Cleveland Indians Closer Doug Jones – Reliving Yesteryear
August 14, 2014Hoyer to start second preseason game
August 14, 2014
I got a chance to talk to TD about all three Cleveland teams. That’s always a blast for me. Today we spent a good amount of time talking about the Tribe and the season they’ve put together.
We also talked about LeBron coming home and what that means for a sports family like TD’s that is baseball, and football first.
Lastly we talked about Johnny Manziel, the Browns and what it must be like for Brian Hoyer to try and win the starting job. We talked about how even as we expected hype around Manziel that it’s surprising just how crazy things are around him.
Oh, and we led off talking about Cedar Point, which rules.
1 Comment
Craig, I share your frustration about the Indians not adding to the team at the deadline. I’m not talking about trading away Lindor for Price, but maybe bringing back guys like Prado or Willingham types. A playoff berth is within reach and they put their eggs in minor league AAAA guys. But I’m not as upset (maybe not the right word) as you with the apparent lovey dovey blindly loyal relationship between the Dolans and Shapiro/Antonetti. Maybe I’m comparing the Tribe continuity to the historic dysfunction we’ve witness with the Browns and to a lesser extent the Cavs. While certainly not perfect in a league where their margin for error is extremely small compared to others, these guys have pulled off some great moves. Furthermore, baseball is a sport that really needs patience when evaluating players and executives. Casey Blake was traded for Carlos Santana is 2008, Jake Westbrook was traded for Corey Kluber in 2010. CC Sabathia was traded for Brantley in 2008. Santana started producing in 2012ish, while Brantley and Kluber are having superstar seasons for the first time NOW in 2014. We crushed the tribe for years over the CC trade, when in reality, Brantley was a haul for a half year rental. Anyone that follows TD should be well aware that Gomes (and Aviles) was stolen for Esmil Rogers, but how about the genius of Shapiro and Antonetti for locking up Brantley and Gomes BEFORE they broke out. Those are two enormous extensions that appear to be and very, very club friendly salaries. Where would this team be without Kluber, Gomes, Santana, and Brantley? There deserves to be plenty of credit given for those guys….The Indians have failed miserably at the draft. In fact it’s crushed them. The lack of development is embarrassing. But much like the development of Kluber and Brantley, the draft takes time. Firing Brad Grant and all the scouts now might not yield results for five more years. For all we know their drafting may have improved and the picks of Lindor, Frazier, whoever might be the guys they’ve needed. Or maybe not. My whole point is that while there are many issues I’ve had with the Tribe front office, I believe they’ve done a lot right too. I think it could be so much worse, I’m not going to get that angry right now. Should we be the A’s with mastermind Billy Beane? The same A’s that missed the playoffs for 5 straight years between 2007-2011 and have not won a pennant since 1990? TD often complains about Francona’s in game decisions, and I couldn’t agree more. As a baseball lifer myself, I’m baffled by a lot of what he does. But my response is always the same. I’ll live with Francona’s C+/C- between the lines stuff due to everything he brings outside the lines. Maybe I’m just a 35 year old Cleveland fan with rock bottom expectations, but I feel like we could do sooooo much worse (and have) than Shapiro, Antonetti, and Francona, I’m relatively happy with the tribe. They did win 92 games last year! And they are probably/maybe going to finish above .500 again. I do understand your views and I too wish there wasn’t the complacency that seems to be there right now. I’m just looking at the big picture and willing to deal with it…for now.