Brian Windhorst- An Update
July 17, 2008Browns Town 1964- Part 4
July 18, 2008The Indians have already started Spring Training for ’09. We’ve covered that. Everywhere you look on the internet, from Pluto to DiaTribe you can find roughly the same ideas as to what the Indians should do with the rest of the season. Play Marte. Get rid of Dellucci. Trade Blake. Move Peralta over to third. Play Cabrera at short. The sentiment around the sites is roughly the same.
The problem is I don’t think the Tribe is going to do it. I have a sneaking suspicion, and I hope I’m wrong, that the Indians are going to continue to use roughly the same line-up, until say the end of August. In part because they still want to win games, and they fear that nobody will show if the team isn’t winning games after the trade. They aren’t going to switch Peralta’s position during the season. It’s not going to happen. Now they have brought up Cabrera, which everyone is thankful for, but they are going to put him back at second to split time with Carroll. What we should watch for here is how many games Carroll gets at second base compared to Cabrera. Jamey Carroll has done a very good job at second this year. He is not a bad hitter and from what I’ve seen he is an above average defender as well. He is not as good defensively as Asdrubal.
We should also be watching to see what happens with Josh Barfield. Remember that Barfield got called up right before his injury and was going to get another shot at the job. I’m certain he will start at Buffalo on a ‘rehab’ assignment, but what do they do with him then? You can’t rotate 3 guys at one position. Someone is going to get left out. (Unless Cabrera plays short and Peralta is the DH or plays 3rd, but again that isn’t going to happen.)
Watch Choo and Marte very carefully these next two months. The Indians are probably a little sick to their stomach thinking about these two. Both are players that they believed would help form a nucleus of talented young players, and neither has delivered the goods. Choo has certainly been a bigger success than Marte, but that’s not saying much. Pay particular attention to how Marte does against right handers. He is hitting .238 vs lefties, but only .155 against right handers.
Watch to see if anybody rises to the occasion in the bullpen. The Indians aren’t going to shell out big money to bring in a closer this off-season. (Sorry, no K-Rod for us.) The answer will come from in-house somewhere. That may be a guy like Randy Newsom gets a look. The Indians would love for Masa Kobayashi to be the guy, with Perez as the set-up man. Of course they would love for Betancourt to regain his form and set-up games again, but the chances of that look slimmer every week.
Watch for Adam Miller. Cleveland’s most promising pitching prospect has been sidelined (again) nearly all season. Miller should have been a part of Cleveland’s rotation next year. Given the injury history, it may be time to bite the bullet and turn him into a reliever. When (I hope it’s when and not if) he returns this year see what role he is asked to play and if his elbow holds up.
Finally, watch guys like Wes Hodges, Beau Mills and Lonnie Chisenhall. Hodges is a possible solution at third base. He has had a great season in Akron and should be moving up soon. Mills was the best first base prospect we had until the trade for LaPorta. He is still at single A, so he isn’t going to make the ’09 squad, but he is a player to keep an eye on. Lonnie Chisenhall is the forgotten man since the LaPorta trade. The Tribe’s top draft pick is struggling a bit at Mahoning Valley. He is hitting .239 through 25 games with 1 home run. He really seems to struggle against lefties, and for a college player I would have thought he’d have an easier time at Mahoning Valley.
10 Comments
I started reading this article until I realized it was about the indians. I’m sure it was good, though. 5 days until camp.
Watch Matt LaPorta play at Akron – I think Thursday night home games are $1 Beer nights!
Also, I don’t see why they can’t play Jhonny at DH. That’s a relatively easy switch (i.e., no defensive changes) and look he has to be better than Dellucci.
As for signing a reliever, that’s always a risky proposition. What if Betancourt had been a free agent and someone had signed him? We’d be laughing our butts off right now. Its totally a crap shoot, and relievers tend to be overpriced for the return they bring (in my opinion).
If they start playing Jhonny at DH and bring Cabrera to SS it opens up a serious can of worms…Hafner is going to be the DH next year…he’s getting paid a ton to do so, and they won’t swallow that loss.
If they have no plans to move Jhonny to third, then they won’t let Cabrera show him up at short either.
Also, you won’t be able to watch LaPorta at Akron, he is going to the Olympics.
I have been an advocate of Jamey Carroll and I appreciate the nice words about him. What I’d like to see next year is Carroll at 2B, Cabrera at SS, Peralta…either gone or DH’ing (I’m not convinced that Hafner will ever be back to 100%). I don’t think that Peralta is the answer at 3B, when we’ve got a couple of highly touted prospects whose natural position is 3B. Go with Hodges, and bring him up with LaPorta and give him a starting role in the outfield. Jettison Dellucci and one of Gutierrez/Choo (probably Gutierrez), with the other the fourth outfielder.
Okay, if I don’t stop now, I’ll get carried away with playing GM. I’ll stick with commenting when you post a “Be the GM for…” entry.
i don’t believe sizemore DHing was in your “what to watch for” post (sarcasm)
that’s an interesting move there wedge. interesting.
Man, I had a dream that we won yesterday with a huge offensive burst in the 9th. I get on the computer to see how we did today and find my dream was just that … a dream. Oh well, at least we won today.
Rick, you’re absolutely right about not moving Peralta to 3B in the middle of the season. They won’t do that.
And, unfortunately, I don’t think they have any long term plans for Jamey Carroll other than utility guy.
We all know Marte is a dud. And that leaves a gaping hole at 3B after they trade Casey Blake.
What to do?
Folks, the answer is right before our eyes, sitting on the bench. A veteran player with power, with a good arm, a catcher’s hands and a heart of gold. A big lug of a guy who will happily play anywhere and will sweep out the dugout afterwards if Wedge asks him. In fact, he already leads the team in BA and OBP!
Lades and gentleman, I give you the new starting third baseman of the Cleveland Indians…
drum roll…..
SAL FASANO!
Wow. I almost wet myself……I guess I’ll have to do a You Are the GM for Sal as well?
Is Sal the Scott Player of MLB?