Ocker On Blake, Marte, Dellucci, Borowski And Lee

"Who from the available 2009 free agent list could be had to man third base? Could Asdrubal Cabrera be shifted to shortstop, and Jhonny Peralta moved to third? If so, who could move in to play second in place of Cabrera? "

Josh Barfield.

Those marte numbers are awesome. I'm pretty sure nine out of the ten readers here could put up at least that line. Wow that's bad.

Andy Marte-->Edgar Renteria. Steal of the century for Atlanta.

The numbers up I just posted were for Barfield, not Marte. I was too frightened to look up Marte's numbers.

“Relying on Lee's response to last year's demotion -- which was one of surprise at a player with a multi-year contract being sent to the minors ($3.75MM this year)”

…You can also add flipping off the fans to that “handling” thing ~ and it’s a good chunk of why he was actually sent to Buffalo…

Coco Crisp & Josh Bard --> Andy Marte & Kelley Shoopach = nothing of a cost for the Indians to give a Top-10 prospect in all of baseball a shot…

Indians situation = not a single person needs to really be signed. 3B could be handled by Peralta or Marte or Blake under different situations. SP is Laffey or Sowers or Miller or Lee. Closer is JoBo or RaffyRight or RaffyLeft or Lewis or Mujica or longshot even Kobayashi … 2B is Cabrera or Barfield. SS is Peralta or Cabrera. LF is Michales or DavidD or Francisco or even longshot Crowe. Or a FA is singed for anywhere between 2B, SS, 3B or a corner spot and everyone else’s positions start falling into place. This team has options growing out of their ears…

Playwright, what do you expect the Indians would give up for Roberts?

"Playwright, what do you expect the Indians would give up for Roberts?"
Posted by: crunchy1

Why?

You know that there has never been a rumor saying what the Indians would be willing to give up and if you knew anything about the Indians you would probably know we probably wouldnt hear about a possible deal being near until it was pretty much done. The team keeps a rather tight lip about their actions and they have so many prospects to offer everywhere from teh majors to rookie ball that it could be some of countless guys possibly included...

It’s a foolish thing to ask because there is no real answer anyway, and no matter what the answer is you will just do your best to try to bash it like you are doing in the Marquis thread. I gave you a list of like 10 guys who could be included, as well as told you there are even more than that ~ nothing more than that needs to be said…

Yes, I remember the guys you mentioned --like Ande Marte, aka "the next Brandon Phillips". Looks like he'll have to up his stolen base abilities from a career high of 5 to become a 30/30 man. Is a 600% increase too much to ask? You're Indians "prospect" list made for some interesting reading. I didn't know that Jeremy Sowers and his 85 mph heat was still a coveted prospect. Is it still 2002? You learn something everyday.

"Their closer of the future is Rafael Perez, but I think that Cleveland would like to give at least one more year in the setup role."

Perez might get a shot at it sometime but i believe that Jensen Lewis is the closer of the future

Maybe so. He's a talented guy and a one-time highly regarded prospect. I'm not exactly sure what happened to Barfield last year; but it wouldn't hurt for Cleveland to get a plan B in place. They're third base prospects are still 2-3 years away and I don't think Blake will be around to hold the fort.

“Yes, I remember the guys you mentioned --like Ande Marte, aka "the next Brandon Phillips". Looks like he'll have to up his stolen base abilities from a career high of 5 to become a 30/30 man. Is a 600% increase too much to ask? You're Indians "prospect" list made for some interesting reading. I didn't know that Jeremy Sowers and his 85 mph heat was still a coveted prospect. Is it still 2002? You learn something everyday.”

See Crunchy, you are just trying to troll...

And just because its such an strange comment that you have now stated twice...

"I didn't know that Jeremy Sowers and his 85 mph heat was still a coveted prospect. Is it still 2002? You learn something everyday"

I dont know, ask Baseball America. They ranked him the 53rd best prospect in baseball the last time he was eligible to be ranked as a prospect (prior to the 2006 season) ~ since then he went 7-4, 3.57 ERA, 1.189 WHIP in 14 ML starts in 2006 and struggled in his sophomore attempt (6.42 & 1.559 WHIP in 13 starts last year). Humm, guy is able to post a 3.57 ERA and 1.189 WHIP in 14 ML games in the AL central where 3 teams (not including the Tribe) finished with 90 wins that year ~ yeah, I understand why you call him such trash! And BTW, not sure what “info” you are reading, but Sowers wasn’t drafted in 2002 ~ he was drafted in 2004 out of college so he has only been in professional ball 3 years. He has been eligible to be ranked 2 times, and those two times he was ranked 90th (2005 - prior to him pitching a pro game) and 53rd (2006).

Do you know anything about the guys you are trying to bash, or are you just blindly trying to say any wrong thing you can think of in an attempt to bash?

That's the catch, Crunchy, as far as I can see. I haven't heard names mentioned that make a lot of sense coming back. Marte has been mentioned. Barfield has been mentioned. But the star of each has dimninished, so I don't know. It's hard to see the Indians giving up somebody like Laffey, especially with the likelihood that they'll lose Sabathia after the season's over. Maybe David Huff. I can't figure it, really. Most of the Indians' top prospects are outfielders or corner guys, where the Orioles don't have great need for prospects. Of their best pitching prospects, many are projected as relievers, but without the obvious upside of Ceda or Petrick. I'm guessing there isn't nearly as good a fit as with the Cubs. I keep thinking that the best fit would involve a middle infield prospect and a pitcher coming back. Colorado has that, but probably thinks they're fine at 2nd (Nix this year; Gomez or Nelson soon). So, I still think the Cubs make the most sense. I've heard Houston mentioned. I've heard San Diego.

The fight for the 5th spot should be interesting.

I don't have a problem with Lee having a confident/arrogant attitude, if it is part trying to pitch with confidence. I could see how some players might mentally prepare to pitch with confidence by fronting an arrogant public persona.

Tom Hamilton was saying today that Sowers is speeding up his delivery, and that change is giving him a couple of more ticks on the radar gun. (Not that I want to enter into the darkstar vs. crunchy debate.) But Hamilton was saying that this is going to make Sowers a much better pitcher.

And Laffey pitched well to finish the season last year.

I think that your team is trouble, if Laffey, Lee and Sowers are your 3, 4, and 5. But I think that Cleveland has a good chance of having a decent 5 spot and a decent replacement for the inevitable injuries.

Crunchy,

And in the end we are left with a bunch of who knows and what ifs… We don’t know if the Indians are really that interested to begin with, if they are interested we don’t know how much they would be willing to offer and if they are willing to offer a lot we don’t know if “a lot” equals something like Asdrubal Cabrera (who wouldn’t really have a job if Roberts was brought in) and a guy like Laffey or Sowers or Lofgren or even Miller. We don’t know if an offer would include guys like Hodges or Weglarz, or one of the Lewis’ (Scott or Jensen) or Salazar or any number of countless other guys may or may not be included in some combination. Since Cleveland is rather tight lipped, there is no way of knowing. Since they have a surplus of guys everywhere, anything is pretty much possible. Since much of that surplus is in the ML ready already with no real spot to play, guys like Marte and Laffey could even be pretty much throw-ins with other prospects as well. Or the O’s might even want a guy like Lee thrown in, who would be a cheap innings eater with a pretty good track record until recently. Its just a complete unknown in all aspects…

We just have no idea what so ever and talking about it in a bunch of threads while trying to bash the Tribes possibilities is silly because of said unknowns… I could give you a list of 25+ names that could be included, and I could say its anywhere between 2-6 of them going to be in a package for Roberts and in the end there is still no point what so ever to the conversation we would have had because we don’t know anything about the Indians real interest…

Crunchy, I don't see big differences in terms of stuff between these three lefties. All project to be back of the rotation/long relief. Laffey does have a better ground rate. But the Jake isn't the Great American. So, I don't know how weight that should have.

It seems to me the thing that will make or break them are the cliches. Who will "trust his stuff" this year? Who will "attack the hitters and get ahead in the count?"

I think all three have small margins of error. That is why it is good we have 3 trying for 1 position.

Cleveland fans dont call anyone the closer of the future its like a curse you guys have
remember fernando cabrera?

Hawkeyes, a Fernando Cabrera curse??? Isn't that taking things a bit far?

Call me a curse purist, but I think you have to star for a team and then get traded to be curse material (or a billy goat).

ahh, I re-read what I posted and must admit I became a tad saddened when I realized I could expand it back to Olin and the tragedy that took him and our Dodger imports for the pen that year...

Still one of the saddest days of my life as far as events taking place which didnt actually personally affect me...

what about Wes Hodges? second rated prospect according to Baseball Prospectus. Looks like he's gonna be at Double-A this year. Concievably he could make the jump right? I don't know much about the guy nor have seen him play, but he sounds like the best bet to fill in 3B in 09. .288/.367/.473 at High A last year.