INDIANS-5/24/02

LATEST TEAM INFO:

Thursday was the Indian’s best day in a while. The bad part about this is that they had the day off. Fresh off a sweep from the Detroit Tigers the Indians got the day off to what I can only hope would be clear theirs heads of absolutely everything. Before the series with the Tigers the Indians lost three of four to the mighty Kansas City Royals. Ryan Drese salvaged the only win of that series in a double header thanks to an outstanding performance. Drese scattered four hits over eight innings and struck out ten. Hopefully this will be a sign of things to come for Drese.

The Indians have not played the Mariners, Yankees, Red Sox, or A’s at all this season. That means they still have 26 games to play against playoff contenders, not to mention over twenty games against division rivals Minnesota and Chicago. The last few weeks they have played Baltimore, Kansas City, Detroit and Texas all of whom will most likely not finish in the top three in their own divisions. The Indians sit at 20-26, third in the division and five and a half games back of first place Chicago and Minnesota. The year the pitching gets better the hitting disappears. It only makes sense. After all this is Cleveland. If you think it is ugly now you are right, but wait until the Tribe starts playing good baseball teams.

LOCAL PROSPECTIVE:

The problems with the Indians start right at the top of the food chain if you will. Larry Dolan is not willing to spend money because he is in the business to make a profit. Major League owners (with the exception of THE BOSS) do not make a profit. If you are an owner you have to be in it to win it, and the only way to do that is spend money. If you are going into a new job you look at the what the people that are the best at it are doing and you say well that is what I have to do. If you look at the teams that are playoff contenders year after year most have the highest payrolls. The Yankees are clearly the best at winning championships and why do you think that is? They spend money and get pitchers. As much as the players on the Yankees make you can go around their team and NOT ONE person is overpaid in comparison with other players at their position around the league. When Larry Dolan took over the team he said he was not in it to win a championship, but to win a string of championships. My advice to him would be to look at the Yankees.

Very little of the blame of the Indians problems should be placed on general manager, Mark Shapiro. One of the few bad things he is responsible for was letting Karim Garcia get away in order to sign Will Cordero and Brady Anderson. The reason for keeping Cordero was to not have to eat his four million dollar a year contract. By the way they ended up eating it anyway. Brady Anderson proved his career was over this year by hitting .188 in his time with the Indians this year. By the way the cut him this week.

All of that said very few of the problems with the Indians are the result of Mark Shapiro. John Hart left him in the worst position possible, and his owner ordered him to cut payroll. Although the Robbie deal only cut two million dollars of payroll after the signing of Matt Lawton, it avoided having to sign Robbie to a big contract at the end of the year and getting nothing. In the mid 90’s the Indians had the BEST farm system in baseball with young prospects like Richie Sexson, Sean Casey, Danny Graves, Brian Giles, and Jeromy Burnitz to name just a few. After trading all of these superstars Hart left Shapiro with a bunch of veterans who were going to demand high salaries. The only players remaining on the Indians from those deals are relievers Bob Wickman and Ricardo Rincon. Getting back to the salary cutting issue there is nothing a GM can do when he can’t spend money except to rebuild the farm system through drafts, and we all know how long that takes.

I will not go into details about manager Charlie Manuel simply because I do not have ten pages to work with here. I also cannot use some of the language I would use to describe him in here. One thing I will say is attitudes are contagious. Also why do you think the Indians got Buddy Bell? To be a minor league scout? I don’t think so.

RUMOR MILL:

Rumors are flying around Cleveland like flies in a trash can, and with good reason. Pitcher Bartolo Colon has been mention in many rumors with many teams. The most publicly talked about rumor was that of a trade to the Reds for Juan Encarnacion and Sean Casey. Another team that has been associated with Bartolo’s name is the Oakland A’s. The A’s have one of the strongest farm systems in the league and are willing to trade many of their prospects. However this doesn’t make sense because the A’s pitching staff is one of the best in the game.

Rumors have also been going around about trading other veterans such as Jim Thome and Omar Vizquel. However, I have heard no specifics about either of them in trades. I would look for the Indians to make at least one deal before the deadline.

INJURIES:

Milton Bradley-(CF) Status: DL
Bradley was placed on the 15 day disabled list, after a ball broke his eye socket when he was trying to make a play on it in the outfield. Jolbert Cabrera has been called up to replace him from Triple A Buffalo. Cabrera was with the Indians most of last year and played six different positions with the team while filling in for the injured Kenny Lofton. He remained at the big league level for the remainder of the year.

Travis Fryman-(3B) Status: Playing with Pain
Ever since Fryman got a Cortisone shot in his shoulder for Tendonitis, he has been playing well. Since the shot he has hit .318. He still has some left in the tank and has proved he is one tough soilder.

Bob Wickman-(RP) Status: Playing with Pain
Wickman has been complaining of stiffness in his right (pitching) elbow. Last week he blew two saves and lost a game. You might want to sit him for a week and see how he does for the week. It doesn’t seem to be too serious, but the problem is he either never has work or has to much work at a time.

Bartolo Colon-(SP) Status: Playing with Pain
Bartolo is also complaining of stiffness and sourness in his throwing elbow. However his seems to be more serious. He left his last start after only six innings and but 121 pitches. Throwing that many pitches will do nothing but hurt him more. It would probably be best for him and the team if he were to miss a start.

ON THE FARM:

Class AAA Buffalo is playing well at 28-20. IF-OF Bill Selby (.305-4-17) and Chris Coste (.364-1-22) are playing well and could get a call-up if an injury on the Indians should occur. Starters Tim Drew (3-3, 4.24 ERA, 1.55 WHIP) and Jason Phillips (6-2, 2.62 ERA, 0.96 WHIP) could both get a call up should a starter get injured on the big-league roster.
Class AA Akron is off to a great start at 32-13. Catcher Victor Martinez (.324-5-23) would be a top candidate to get traded should Einar Diaz get traded, although Diaz is probably more valuable than anything we could get in return. Left-handers Jason Stanford (3.29 ERA, 48 K’s in 54 IP), Brian Tallet (1.74 ERA, 1.08 WHIP) and Billy Traber (3.38 ERA) are a combined 15-5. Tallet could get called up if Chuck Finley is traded.
Class A Kinston is still struggling at 20-27. 3B Corey Smith (.276-4-25) is in a slump, but OF Ryan Church (.331-8-22) could soon be promoted. He is seen as a lower-level prospect but that could soon change. OF Alex Requena (23-for-30 on steal attempts) and 2B Maicer Izturis (17-for-23 on steal attempts) both have the speed but are hitting only .223 and .241, respectively.
Class A Columbus is off to a 27-21 record due to a great rotation. Starters Dan Denham (5.52 ERA), Jake Dittler (3.82 ERA, 1.50 WHIP), Travis Foley (5-2, 2.83 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 51 K’s in 47 IP), J.D. Martin (6-2, 3.71 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 55 K’s in 51 IP) and Derek Thompson (2-0, 2.37 ERA, 1.22 WHIP) are turning in great starts. SS Ivan Ochoa is 21-for-21 on steal attempts but is batting only .163. Outfielder Willy Taveras continues to struggle, batting .235 (although his OBP is .365), while hitting 2 HR’s, 13 RBI’s, and going 24-for-34 on steal attempts.

QUICK VIEW:

Add:

Omar Vizquel-SS He leads the team in average at .305, and steals with seven. He also has an unexpected but pleasant 6 HR, and 24 RBI.
Danys Baez-SP In his last four starts he has given up only seven runs and is 2-2 with one of the loses a tough luck lost. He only gave up three runs through seven innings.
Ryan Drese-SP(new) Drese had a breakout performance last week giving up only four hits and striking out ten in eight strong innings, and has the stuff to be one of the better pitchers in the league.

Drop:

Ricky Gutierrez-2B No stolen bases at a position you need them, and only eight RBI.
Russell Branyan-OF, 3B (new) The power isn’t worth the .209 average and average of three strikeouts per game.

Hold:

Bartolo Colon-SP No explanation needed…I hope?
C.C. Sabathia-SP He has nowhere to go but up and expect him to do so.
Jim Thome-1B Among league leaders in HR, and RBI.
Matt Lawton-OF Is on pace to have his best season of his career.
Bob Wickman-RP Solid for 35 saves plus.
Ellis Burks-OF Has done fairly well since his return and continues to be the team’s best hitter with runners in scoring position hitting over .400.