The Cliff Lee trade has paid off big for the Phillies, but the Tribe remains in limbo, awaiting results.
View full sizeThe Cliff Lee trade has worked out well for the Phillies, but the Tribe is still in a wait-and-see mode.The days when a Major League club could go sign a kid off the farm in Iowa are pretty much done.
The breadth of talent may have been out there even back in the day, but it was tougher to find it -- and made more of an impact due to its scarcity in the league. Nowadays, with the internet, video and such, teams are scouting prospects in Bora Bora about as easily and quickly as ones in Walla Walla.
Also gone the way of the Model T is the prospect of those prospects remaining with one team for an entire career. Free agency and greed -- on both sides of the conference table -- cured that.
The best teams realize that in today's sports world, you gotta spend the bucks to make the bucks. The Steinbrenner brood understands that in New York, a point everybody and his brother makes. But so does Ruben Amaro Jr., the head honcho with the Phillies. He's assembled what's arguably the best rotation in baseball: Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, Cole Hamels and Joe Blanton. Amaro has spent $255 million and 13 prospects to get that kind of rotation, according to mlb.com.
And the Indians -- specifically in the original trade that sent Lee to the club in July 2009 -- played a major part in that. The Phillies got the guy some consider one of the best lefties in the league. What did the Tribe get? Well, some really good prospects:
No offense, and it's easy to spend someone else's money -- Lee will make between $120 million and $135 million pitching for the Phillies between now and 2016 -- but could we please have a do-over? This may be the Earl Weaver American League, where games and series and playoffs are won with three-run homers, but baseball at this level is first and foremost a pitcher's league. Good pitching will beat good hitting every time.
Right-hander Carlos Carrasco. He made strides last season. He went 10-6 with a 3.65 ERA in 25 starts with Triple-A Columbus before a promotion to the big leagues, where he went 2-2 with a 3.83 ERA in seven starts with the Tribe. The Indians still see him with top-of-the-rotation potential.
Infielder Jason Donald. The Phillies always considered Donald a super utility player, which he basically was with the Indians last season. He played in 88 games, hitting .253 with a .312 on-base percentage and a .378 slugging percentage. Cleveland is still trying to determine if Donald can be an everyday second baseman.
Right-hander Jason Knapp. He had the most upside of the four prospects. He still does. But after suffering a shoulder injury, the Indians are keeping their eye on him. But his potential is off the charts. In just 28 innings last season, he struck out 47 and walked 12. Baseball America considers Knapp the organization's sixth-best prospect.
Catcher Lou Marson. It is hard to believe, but Phillies fans once considered Marson the heir apparent to Carlos Ruiz. But Marson struggled (.195/.274/.286) last season in 87 games with the Indians. He struggled (.202/.327/.371) with Columbus, too. Marson looks like a backup catcher at this point, but he has to improve offensively to stay in the big leagues.
Speaking of pitching
Even without Cliff Lee, the Tribe could have a fairly solid starting rotation, according to Jordan Bastian of mlb.com. Are they equivalent to the Phillies' front four? Well, no. But with some timely hitting, decent (for a change) defense, good middle relief and solid performances by just-re-signed closer Chris Perez, the Indians could be a decent team. Not like we should all plan on taking off the end of October to attend World Series games at Progressive Field, but decent.
And the beauty of baseball is that fresh start every spring, like when the snow disappears to reveal green shoots of grass that signify rebirth (until you realize, two months later, that you gotta mow the $%&# stuff twice a week during the rainy season).
From the front office to the manager's chair, the leaders of the Indians are unwavering in their belief that the ballclub will be better this year than it was the last. In order for that to happen, there will need to be strength within the starting rotation.
Indeed, Cleveland feels its starting staff has the ability to develop into a solid group from top to bottom. The club saw signs a season ago that the pitchers were starting to realize their potential, and the Tribe does not see any reason why such strides won't carry into the upcoming campaign.
"I'm pumped," Indians manager Manny Acta said early in the offseason. "We're heading in the right direction. We hammer so much the fact that we wanted our pitching staff to get better. Well, they got better."
We like to recall Crash Davis' speech in "Bull Durham," but from the pitching perspective:
So if the Indians pitchers can give up 25 fewer hits, the reverse should be true, if that whole Einsteinian theory of equal and opposite reactions stuff is true. Except for that Yankee Stadium bit. Who wants to be there, anyway?
"Know what the difference between hitting .250 and .300 is? It's 25 hits. 25 hits in 500 at bats is 50 points, okay? There's 6 months in a season, that's about 25 weeks. That means if you get just one extra flare a week -- just one -- a gorp... you get a ground ball, you get a ground ball with eyes ... you get a dying quail, just one more dying quail a week ... and you're in Yankee Stadium."
From The Plain Dealer
Beat writer Paul Hoynes noted that "there has rarely been a better time to be an Indians minor leaguer," as the Tribe is the youngest team in the bigs. Hoynsie and other media met several of those guys -- including infielders Jason Kipnis and Lonnie Chisenhall and pitcher Alex White -- at Progressive Field as part of the Tribe's winter developmental program. It's likely that Indians fans some time this season will see those three and many of the other 11 players who were at the event.
We're not saying that these guys are young, but the press conference began with a prim teacher-like lady saying, "I see Jason. I see Lonnie. I see Alex ..."
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/ohio-sports-blog/index.ssf/2011/01/pm_cleveland_indians_links_cli.html
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