Shapiro, Minaya Met Yesterday

if i'm shapiro, i stay where i am. it's good to have lots of options, particularly pitchers, and i doubt anything the mets could offer would be a significant improvement over what the indians already have. it seems like the mets like a lot of the indians' pieces, but they don't really have anything desirable in return, at least among the options that have been mentioned. sosa or schoeneweis? yuck.

Dellucci and Lee for absolutely anything = best trade in Indians history.

That also makes sense for the Tribe because Marte (3B) is out of options.

But Inge for Sosa & Scho makes more sense to me.

I do, they get rid of a crappy player and his crappy contract. Enough said. Not that I want anything to do with Inge on the Mets anyway. Blake, Marte, Sosa, Nady, Murton, Byrd, Huber, Piazza, so many guys could fill this void. I will take any of them, but would prefer the cheapest guy, because the system is already bare and whichever one of these guys that is acquired will only have a job part time.
How about Melvin Mora?

AdropOFvenom-
Interesting idea, but Cleveland want to make the playoffs and can't yet rely on Marte at third. If Marte wins the starting position, then you might see Blake moved.

-Krambo
Same thing with David Delucci. Cleveland is going to see how Shin-Soo Choo is progressing before moving Delucci.

I have some thoughts on moving Michaels.

http://thatteamfromcleveland.blogspot.com/2008/03/selling-high-on-michaels.html

Krambo42-

I am not a Marte hater. I think that he has upside, and I hope he gets his shot in Cleveland. But he has disaster potential. Cliff Lee gives up 6 runs the other day and feels good about his outing. Why? Because the 6 runs were largely the result of a Marte meltdown at third. Marte has played terrible defense this spring, Jim Thome at third bad. A team that hopes to make the playoffs can't risk making him a starter at this point.

The biggest reason that you don't move both Delucci and Michaels is Franklin Gutierrez. Gutierrez hit .232 against righties last year. Trading both players could lead to a shortage in the outfield. Like Marte, I like Gutierrez and think that he will improve. But again, a team that hopes for the playoffs doesn't take these types of risks.

Plus, Delucci is not 100% worthless. He is coming off an injury but has great career numbers against righties.

Don't forget that if they trade Casey Blake, they can still play Jamey Carroll everyday at 3B until Marte is ready.

While not having the power of Blake (albeit, Blake isn't really a power threat), he walks a lot, has some speed and the team still has plenty of power threats around him.

In his career, Dellucci has hit .269/.355/.464 against RHP. Hardly what I'd call "great".

Plus, he's getting old and he's coming off an injury.

I'd be surprised if the Mets moved Sosa unless they got Cliff Lee back. Without El Duque, Pelfry's 5 with Sosa & Armas as the only depth.

“Interesting idea, but Cleveland want to make the playoffs and can't yet rely on Marte at third. If Marte wins the starting position, then you might see Blake moved.”

Nah, if Marte happens to be at 3B, Blake will be his back-up/back-up RF/Back-up 1B. Blake isnt going anywhere, and Indians fans can attest to something iffy going on between him and Wedge/Shapiro which kind of gets into that creepy love-fest range to observers.

If the Indians and Mets are talking trade, then it probably centers on Marte or Lee though. Marte is a wasted roster spot to the Indians really, they don’t want to lose him but they don’t know what to do with him either. The Mets getting him and playing him as a back-up 3B/1B/LF would probably work well as long as they can carry him on the 25-man.

The Tribe also has way too many pitchers, and Lee is the odd-man out. Although he has pitched well enough this spring, I imagine Shaps is trying to use that a trade leverage instead of going with him in the 5th spot (if possible). The Indians really want him gone, if not for his question on the mound, but because of his attitude last year when he struggled and the constant problems with Victor Martinez. For whatever reason, those two hate eachother ~ and it creates a bit of a problem when you pitcher hates his catcher… Since V-Mart isnt going anywhere, well…

The only thing is, the Indians will almost certainly not want Sosa/Schoeneweis ~ well, unless its in a package where they take them but get something better because of it.