Spring Time, for Hafner, & Chain of Lakes
Just
in case you missed it the Tribe finished 2007 with a 96-66 record,
winning the AL Central title, and coming within a win of the World
Series. So what did the braintrust over at Progresso Soup Field do this
offseason? Well, they tried and failed to sign their ace and Cy Young
winning pitcher (more on this later), but they did add Masahide
Kobayashi (pictured to the right), a spry, soon to be 34 year old,
Japanese transplant into the bullpen. . . and that was it. . .OK? No
one should be surprised by this lack of movement out of the front
office. This is an organization built on young homegrown talent signed
to long-term contracts and gritty, sometimes called bargain basement,
veterans.
Paul Cousineau over at the DiaTribe has a wonderful, if verbose, article covering the usual Tribe philosophy
about up and coming youngsters with options remaining being sent to
AAA, while possibly past their prime veterans “block” them. I know it
can be easy in hindsight to ask “Why in the hell was Trot Nixon out in
RF instead of Gutierrez?” but really it makes sense, at times. Hell,
just go read the article.
So with the Tribe’s front office
scheme seemingly figured out before anyone goes to spring training, why
does the Tribe even travel to Florida anyway? Well, the real answer
here is that no one wants to enter spring training having to make a
decision – just ask the Browns staff about last year’s QB situation. So
yes, David Dellucci and his sub-.150 average beats out Ben Francisco at
a robust .350+. Yes, the likes of Aaron Fultz will be in the pen come
March 31st even with his performance last week against the Braves where
he posted a fine nine runs allowed, seven earned, in one-third of an
inning.
One of my favorite spring training stories is of Bob
Wickman a few years back. He got really roughed up in a game and a
reporter asked him what was wrong after the game. He said that his
fastball wasn’t working and in a real game he would have moved onto one
of his secondary pitches. However, in a spring training situation, he
wanted to solve this problem, so all he did was continue to throwing
fastballs. Obviously this turned into batting practice for the other
team, but Bob was out there to work these things out. Given that story
and all the crazy pitching matchups that can occur I feel safe in
saying a relatively injury-free Spring Training is the best thing any
of us can hope for.
So what decisions do need to be made this offseason? Well, for one there is
the
problem of Andy Marte. A prospect without options, he either makes the
team or he has to clear waivers. I’ll let you in on a little secret:
he’s not making through waivers. So what does the Tribe do with him?
Well, he becomes the utility infielder and maybe outfielder. Almost
every Indians news source has invoked the dreaded parable of Brandon
Philips, a player who we couldn’t make fit in, so we traded him only to
watch him develop into the player we always hoped he could be with the
Reds. So given the potential upside of Marte, I suspect the
organization will do their best to keep him and get him chances at the
plate to prove himself.
The other major open spot is the 5th
starter. This is a toss up between Laffey, Sowers and Lee. Personally I
think Lee has pitched the best this spring. Sowers however is said to
have regained some of his velocity he was sorely missing last year and
Laffey looks to be headed to AAA. I use to have a thing for Lee, but he
has betrayed me too many times. A lot of people complain he over uses
his fastball in tough situations, and I am one of them. So I’m betting
Lee breaks camp with the team and here’s to hoping he regains his 2005
form. Oh, and I think Mastny will make the bullpen.
So finally
we come to the ballad of C.C. I’ll make this short since it has been
tossed around almost everywhere else. He won’t be an Indian next year,
which I’m not too upset about. It will still hurt to see the Crooked
Cap pitching for someone else, but C.C. is probably asking for more
years and maybe more money than the Indians feel comfortable with.
Look, this is a team that hasn’t really been burnt by a contract in a
while and I trust them. We still have him this year and given the
unfortunate situation where the Tribe is out of contention (not likely)
he probably will have tremendous trade value. Most importantly, this
won’t be the end of the world for the Tribe. Just think of all those
great young players we can sign to long contracts worth pennies with
all that money C.C. turned down.
Go Tribe!
Go Tribe! 