Indians Close To Deal With Wood

Going from the options post to the close to a deal post in record time...

Darn. I wanted to predict Wood's signing as an Indian before it got posted. Oh well, I predict Wood will be an Indian.

Two years? WTF. He deserves 5

he's an injury risk, and k-rod is only getting 3 years, which shows you the market for closers is not good right now, with so many free agent and trade options. that being said, fuentes demand just went way down as now his only logical suitors are st louis and colorado.

"that being said, fuentes demand just went way down as now his only logical suitors are st louis and colorado."

If the price went down enough on Fuentes, I could see Tampa Bay stepping in, especially with Percival's health in question.

"I wanted Kerry to stay in the NL Central. Not with the Cubs though. Brewers or Cardinals sounded nice."

Yeah, I was hoping Milwaukee would pony up for him, or if he did come to the AL that Tampa would come up with the cash to sign him.

(Yanks fan pick up an apple and drops it. Confirms that the world hasn't gone topsy turvy and that gravity is still in play). Indians spending money? Wow....go ahead Shapiro...get 'er done.

Wow, Melonis. Are you pounding the Cubs every chance you get or does it seem that way. :0

I thought Woody might sign with Milwaukee, doubtful St. Louis (but you never know). As of Sunday, I Cleveland or Texas made sense.

CubbyFan,

I liked him a lot when he was at his best, but the cubs can finally put the Wood Roller Coaster to bed. All the best to him, but I have no problem with the cubs moving on.

johns- Tampa Bay has the money. They have 15MM to spend, more if they trade Jackson.

"Wow, Melonis. Are you pounding the Cubs every chance you get or does it seem that way. :0 "

No. The Cubs aren't one of my favorite teams, but I'm not deliberately pounding the Cubs. I would just find it entertaining to see Woody pitching for Brewers/Cardinals. And he makes logical sense.

Two years with a third year option is what he is worth...He's a good pick up for the Indians.

The Indians need a lot more help than this in order to be competitive, although the White Sox seem to be selling the farm, so the AL Central could get much more competitive this year. KC has been surprisingly active at least in the rumor mill talks.

ESPN talking heads keep talkin about the Rangers being in on Wood. Is there any evidence for this? I haven't read anything on here about it, just was curious.

how much do you guys think kerry wood will sign for per year?

about 9m?

I think ilulic is pretty close with that guess.

If K-Rod got 3/37 with an option that could make it 4/51, then Wood will probably get something like 2/18, with a option to make it 3/29.

Surprised that with how bad they've been burned by closers, the Indians didn't go after Fuentes.

It'll be funny if Wood gets hurt early on and the Tribe goes back to their oh-so-effective committee...

"i like it

9th k. wood
8th j. lewis/r. perez
7th betancourt/kobayashi
hopefully j. meloan and a. miller can step up and make this the best pen in baseball.

only real hole left is in the rotation

1. c. lee
2. f. carmona
3. need to fill this hole
4. a. laffey
5. a. reyes
s. lewis, huff, westbrook, sowers, jackson, one will have to step in if no one is found."

I have your Answer... Since you want Ex-Cubs... Jason Marquis. :-)

MickS, since he probably wanted a longer commitment, it's much better to give him a club option for that third year rather then guarantee it to him. if he doesn't work out or injuries start to bother him again, you can let him go after two years, as opposed to being stuck for the third year of paying him 8-10 mill.

Bleacher Buddha, no thanks on jason marquis. i wonder if aaron harang is a possibility? i don't think the reds would ask for much since he had a bad year last year. or maybe rickey nolasco?

shapiro is going to have to get creative and acquire a SP now. i like the fact that he didn't have to give up any prospects to fill the closer role, now he can use some of the younger players to get an experienced starter.

ilulic, I wasn't being critical of the option year, just pointing out that it is Shapiro's modus operandi.

Don't know why the Brewers wouldn't be in on this one...

you are right astralpanda.

this is our only big signing of the offseason, probably the biggest one since kevin millwood and juan gonzalez. now we have close to 60 mill locked up in about 10 players and our payroll is supposed to be around 80 mill.

please trade for a sp now and not a 2B. we can go into the season with 1b garko/martinez, 2b barfield, 3b peralta and ss cabrera. if barfield struggles, hodges could be ready to step in and take over 3b. trading for a 3b and creating a logjam at 3b could be a problem down the road. we need a sp a lot more then another INF.

grimace455, i can't disagree with what you said. there are a lot of options now. even if shoppach is not traded, martinez could play 1b and if hafner never bounces back, i can see martinez become an everyday DH.

if shoppach is traded, however, garko can play 1b and once laporta is brought up, he can get DH at bats as well as LF or RF and 1B.

how about dealing garko instead of shoppach and handing the 1b job to martinez fulltime?

some say that indians could be in trouble if hafner never bounces back, but i don't think that's true. i really think that laporta is going to be the real deal and with crowe, choo, gutierrez, and btrantley, one of those can be used at dh or even 1b (laporta) eventually.

i wouldn't mind dealing garko and a prospect for a pitcher though. only reason why i don't like the idea of acquiring a 2b is because i would love to watch carbera and barfield work up the middle. if cabrera can give us around .280/10/50 with gold glove defense at ss, i think we could put up with barfield's .260/5/40 with gold glove at 2b. peralta's 20 hrs and 80 rbi's at 3b along with martinez's 20/100 at 1b, we can deal with it.

indians opening day lineup might look like this

cf sizemore
ss carbera
rf choo
1b martinez
3b peralta
dh hafner
c shoppach
lf francisco
2b barfield

thats until laporta is brought up for who ever doesn't produce, either hafner or francisco. i don't havfe a problem with that at all.

*he, my bad.

what would it take to get laffey away from the Indians and in a Brave's uni....Jo-Jo B. Jones, PTBNL....or is he high regard by Cleveland.

chris young came across my mind as well but he scares me. although he has shown that he can be a very good pitcher, i'm still not sold on him. plus he'd be coming to progressive field which is a smaller park then the padres stadium.

bartendermlb, aaron laffey is a high regard in cleveland, especially since our major league starters are looking a little thin. laffey came up in '07 and had a good month or so as the 5th starter, and then last year he showed that he can be somewhere in the middle of the rotation, but he sort of ran out of gas and the indians wanted to protect him by sending him to AAA to work on some things. i really think he will be a very solid #4 pitcher on a playoff team, if not a #3. reminds me a lot of mark buehrle, but not quite as good. and he's only 23?

"9th k. wood
8th j. lewis/r. perez
7th betancourt/kobayashi
hopefully j. meloan and a. miller can step up and make this the best pen in baseball."

And Joe Smith, who will fit in very nicely. Always wanted a submariner.