics. By then, “Trader” Lane was out of baseball and was serving as the GM for the Chicago Zephyrs of the fledgling NBA (he would return to baseball later on, but that’s another story). Gabe Paul was the GM of the Indians now, and was determined to right the wrong that was the terrible Rocky Colavito trade. Paul re-acquired Colavito from the Athletics in a complicated 3-team deal that included the Chicago White Sox in January of 1965. When the dust settled, the Indians sent John Romano, Tommie Agee and Tommy John to the Sox for Colavito and Cam Carreon. Agee promptly won the Rookie of the Year Award, a Gold Glove and was named to the AL All-Star team in 1966, and Tommy John of course went on to win 286 games in a uniform other than Cleveland’s, as well as have some fancy surgery named after him. But Colavito was home, and that was all that mattered to Indians fans at the time.

Rocky was 31 years old by the time he again donned the Indians uniform, and this time his jersey featured the #21 on the back. He had a solid season in 1965, hitting .287/.383/.468 with 26 HR and a league-leading 108 RBI. But after hitting just .238/.336/.432 in 1966, it was clear that Cleveland’s favorite player was on the downside of his career. He appeared in just 63 games in Cleveland in the 1967 season, hitting a career-worst .231/.317/.333 with only 8 HR. Only July 29 of that year, just prior to the trading deadline, Colavito was again traded away. This time he went to the White Sox in return for Jim King and a PTBNL. The PTBNL turned into Marv Staehle, and ironically the only team that gave up anything of real value when they traded for the great Rocky Colavito was the Indians themselves. Colavito closed out his career in 1968, appearing in 40 games with the Dodgers and 39 games with the Yankees. He hit 8 HR between the two leagues, and even won a game for the Yankees on the mound, throwing 2 2/3 scoreless innings in his 2nd and final career pitching appearance.

All in all, Colavito appeared in 913 games as a Cleveland Indian. In those games, Colavito hit .267/.361/.495 with 190 HR and 574 RBI. He made the all-star team three times (1959, 1965, 1966) and finished in the top-5 of MVP voting in three times (1958, 1959, 1965). His 190 HR still rank 10th in team history. He helped spawn a book and sequel from noted Cleveland sports author Terry Pluto, who penned “The Curse of Rocky Colavito” in 1994 and followed it quickly with “Burying the Curse” in 1995. Colavito ended up wearing three different numbers as an Indian, starting off his career with #38 before switching to #6 and then finishing up with #21, but his best seasons came while donning the #6 jersey. Colavito was elected into the Cleveland Indians Hall of Fame in 2006, and when Terry Pluto interviewed Colavito near the 50-year anniversary of the trade that sent him to Detroit, Colavito said, “I loved Cleveland and the Indians. I never wanted to leave.” He was one of the best players in baseball for much of a decade, one of the most popular players in club history, and a guy who was proud to call Cleveland “home.”

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Reluctantly Looking at Cooperstown on a Lazy Sunday

I had no intention of writing about this year’s Baseball Hall of Fame voting. None. Zip, zilch, zero. Felt it was already extensively covered elsewhere, and the comments on other articles I’ve seen approach the insanity that has only been replicated at the bottom of CNN/FoxNews articles about the recent presidential election. Figured I’d find a much better way to spend my time. But then the unthinkable happened; not only did the Baseball Writers Association of America not elect a single candidate to the Hall this year, they also allowed Kenny Lofton to fall completely off the ballot. So with an equal combination of frustration, anger and reluctance, I approached the keyboard late this week to at least get my thoughts down on “paper,” submitted for the world to see. If you’re completely over the Hall debate and have absolutely no interest in discussing or reading about this anymore, I totally understand. Good news is you’re still getting a Lazy one this week, and I’m saving the Hall stuff for the very end so you can pull the ripcord before that point if you’d like. We’re still going to have a nice Sunday chat about Trevor Bauer, Spring Training, and even a little Jeanmar Gomez thrown in for good measure. So whether you’re in for the whole show this week or not, here’s a meandering effort for you to digest with your morning coffee, fresh waffles and crispy bacon on this unseasonably warm Lazy Sunday…

Newly-acquired starting pitcher Trevor Bauer has already had himself a busy 2013. First, he had his new club’s big-league skipper and GM visit him in Texas to have a chat and observe his unique training regime. As if that weren’t stressful enough, the a player who is shy and quiet by his own admission flew to Cleveland to take part in the Indians winter development program, and as a result was put through his paces by the assembled host of media in his first interviews for his new baseball city. As I’ve indicated previously both in this space and on Twitter, I’m all-in on Trevor Bauer and am really looking forward to watching him pitch in an Indians uniform. But part of the reason the Indians were able to acquire the talented youngster was his perceived “weirdness” in the Arizona clubhouse. It got to the point where Bauer actually contacted his D-Backs teammates in the offseason to ask them what he did to rub them the wrong way. So this initial interaction with the cantankerous Cleveland media had the potential to be ugly, or at the very least awkward. Judging by the articles that have been coming out, the complete opposite occurred. Both Anthony Castrovice and Jordan Bastian put out their usual excellent pieces on Bauer, and both had interesting and good things to say about the 21-year old righty. I wrote about my thoughts on Bauer’s issues with the Diamondbacks in a previous Lazy Sunday, so I’m not going to extensively rehash them here. But if you’d like to see some of the…interesting pregame activity that Bauer has become known for, there’s a video embedded into both Castro and Bastain’s articles that are linked above.

Bauer is a bright kid, the son of an engineer who is interested in not only the results but in the raw mechanics of pitching. He’s come right out to say that he’s been somewhat shy all his life, and teammates throughout the years have sometimes mistaken that shyness for arrogance. He’s clearly bothered by that impression, and it seems like he’s really taken steps to identify and mitigate those issues. The bottom line is that if Bauer comes out and pitches effectively, then his personality quirks, unique pre-game and pre-inning warm-up routine will become “colorful” and “fun.” If he struggles, then people will question whether he “needs” to throw long-toss, or crow-hop to fire in his first warm-up toss between innings. I’ll rely on the classic baseball film Bull Durham here, as Crash Davis made his point to Nuke LaLoosh about success allowing for a little extra freedom to be different:

“Your shower shoes have fungus on them. You'll never make it to the bigs with fungus on your shower shoes. Think classy, you'll be classy. If you win 20 in the show, you can let the fungus grow back and the press will think you're colorful. Until you win 20 in the show, however, it means you’re a slob”

This also serves to highlight the Indians much-heralded Winter Development Program, the brainchild of Indians team president Mark Shapiro 18 years ago. The program serves to acclimate some of the top prospects in the organization to the city of Cleveland, Progressive Field, major league training staffs and facilities and of course, dealing with the media. The players that have gone through the program in the past have always given it rave reviews, and it really makes a difference in preparing the prospects to move up the organizational ladder. This year, the players will have an opportunity to interact with GM Chris Antonetti and Terry Francona, and featured speakers will include ESPN’s Buster Olney and…wait for it…Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer. Meyer was actually a pretty good baseball player in his youth, having been drafted out of his Ashtabula high school in the 13^th round by the Braves back in 1982. Meyer played just two years of professional baseball, never making it out of Rookie ball and posting a career OPS of just .585 in 110 at bats. So Meyer’s presentation will hopefully be more motivational than batting practice. Participating in the program this year are 1B Jesus Aguilar, RHP Shawn Armstrong, C/1B Yan Gomes, RHP Preston Guilmet, RHP Trey Haley, LHP T.J. House, OF Tyler Holt, SS Francisco Lindor, RHP Fabio Martinez, OF Carlos Moncrief, SS Ronny Rodriguez, RHP Danny Salazar, LHP Gio Soto, and SS Tony Wolters. All of those players are going to appear in the top half of my upcoming prospect countdown. Some are still quite a ways away from the MLB roster, but all will benefit from the knowledge and experience gained in the program this offseason.  

In a relatively minor deal earlier this week, the Indians dealt pitcher Jeanmar Gomez to the Pittsburgh Pirates in return for outfield prospect Quincy Latimore. Gomez was designated for assignment to make room for outfielder Nick Swisher, and became expendable after the Brett Myers signing. The soon to be 25-year old Gomez went 5-8 with a 5.96 ERA in 90 2/3 IP for the Indians last year, and has a career WHIP of 1.510 in 206 2/3 big league innings. Gomez is probably most known for throwing a perfect game for AA Akron, and has the upside of a #5 starter in the big leagues. A switch to the NL might help his numbers, but the raw talent just isn’t there for Gomez to be anything more than a rotation filler in the Show. He’s out of options, so if he doesn’t make the Pirates 25-man roster out of spring training then he’ll have to be exposed to waivers again in order to be assigned to Pittsburgh’s minor league system. So if I were Gomez, I wouldn’t exactly start house hunting in the Steel City just yet.

Latimore (not Lattimer) was the Pirates 4^th round pick in 2007 out of a North Carolina high school. Last year in his age 23-season, Latimore hit .252/.321/.433 with 15 HR, 71 RBI and 10 SB for AA Altoona. He was repeating the level, and did show a lot of growth from 2011 by improving on his average, OBP, SLG, RBI, SB, BB and cut down his strikeouts from 140 in 2011 to 105 in 2012.  I’d be lying if I told you I knew anything about Latimore prior to this week, so I perused some Pirates blogs to get a flavor of their thoughts on the trade. No one seemed to broken up over losing him, calling him an organizational player and criticizing his approach. Hopefully the drop in strikeouts from 2011 to last year was a trend rather than a one-year aberration, but I’m not exactly penciling Latimore in as the Indians LF of the future. I’d expect him to start in AA Akron next year but have a chance to progress to AAA Columbus fairly quickly if he can get a hot start out of the gates. He’s got intriguing power potential, but will need to cut down on the strikeouts to turn the raw power into more consistent game power.

One of the most exciting days of the year for me is the day I book my annual Spring Training trip. Earlier this week I scheduled my flight, rental car and hotel for Goodyear, and will be down in sunny Arizona from March 21-26 (departing 67 days from today…not that I’m counting). If you’ve never been, I highly recommend it as it’s one of my all-time favorite experiences as a baseball fan. I’ve been three years in a row now, so this upcoming March will by my fourth trip in as many years. There’s as much free baseball as you want if you’re interested in the minor league games, and the lawn seats in the outfield for the MLB games are cheap and plentiful. If anyone else is going to be down during the week I’m there, let me know and we can meet for a pop or two during or after a game.

As promised, we waited till the end to delve into the Hall talk. By its very nature the Hall debate is an extremely subjective one. A player can be a grizzled sportswriter’s Hall of Famer but a sabermatrician’s replacement player and vice versa. Setting aside the Jack Morris/Tim Raines debate for now, I’d like to put one statement out there that I think everyone can agree on; the Baseball Hall of Fame exists to commemorate and record baseball history. There are some players, most notably “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and Pete Rose, who have been banned from baseball for their actions and have been declared ineligible for inclusion into the hallowed grounds of Cooperstown. While there’s debate over whether or not those two players should be eligible, the fact is they are not and no one is allowed to vote for them. With the recent attention (note; not recent USE) on performance enhancing drugs in baseball, there’s another debate raging between sportswriters and fans, this one focusing on whether or not players who have been conclusively linked to the use of performance enhancing drugs should be elected into the Hall of Fame based on their on-field accomplishments. Even worse, there’s a debate as to whether players not conclusively linked to PEDs, but who played in the “PED era” should be voted into the Hall of Fame. This hypocritical self-righteousness of the writers voting for the Hall this year has resulted in zero players reaching the 75% threshold necessary for induction.

Here’s where I come down on the debate (if you haven’t already figured it out); I think that anyone not banned from baseball should be eligible for the Hall of Fame based on their on-field accomplishments. Any player who is conclusively linked to or has admitted to PED use who was good enough on the field to be voted into the Hall should have his PED use appropriately reflected on his HoF plaque, right below his batting average, home runs and on-base percentage. If a player is elected and PED evidence comes to light after the election, just appropriately alter the plaque after the fact. Barry Bonds played the game of baseball, and there’s an argument to be made that he played it better than anyone else, ever. Barry Bonds not having a plaque in the HoF does not change that. He should be in there, with his numbers and PED use accurately reflected. So should Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmerio and others. The baseball writers, commissioner, owners and fans didn’t seem overly concerned about PED use when offense (and revenue) was way up and baseballs were flying out of the park at a record pace. Now everyone wants to step up and act like this was the worst thing since the Black Sox scandal? Keeping these players out of the Hall of Fame does not simply wipe out two decades of baseball. The steroid era happened, like it or not. Plugging our ears, shutting our eyes and holding our breath will not make that go away. If you go to the MLB record book, Barry Bonds still holds the home run records. Mark McGwire still broke the long-standing Roger Maris HR record. Not voting for these players doesn’t make history simply disappear.

If I had a ballot (spoiler alert; I don’t), here’s who would have appeared on my ballot this year:

Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire, Tim Raines, Kenny Lofton, Mike Piazza, Edgar Martinez, Curt Schilling, Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio. Under the current rules, you can’t vote for more than ten players in one year. As I indicated before, I think that Raffy Palmerio and Sammy Sosa deserve votes as well. Alan Trammell would probably get my vote too, and I am right on the line as to whether I’d vote for Larry Walker. But those first ten would have appeared on my ballot in 2013. Of those ten, two (Bonds and McGwire) have been conclusively linked to PED use and Clemens has a lot of evidence out there. Bagwell and Piazza have “suspicions” afloat that have less evidence than my claim to have kissed Kate Upton last week. Biggio, Raines and Lofton are speed/defense type guys who’ve never had a shred of suspicion cast their way, at least as far as I’ve seen. Not one of these players was deemed by the BBWAA as worthy of inclusion into the Hall of Fame at this time. Everyone on the ballot this year ended up being punished by the sanctimonious nature of the voters, whether they used PEDs or not. Biggio, Raines, Lofton…some holier than thou voters couldn’t even be bothered to vote for the clean players, because so many had to make a “statement” by sending in a blank ballot. I suppose that if one says “I’m a smug, pompous SOB who bought into the steroid era when it was taking place but now feel the need to retroactively punish everyone who dared play baseball in the 1990’s so people will pay attention me” is a statement, then mission accomplished.

Grantland’s Jonah Keri, far away my favorite Canadian sportswriter, posted a great piece about the Hall voting that I agree with 100%. If you’re interested in the process and how it could (and should) be changed, I highly recommend reading this entire article. I’m not going to sit here and rehash all of Keri’s points, but I’m glad someone with a national voice is pointing out the serious flaws in both the voters and the voting process. Listen, I love the Hall of Fame. Cooperstown is a wonderful little town that I visited with my parents and younger brothers back in high school, and it was my all-time favorite family vacation. I want to take my kids there someday, and I think every baseball fan would enjoy at least one trip to the hallowed grounds at some point in their lives. But this raises a larger point; the Hall is in danger. It lost over $2 million last year, and has lost money in 8 of the last 10 years. The city’s economy revolves around the Hall, and induction weekend is a big part of that economy. This year, there will be no induction weekend. Astros, Expos, Yankees, Giants and Red Sox fans will not descend on the small city in New York to pay homage to the heroes of their youth. That doesn’t help the Hall, much the opposite. The selfishness of the voters is making the Hall less relevant, not more, and that’s a concern.

This all brings us to the real impetus for this article, which is the fact that Kenny Lofton garnered less than 5% of the vote (he appeared on just 3.2% of ballots) and is thus removed from future Hall of Fame ballots. Lofton was one of my favorite players growing up, and I truly consider myself lucky to have watched him play in his prime. Having a front row seat, whether at the sold-out Jake or glued to my TV set, to see Lofton’s spectacular catches and overall effect on opposing pitchers once he reached first base was a treat. He was a superb athlete who played at an elite level for the better part of a decade, and was a more productive player late in his career than most people give him credit for. Watching him lay the bat down on home plate and stride confidently to first base after a walk, knowing he’d be able to stretch that base on balls into at least a double. Seeing him use the pad on the bullpen door in CF as a step on a ladder like it was designed for him to rob a home run. I’ll admit that my Lofton vote is a bit of a homer vote, but it’s not like I’m stumping for Andy Allanson here. Lofton has a legitimate case as a Hall of Famer, and I’ll again rely on Grantland’s Jonah Keri (as an independent observer) to provide the explanation. Keri wrote two articles that touched on Lofton’s candidacy, and I’ll cut and paste from them both here for your convenience:

Kenny Lofton: Yes, seriously, that Kenny Lofton. The well-traveled center fielder was a wildly underrated player throughout his career for having Tim Raines starter kit skills during an era in which those abilities were an afterthought. Lofton is one of four modern-era players with 1,500 or more runs scored who's not in the Hall (Rafael Palmeiro, Bagwell, and yes, Raines are the others). He ranks 15th all time with 622 steals, swiping those bags at an excellent success rate a shade under 80 percent. He hit .299/.372/.423 lifetime, and played fantastic defense at a premium position in center field, whether you prefer advanced stats or traditional measures (four Gold Gloves). As with Raines, few monster seasons stand out. Instead, you have a multi-year stretch of excellence, in Lofton's case the first three full seasons of his career, which netted nearly seven wins per year (he hit an outrageous .349/.412/.536 and stole 60 bases in just 112 games during the strike-shortened 1994 season). Lofton slots in nicely among the best center fielders of all time, just a shade below Duke Snider and above the likes of Richie Ashburn and Andre Dawson. He has no chance in hell of induction anytime soon. But he's got my vote.

-----snip----

…starting with the one player who got the biggest screw job of all.

Kenny Lofton (3.2 percent of the vote): Any player who receives less than 5 percent of the vote gets kicked off the ballot. Not only did Lofton warrant more time on the ballot, but he also had a legitimate case for induction. As I wrote in a ballot breakdown, Lofton was one of the most prolific base stealers of all time, an on-base machine who played superb defense at a premium position in center field, had an early-career peak in which he produced MVP-caliber numbers, and slots in just below Duke Snider among all-time center fielders, ranking just a hair below average for center fielders already in the Hall. Like Lou Whitaker and Kevin Brown before him, Lofton's been chucked out of the running after just getting started.

If you’d like a more local perspective, Bastain (who’s not a Cleveland fan, just the beat writer from MLB), wrote a piece on his blog where he started out against Kenny’s candidacy, but ended up convincing himself that he deserved enshrinement after all. Lofton was punished for merely playing in the steroid era, and probably also for his less than friendly attitude to the media in general. If Lofton acted like Sean Casey and provided writers with better soundbites, I have no doubt he’d have garnered enough votes to at least appear on the 2014 ballot. One only need look to the never-ending lovefest towards accused double murderer Ray Lewis in Baltimore to see how friendly the media will treat a player who talks to them and provides interesting copy. The Baltimore and national media virtually ignored the issue while fawning over him after #52 announced his retirement, and the “best linebacker in history” will slide right into a job with the Worldwide Leader when his Ravens lose in the playoffs this year. But a guy like Lofton, who didn’t fall all over himself to cater to the every demand of sportswriters across the country, is punished for it.

I’ll even trot out the Mazeroski argument here; if Bill Mazeroski, noted primarily for his defense, is in the Hall of Fame then how can Kenny Lofton not be? Lofton was a great defender at one of the most important positions in the game and was a FAR superior offensive player to Mazeroski. Don’t believe me? Maz never posted an OPS of higher than .747. 747! His career high in OPS+ was 97.  If you’re not familiar with OPS+, it’s a stat that is normalized so that 100 is league average. This isn’t meant to inflame folks to march on Cooperstown in an effort to de-induct (is that a word?) Mazeroski, only to point out that Lofton has a legitimate case on his defensive credentials alone based on those who were inducted before him. I didn’t think Lofton would be a first-ballot Hall of Famer (not that there should be a distinction between first and second ballot guys, but whatever). I also didn’t think he’d get less than 5% of the vote and fall off the ballot entirely. He was a star in his day who has somehow become unappreciated after his retirement, possibly because he bounced around the league towards the end of his career and didn’t stay in one city for a significant period of time other than Cleveland. It’s a shame, but I still feel grateful for having been able to enjoy his exploits on the diamond for as long as I did.

Just to re-emphasize a point here, I’m not looking for an argument or intense debate about whether PED users should be admitted into the Hall of Fame. I’m not even looking to argue about whether guys like Lofton or Raines or Jack Morris have the stats to grace the hallowed halls. If you’re still with us here at this point of the article, I appreciate your interest in my point of view on the subject, and I’m aware and appreciate that your opinion may be 180 degrees from mine on the subject. The beauty of the Hall debate is that it is subjective, and there’s no “right” way to approach it. This article simply served to put my stream of consciousness on the subject out there for all to see, and I hope that if you disagree that we’re still friends. So with that out of the way, let’s look towards equipment trucks, pitchers and catchers reporting and other signs that spring has arrived, because believe it or not, opening day is less than three months away!

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Celebrating Swishmas on a Lazy Sunday

Happy Swishmas, everyone! The Indians rang in the New Year by making the most expensive free agent signing in the history of the club official, introducing former Buckeye Nick Swisher at a press conference at Progressive Field this past Thursday. Free agent starter Brett Myers was officially signed on Friday to considerably less fanfare, and GM Chris Antonetti’s offseason shopping list has most of its items crossed off. Young, high upside pitching? Check (Trevor Bauer). Veteran starter? Check (Brett Myers). Righthanded power bat at 1B? Check (Mark Reynolds). Power OF bat? Check (Nick Swisher). Throw in guys with upside potential like Drew Stubbs and Scott Kazmir and consider that proven winner Terry Francona is onboard to shepherd the flock for the next four years, you just can’t help but feel like the Indians are having one of the best offseasons in baseball to this point. While they’re not going to be able to hang with a team like the Angels or Dodgers, who went out and signed the most expensive hitter and pitcher on the free agent market, Antonetti clearly identified and attacked specific weaknesses on the club’s 40-man roster. For a team and a fanbase that has become accustomed to quiet offseasons, the winter of 2012-13 has been a revelation. The team that wins the winter rarely ends up winning the World Series, but compared to the deafening silence of the recent past, this year has been an awfully enjoyable experience.

The Swisher signing has been extensively covered by pretty much everyone who writes about the Indians by now, but my favorite piece was (unsurprisingly) penned by Anthony Castrovice for MLB.com. Castro focuses on more than just the contract value and the numbers on the field, and discusses what the signing means for the Indians moving forward. Swisher seemed genuinely excited to be back “home” in Cleveland during his press conference, showing off his trademark energy and enthusiastic personality. While some have criticized the contract as too long and for much money, the club had a ton of money coming off the books with the Hafner, Sizemore and Lowe contracts expiring, and also freed up a nice chunk of change with the Choo trade based on what he would have received in arbitration. Add to that additional revenue from the sale of STO to Fox Sports Ohio and the Indians went into this offseason in the rare position of having a real surplus of dollars to spend in the free agent market. Remember too that the overall MLB TV deal is going to start giving each club another $25 million in revenue, and in a year or two that Swisher deal could very well look like a bargain.

Irrespective of the final dollar amounts, what can we reasonable expect out of Swisher on the field going forward? Francona has already indicated that the switch-hitting outfielder will hit somewhere in the middle of the lineup, which is a no-brainer when you look at the current roster composition. When you look at Swisher’s career, it’s easy to see why the Indians decided that he was worth the contract they offered him; Swisher has appeared in 148 or more games for the last 7 straight seasons, and he posted an OPS+ of 120 or more in each of those seasons save one. He’s hit more than 20 home runs in every season going back to 2005. Since his rookie of the year season back in 2005, Swisher’s average season line is an impressive .256/.361/.468 with 26 HR, 83 RBI and a 118 OPS+. He stays healthy and in the lineup, and he’s a remarkable consistent hitter who will be a better defensive RF than the man he’s replacing. He can also play 1B, which will make him much more likely to hold value through the back end of the contract even if he can’t hold onto his defensive chops in the OF. Is there still risk involved? Of course there is. But when you look at the history of the player, the influx of money from the TV deals and the glaring need that Swisher fills in the middle of the lineup and in the outfield, it’s easy to see why the Indians inked the Ohio native to the deal that they did.

After the Indians acquired Trevor Bauer to strengthen their rotation for the next half-decade or so, there remained a glaring need in the near term for at least one (preferably two or three) effective arms. To that end the Indians signed veteran starter Brett Myers to a one-year contract worth $7 million with a club option for a second year with a raise to $8 million if the Indians decide to pick it up. To make room on the 40-man for Myers, the Indians (again) exposed Russ Canzler to waivers, and he was again picked up by an AL East team, this time the Yankees. So for those of you keeping score at home, Canzler has gone from the Indians to the Blue Jays back to the Indians and now to the Yankees in less than 14 days. Anyway, Myers will be returning to the rotation after spending all of last season in the bullpen for both the Astros and White Sox. Normally, that would invite questions about the durability of a player, but if you look at Myers’ career he’s consistently been an innings-eater, having thrown over 175 innings in every season he was in the rotation other than 2009. He put up a 3.79 ERA in 439 2/3 innings for Houston in 2010-2011, so it’s not like he’s years removed from being an effective starter. His move to the bullpen was based more on Houston’s specific team needs than anything else.

Expect Myers to slot into the middle of the rotation where he can throw 180-220 innings and give the Indians lineup a chance to win a bunch of ballgames. Myers velocity dropped from the mid-90’s in his prime to the high 80’s in 2011, and to his credit Myers re-invented himself as a pitcher. He relies much more on location that pure stuff now, and uses his four-pitch mix to set up and outsmart hitters rather than trying to blow them away. Better pitchers than Myers have succumbed to a loss in stuff and been forced into an early retirement, but Myers responded to an absurdly high 17.8% of his flyballs finding the seats in 2009 to a downright outstanding rate of 6.6% in 2010. If Myers can continue to locate his pitches and get hitters to beat the ball into the ground (GO/AO ratio of 1.35 last year) he can be an effective #3/4 guy and even a veteran presence that can mentor a guy like Trevor Bauer. Bauer famously got in trouble at the MLB level last season by trying to strike out too many hitters and not trusting his stuff to get outs on balls in play. Myers just happens to be a guy who used to strike everyone out and now gets outs on balls in play. Sounds like a match made in Heaven to me. Myers does have some personal issues in his past, from confrontations with teammates to the much more serious charges of domestic abuse involving his wife. But any worries about Myers negatively affecting the clubhouse have to be at least partially mitigated by the presence of bench coach Brad Mills. Mills was Myers’ manager in Houston, and if there were serious issues in the Astros clubhouse created by Myers, I’d have to think Mills would have stepped up to Francona and management to advise them against throwing $7 million at the guy. There are other pitchers out there that would have been worth that kind of money (Marcum) so it’s not as if Myers was the only option available to the Indians and they had to sign him, warts and all. So until proven otherwise, I’m going to give Myers the benefit of the doubt for his tenure in Cleveland, and hope he provides veteran leadership to a staff that sorely lacked that component last season.

So this all begs the question…what exactly are the Indians trying to do? GM Chris Antonetti has come out to say that Myers is likely the last significant free agent in the budget this offseason, so other than the usual slew of minor league contracts with invitations to Spring Training we’re not likely to see any additions to the 40-man via free agency. Early in this offseason, I advocated trading Choo, Chris Perez and Asdrubal Cabrera in an attempt to jump-start the inevitable rebuilding process, and listening to offers on Vinnie F. Pestano and Justin Masterson as well. The club did of course deal Choo for Trevor Bauer and others, but rather than continue to demolish/rebuild via trade, Antonetti used a significant chunk of change to bring in a FA replacement for Choo and a badly needed arm. So are the Indians done significantly altering the roster for one offseason? If so, it feels a little like the club has reached the dreaded “in between” talent level; not quite good enough to make the playoffs, not bad enough to just let the kids play and trade for prospects. Pauly C. sent me an e-mail this past Thursday comparing the Indians offseason this year to Oakland’s last season; trading away established players for youngsters while simultaneously signing veterans to replace the players they were trading away. The day after I got that e-mail from Paul, Baseball Prospectus published their transaction report on the Myers signing that included this little tidbit:

Cleveland’s offseason strategy is beginning to resemble Oakland’s from last winter. The key difference is Oakland’s pitching quality and depth. The Indians are hoping Justin Masterson or Ubaldo Jimenez can lead the way, while some combination of Zach McAllister, Carlos Carrasco, and Corey Kluber shore up the back end. Yes, Trevor Bauer is around, and yes, Cleveland could add a veteran like Shaun Marcum. For now it’s hard to gamble on either scenario. Likewise, you shouldn’t bet on Cleveland winning the division. This Indians bunch should win more games than they did last year (68), however, and fans have to be pleased to see some offseason additions.

The main takeaway here is that while the offseason has been a solid one that has addressed two of the Indians main needs, the team is far from complete. ESPN’s Buster Olney went through his offseason top-10 series, looking at the top 10 infield, outfield, lineup, rotation and bullpens around baseball. The Indians were completely absent from Olney’s series. Even the vaunted bullpen mafia, led by all-star closer Chris Perez and lights-out setup man Vinnie Pestano, failed to rate even honorable mention status. As currently constructed, this team is better than last year. But that doesn’t mean they’re destined for the playoffs. Francisco Lindor and Trevor Bauer are the only blue-chip prospects in the system. So while the rebuild of the roster was given a great jump-start these past few weeks, it’s far from complete. Antonetti should still be looking to move Asdrubal Cabrera for young pitching. He should still be considering every offer that comes across the table for Chris Perez, whether that offer is made during the offseason or closer to the 2013 trading deadline. The team can still rebuild while making marginal improvements to the roster from season to season, but they cannot get stuck in the purgatory of winning between 75-85 games a year, every year. The Swisher signing will sell some tickets regardless of what happens the rest of this offseason. But the team can’t build for the long haul without acquiring more young, cost controlled talent, particularly on the mound. The 5^th overall pick in this June’s draft will help, but that pick will need to be augmented by prospects from outside the organization as well. The best route to acquire those prospects is still dealing Cabrera and Perez.

MLB.com’s Bernie Pleskoff put up an excellent piece on Indians relief prospect Trey Haley earlier this week. Pleskoff is a former scout who has turned to writing, and is a great follow on twitter. I’m not sure if Pleskoff was ever an Indians fan, but he seems to tweet about Indians prospects fairly frequently and always gives his thoughts on moves the club makes. Pleskoff responds to almost every question he’s asked on twitter, so if you don’t already follow him I highly recommend it. It’s great to have the impartial opinion of a guy who’s made a living out of assessing talent on the baseball diamond. Pleskoff is high on Haley, as the former 2^nd round pick out of a Nacogdoches, TX high school has an arm capable of touching triple digits out of the bullpen. He compliments the plus-plus velocity with a hammer 12/6 curveball and a developing slider and occasionally throws a changeup. Pleskoff called Haley’s arm one of the best that he witnessed in the Arizona Fall League, and thinks that while he has the raw talent to start that he’d work best as a closer in The Show. There are only two things that concern me about Haley, and they go hand in hand. He’s had a little trouble staying healthy (sports hernia last year) and has had some command issues. If he can stay healthy and on the mound though, his command should come around as there are no mechanical issues that will keep him from throwing consistent strikes. Haley was my #19 prospect last year, and will be at least a few spots higher than that in this spring’s countdown.

It’s not exactly Indians related, but Ben Lindbergh of Baseball Prospectus put together a very entertaining article where he mined some of the deep, dark corners of the Internet for a ridiculous trade offer from every team’s fanbase for the Marlins’ Giancarlo Stanton. There are some pretty entertaining offers in there, especially the Yankees and Red Sox fans that suggest including draft picks in the deals. I won’t spoil it for you, but a fan of one MLB team is not interested in Stanton because, wait for it, he hits righthanded. It’s alarming to see how many fans have no idea how to even spell the names of some of their top prospects and apparently have no access to google or baseball reference to determine the correct spelling. At the very least it’s a fun and entertaining look at some of the less educated baseball fans around the league. If nothing else it’s good for a laugh on a cold Lazy Sunday with less than two months till Spring Training…

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