Links from around baseball as Saturday becomes Sunday..
- The Cubs are not interested in pitcher Derek Lowe, according to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe (via Twitter), who spoke with a major league source. Last night it was reported that the Cubs were "looking into" what it would take to acquire the veteran, who was designated for assignment by the Indians earlier this week.
- Dodgers pitcher Michael Antonini cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Albuquerque, according to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com (via Twitter). Antonini was designated for assignment to make roster space after the acquisitions of Brandon League and Shane Victorino.
- Rangers General Manager refused to succumb to outside pressure and held on to his most prized prospects through the trade deadline, writes Tyler Kepner of the New York Times. While third baseman Christian Villanueva and right-hander Kyle Hendricks were shipped out, infielders Mike Olt and Jurickson Profar and pitcher Martin Perez stayed with the organization.
- Paul Hoynes of The Plain Dealer would like to see the Indians take a page out of the White Sox's book and rebuild while keeping the focus on winning.
Daniels is a great GM and all but its not like Dempster would have cost any of those prospects anyway so its not really a huge triumph or anything. I guess you give him credit for the deals he didn’t make but by that token you could add any GMs name to that article if they held unto their best talent.
I’m with Paul Hoynes here. I don’t know if the way he framed it is the right answer but what they are doing now clearly isn’t working-bringing in the exact kind of players over and over again, hoping they will play differently is proving to be an exercise in futility.
They have lost most of their paying customers; they are making themselves a candidate for contraction if baseball decides to go in that direction. Most of their fans have lost faith in the ownership and management group. I know I have.
I completely agree with you. I’ve been a life-long Indians fan (granted I am only 28, so I’ve only had to endure hardship for half of my life), and it has become increasingly difficult to watch the current ownership. I understand them being a small market team, but, at some point they need to spend big to make a splash, both for the team, and for the fans. Trying every year to manufacture out of the farm system and attempt to shore up deficiencies with aging veterans doesn’t work. It provides such a small window for success, and once it passes, its time to rebuild again. It was nice seeing them try to land someone big last year in Jimenez, but they were already fading quickly from the playoff picture, and there was a reason Colorado didn’t want him anymore, and cashed in big time. They need to try something different, or sell the team to someone who will try something different.
The Rangers are losers if they don’t win the World Series, period. They should have been willing to trade anyone for the right player to put them over the hump, but I don’t think there was anyone out there this season that would have done that. No point in celebrating moves they didn’t make if they don’t get the results they need.