SB Nation - Adam Miller

Monday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 15:18:55 -0000

by Jim Prisching - AP

Craig Counsell is expected to re-sign today.

Some things to read while John Tesh rocks the NBA on NBC theme (h/t Amy K. Nelson).

Randy Wolf is expected to undergo a physical this morning and once he does, expect his contract to become official sometime later today. That might not be today's only announcement, though: the Brewers are also expected to finalize a deal with Craig Counsell today. With Counsell, Prince Fielder, Rickie Weeks, Alcides Escobar, Mat Gamel and Casey McGehee all on the roster, the Brewers' Opening Day infield is probably set, barring injury or trade.

Meanwhile, Mike Rivera is surprised to be looking for work after being non-tendered over the weekend. He thought the decision not to retain Jason Kendall would give him an edge as the only returning catcher familiar with the Brewer pitching staff.

As of this writing, roughly 4% of voters in the poll on your right listed the decision to offer Dave bush a 2010 contract as the one Brewer move from this weekend they would change. That's not exactly a large chunk of the fanbase, but In-Between Hops is taking on that vocal minority, making the case that the Brewers made the right move by giving Bush another shot.

If you missed Morineko's Weekend Mug, follow the link over to it for full coverage of the Brewers' arbitration decisions, and a link to this list of all the non-tenders leaguewide.

Looking back at last week, Jon Heyman ranked the Brewers among the Winter Meeting winners. Meanwhile, Marc Hulet of The Baseball Analysts listed Rule 5 selection Chuck Lofgren in the "Why Bother?" category.

The more I think about it, the more I think Lofgren will have a tough task ahead of him if he's going to make the team out of spring training. With Trevor Hoffman, LaTroy Hawkins, Todd Coffey, Claudio Vargas and Mitch Stetter back, there's only two bullpen spots left that are potentially available (barring injury), and Chris Smith, John Axford, Chris Narveson, Zach Braddock and now Lofgren fighting for them. I like Lofgren's potential and hope the Brewers will get an opportunity to realize it, but right now he might be the third or fourth best lefty in the bullpen competition.

If you have a vague interest in Brewer baseball, but wish there was less analysis and more profanity on this site, then Miller Park Drunk's RUNNING series might be just the ticket for you. Follow these links for bad Prince Fielder jokes, some fan fiction involving Ryan Braun trying to rap, and a vague musical reference to Rickie Weeks.

In the minors: Baseball Intellect has video footage of some at bats featuring Cameron Garfield, Cutter Dykstra and Josh Prince from a Pioneer League game back in July. They're pay-only, but there are worse ways to spend $2.95.

If you were gone this weekend, you didn't miss the opportunity to help select a center fielder and catcher for the BCB All Decade Team. Voting closes at 4 pm today for center fielders and 4 pm tomorrow for catchers. We'll open the voting for the final starting outfield spot later today.

Around baseball:

Blue Jays: Signed catcher John Buck to a one-year deal worth $2 million, signed Joey Gathright to a minor league deal,
Braves: Signed Matt Diaz to a one year, $2.55 million deal, avoiding arbitration.
D-Backs: Re-signed infielder Augie Ojeda to a one year deal, and avoided arbitration with Blaine Boyer.
Dodgers: Signed pitcher Josh Towers to a minor league deal.
Giants: Signed shortstop-turned-pitcher Tony Pena Jr. to a minor league deal.
Indians: Re-signed pitchers Adam Miller and Anthony Reyes to minor league deals.
Marlins: Signed catcher Ronny Paulino to a one-year deal, avoiding arbitration.
Nationals: Re-signed Scott Olsen to a one year deal. Also signed pitcher Ryan Speier to a minor league deal.
Padres: Signed pitcher Kevin Correia to a one year deal, avoiding arbitration.
Pirates: Signed Ronny Cedeno to a one year, $1.125 million deal, avoiding arbitration.
Rangers: Signed infielder Esteban German to a one year deal, avoiding arbitration.
Rays: Avoided arbitration with catcher Dioner Navarro and pitchers Grant Balfour, Rafael Soriano, Lance Cormier and Randy Choate.
Royals: Avoided arbitration with pitchers Brian Bannister and Kyle Davies. They also signed pitcher Bruce Chen and catcher Vance Wilson to minor league deals.
White Sox: Signed J.J. Putz to a one year deal.

Meanwhile, the market heated up immediately for Yankees non-tender Chien-Ming Wang, with Ken Rosenthal reporting that six teams have already expressed interest. He doesn't list the teams, but I wouldn't be surprised to discover the Brewers are one of them.

I promise, I'm not going to mention it every time someone says something new about Jason Kendall. In fact, I might try to go the rest of the week without mentioning him at all. With that said, I thought these three links about him were interesting:

Joe Posnanski has a look at the potential Opening Day lineup for the 2010 Royals, now including Kendall.
He also compares Kendall to a superball on the field at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.
Reminding us all how far and how fast Kendall has fallen, Where Have You Gone, Andy Van Slyke? named Kendall the Pirate Catcher of the Decade.

Weeks ago I linked to a post from minor league veteran Garrett Broshuis, mentioning the challenges in finding quality, healthy food in minor league clubhouses. It looks like that problem may be on its way to being resolved: After discussing it at the Winter Meetings, several teams are making an effort to provide healthier options, and remove the constant flow of junk.

If you're a fan of sabermetrics, or just want to learn more about them, I've got two links for you today:

TangoTiger has a look at OPS+, and some minor adjustments that could be made to it to make it more useful than some other advanced metrics.
That post links to this one, Big League Stew's beginner's guide to wOBA. I learned a fair amount by reading that one.

Gorman Thomas celebrated a birthday over the weekend, and while this probably isn't what he had in mind for a gift, David Chalk of Seventh Inning 'Stache has inducted him into the MLB Mustache Hall of Fame.

On this day in 1998, the Brewers acquired Alex Ochoa from the Twins for a minor leaguer named Darrell Nicholas. Ochoa spent one season as a Brewer, hitting .300/.404/.466 before being traded to the Reds for Mark Sweeney after the season.

Happy birthday today to:

Former Seattle Pilot and 1970 Brewer Greg Goossen, who turns 64.
Dave Nilsson, who appeared in 837 games as a Brewer and turns 40.
Marcus Jensen, who appeared in 18 games over two tours as a Brewer and turns 37.

Sean Forman, founder of Baseball Reference, is also celebrating his birthday today. You can help him celebrate by sponsoring a page. I know someone around here will want this one.

Drink up.

Non-tender roundup: Miller and Reyes signed to minor league deals

Jay — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 03:10:39 -0000

Vaporstarter Adam Miller and the oft-injured Anthony Reyes were not tendered contracts by the Indians yesterday, rendering them free agents, but both pitchers signed minor league deals with the Indians just hours later. These transactions remove both pitchers from the 40-man roster while retaining their services for at least one more year. In the (admittedly unlikely) event Miller's career gets back on track this season, this series of moves avoids using up one of his option years, and should the Indians choose in the next year to restore him to the 40-man roster, he will have at least one option year left and will remain under club control at least through 2016. Reyes remains optionless, of course, but still hypothetically could remain under club control through 2013.

The Indians also declined to offer a contract to reliever Jose Veras, who was arbitration eligible, rendering him a free agent, and there is no indication he will be re-signed. Cleveland's 40-man roster now stands at 37, with 18 pitchers and 19 position players.

The Indians did tender a contract to pitcher Rafael Perez, who is eligible for arbitration (and to the other 28 players on the 40-man roster who are not yet eligible). The non-non-tender to Perez was non-unexpected, despite a disastrous season in which he was the fourth-worst reliever in the majors (min. 30 IP) per WXRL, which estimates a reliever's actual impact on the chance of his team winning or losing games. (That's "Win Expectation above Replacement, Lineup-adjusted," if you must know. BP rates Perez as merely the 10th-worst reliever at preventing runs from scoring, but because he blew more runs than his peers in high-leverage game situations, his negative impact on wins and losses was more substantial.)

Perez spent almost two months in the minors but still qualified for arbitration as a Super Two player with several weeks to spare. As a relief pitcher coming off a terrible season with barely enough service time to qualify, Perez is in line to be awarded perhaps the smallest salary of any player going to arbitration, probably less than $1 million. It's worth recalling, at this point, how outstanding Perez was in his truly super two-plus seasons prior to this one. He had a 2.89 ERA (and 152 ERA+) over 149.1 IP. He struck out 9.8 batters per nine innings, with 3.7 strikeouts for every walk. He held lefties to a .241 slugging percentage and allowed them only nine extra-base hits in 249 PA. As long as we keep tendering him contracts, he remains under club control through 2013, and there is a reasonable chance he will re-emerge as an impact reliever, or at the very least a useful one, at some point in that span.

Other notable non-tenders include former Indians Ryan Garko and Ryan Church. Garko of course was traded to the Giants only months ago for a decent enough pitching prospect. Just 115 abysmal AB later, Giants GM Brian Sabean is now saying he doesn't want to pay upwards of $3 million to a guy who isn't really an everyday player. I'm not saying he's wrong, but it's a pretty hilarious statement to make for a guy who will still owes $83 million to Barry Zito for the next four seasons. McCovey Chronicles has a pretty dead-on take on Sabean's curious sequence of decisions. My theory is that you just can't understand how slow this guy is on the basepaths until he's actually on your team, and maybe Wedge actually deked the Giants with respect to Garko's athleticism by playing him in the outfield.

Expect the cleveland.com crowd to clamor for Garko's return, oblivious to the fact that two teams have now deemed him unworthy of an everyday role in the space of just a few months. Despite high regard for his character, I would be surprised if Shapiro brought him back, even at a substantially reduced salary. I rather expect Garko will be signed by a GM who scouted him as a college player and was impressed with his stroke. As a lefty batter, Church doesn't really fit in with the Indians' plans. Other interesting non-tenders include Pirates closer Matt Capps, Yankees sinkerballer Chien-Ming Wang, and third baseman Garrett Atkins. Atkins is perhaps best remembered as the guy that the Indians never even considered trading Aaron Laffey to get. I wouldn't be surprised if the Indians took an interest in Mike MacDougal; they seem to like guys who used to be closers.

As for Miller, these moves were unusual, reflecting an unusual situation. The "non-tender" deadline traditionally involves only players who are arbitration-eligible, as there is little reason not to tender a contract to any player on the 40-man roster who isn't eligible, since the most the team can be compelled to pay such a player is the minimum salary, which will remain $400,000 for the 2010 season. Many such players will make less than half that much, if they don't spend much time in the majors.

The latest in Miller's deathless progression of rehab setbacks occurred after rosters were frozen for the Rule 5 draft. Otherwise, the Indians might have chosen to DFA Miller prior to that point, exposing him to waivers. That might have cost the Indians the rights to Chuck Lofgren — but then again, maybe not. The Indians might have protected some other on-the-bubble prospect like Yohan Pino, in which case, Miller's delayed setback actually saved the Indians from burning an option year on whoever-that-would-have-been. And even if Miller clears waivers (and later, presumably, also clears the Rule 5 draft), he would have been granted minor league free agency anyway, since he was originally signed more than six years ago.

In that sense, non-tendering Miller, while unusually, was actually a more straightforward path to the same destination. Either way, he ends up as a free agent, free to sign with any club, but this way, he doesn't have to pass through waivers first. Miller obviously felt some combination of organizational loyalty and faith in the club's ability to rehab him back into a prospect, assuming that's even possible. Reyes has spent far less time in the Indians organization, but he had the same options as Miller and made the same choice. If either player was actually worth something anymore, we might consider feeling good about that.

Fire Everyone! - The Farm System

APV — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 21:28:49 -0000

More photos » by Ross D. Franklin - AP

Travis Hafner, soliciting coaching advice from outside the organization

Browse more photos »

This is the eighth installment in a 12-part series.

Part of the Tribe's failure this year can be blamed on the reality that when players were failing to perform in April and May (and there were many), no one was there in Akron or Columbus to step up and provide at least temporary relief. When Fausto Carmona was busy allowing 4+ runs in 10 of his first 12 starts, who was there to step up? Sure, David Huff was there to step in and promptly allow 13 earned runs in his first 6 innings of pro ball, but who was there behind him? And behind that guy? And when the bullpen was busy reading up on seppuku rather than "how to record a major league out" for the first two months, was there really no one better than Matt Herges and Greg Aquino available to fill the holes? Mark Shapiro has said nothing more frequently than the need for depth - the need to prepare for individual failures (which are inevitable) and insure against collective failures. So where was the depth when it was needed to keep the season alive?

One explanation is that it was a failure to acquire the right talent. This is a well hashed argument, and one which might have some validity. There is another possibility, however, that perhaps it is not that we have failed to acquire the right talent, but instead failed to develop the talent we have properly. Perhaps our developmental system, again one of Shapiro's trademarks on the organization has failed. Shapiro has been lauded for installing a system based on combining traditional scouting data with rigorous quantitative assessment and emphasizing consistency throughout the system. Players are supposed to enter into the organization and hear the same things at every level. Maybe some have been hearing the wrong things.

Trying to assess how good a developmental staff the Indians have is probably going to be a failed effort on my part. To really do it right, you would have to compare how the Indians fare relative to other organizations. The best hitters get out 60% of the time. Their greatness is only visible when assessed against everyone else, who get out 69% of the time. The success rate for prospects is much lower than either of the numbers. I don't have time for a thorough comparative analysis, sadly. But we can look internally at what the Tribe has done.

I consider the goal of the developmental staff to accomplish two things:

A good system should help players achieve the potential they were viewed to have when they were drafted/signed (with obvious injury caveats).
A great system should strive to raise the ceiling of their players, and strive to turn them into better players than other teams thought they could be.

How do they do this - I have no idea. But I would like to think they identify weaknesses in a player's game and seek to improve on them. Have the Indians done that? Here are some significant minor leaguers, either assessed by performance, draft or reputation, and how they've progressed (or regressed) while in the Indians system.

2003

Michael Aubrey - Injuries make his development impossible to assess

Brad Snyder - I think Snyder's failures are viewed as a contact problem. I think it is more that he didn't hit for enough power given his high strikeout rate. Here are his K/BB rates from A+, to AA, and two years in Buffalo - 2.5, 2.5, 3, +4...that's not good.

Adam Miller - see Michael Aubrey

Javi Herrera - college defensive catcher (and 3rd round pick), never learned to hit at AA

Ryan Garko - Seems like a success story. He's never developed a lot of power, but aside from his senior year at Stanford he never had a lot of power.

Juan Valdes - Injuries (too much coffee, no doubt)

Kevin Kouzmanoff - Kouz is a developmental success for Cleveland, a guy who raised his ceiling to the point of being trade worthy for future superstar Josh Barfield

Aaron Laffey - Big developmental success. While he's always gotten groundballs in bunches, his improving K-numbers throughout his minor league career attest to his improved secondary stuff, particularly his slider.

2004

Jeremy Sowers - I think it is hard to argue Sowers as a developmental failure. He has consistently dominated the minors. The translation to the big league level is not something I feel justified in blaming the minor league staff entirely for. An argument could be made that more of an effort should have been extended to improve his fastball velocity, but that is tough without incurring all sorts of other mechanical issues.

Justin Hoyman - never got started

Scott Lewis - I think a success story from a developmental perspective. Always did well, but was always described as likely having trouble at the next level. He kept doing well at the next level, up until his injury derailment in the majors.

Chuck Lofgren - Hard to know exactly what has happened or who is to blame for Lofgren, but losing the ability to throw strikes is something I'm happy to assign partial blame to the staff.

Mike Butia - Bad pick

Chris Gimenez - The Tribe turned this 19th round pick into a guy who can play multiple positions including catcher. He's not great, but that's not a bad job for a guy not many people probably thought much of.

Carlton Smith - Another guy who the Indians are trying to turn into something useful. They've managed to take his naturally sinking stuff and turn him into an extreme groundballer out of the pen in Akron this year. I say small victory.

Wyatt Toregas - selected in the 24th round, Wyatt's performance has been up and down, but at various points they've managed to get his plate discipline and/or power up to levels that made his appearance on the big league team this year not surprising. Success.

Tony Sipp - he was a late round flyer who I think we're all glad signed. A success obviously, but it is a little troubling that Sipp's control never showed any improvement.

2005

Trevor Crowe - After looking like he was nothing in 2007 in Akron, he did rebound more towards a reasonably projection given his college performance. Not worth a first round pick, but not the developmental staff's fault.

John Drennen - Haven't been able to put together a solid approach at the plate for Drennen. It's either mediocre power with huge K-rates, or zero power with mediocre plate discipline.

Stephen Head - they really should have worked on his mustache more, or tried to put together a coherent set of skills

Nick Weglarz - projectable big guy from Ontario with limited baseball experience turned into a top prospect...Yes!

Jensen Lewis - Again, from the minor league side of things, this looks like a success

Jordan Brown - Following his 2007 season in Akron, it looked like all he needed to do was add a little power and he'd be a good guy at the plate. Instead he fell apart, losing power, discipline and contact skills. He has rebounded a lot this year, but hasn't recovered his discipline at the plate and given his defensive liabilities, isn't viewed as part of the future. In terms of development, I think Brown is probably a draw.

Kevin Dixon, Joe Ness, James Deters - These three consecutive picks from 2005 all reached Akron and promptly had their careers end, I think we can assign a little failure.

Ryan Edell - Edell, the next pick in that draft, actually made it past Akron this year. Edell is not anything special, but he has followed an advance and struggle, then come back and improve trajectory to the point where he is a depth rotation option for next season. I say success from the development perspective.

Roman Pena - Toolsy, but failed to learn how to not strike out

Neil Wagner - Once viewed as a relief prospect sleeper, Wagner's control has gotten worse as he has moved through the system

2006

David Huff - similar story to Jeremy Sowers. He really looked like he was ready in 2008, but in 2009 his stuff has been lacking. I have a hard time saying this is a failure of the minor league development staff, though.

Steven Wright - he's not a guy we talk much about, but he has slowly and steadily progressed through the system and will likely be a major part of the Columbus bullpen next year. Not a glowing victory, but not a developmental failure.

Josh Rodriguez - Rodriguez has dealt with some injuries, but this seems like a failure. He was highly thought of and got off to a nice pro start in 2007.

Wes Hodges - Again injuries have played a role, but Hodges' power and discipline have deteriorated at each level to the point where now he is a deserved after thought.

Matt McBride - Here I largely question the developmental choices the organization has made. McBride was at catcher, but got moved to corner outfield. He had enough of a projectable bat to be a major league catcher, but it would have and will take a minor miracle to make him a serviceable outfielder. I say development fail.

Adam Davis - He got worse each of his final two seasons at Florida, so I don't blame Cleveland for him not being any good, just for drafting him.

Ryan Morris - A big high-school lefty who the Indians have been unable to teach how to throw strikes

Jared Goedert - Apart from a now legendary 46 game stretch in Lake County, he is 9th round organizational fodder

Paolo Espino - Espino has been moved back and forth from rotation to bullpen, but his improved control this season was a positive step forward for him. I say one for the plus column.

Josh Tomlin - a 19th round pick, Tomlin has been steady in his performance across levels, last season as a stalwart in Akron's pitching staff, to the point of being an interesting guy. Development win.

Vinnie Pestano - Enough marginal improvement in his BB-rate to call this a minor victory.

Chris Nash - Big and raw high school firstbaseman, the Indians have never been able to translate his strength into power or any kind of plate performance. Fail.

Ryan Miller - late round flier who showed signs of life for Lake County in 2008, totally blew up in 2009.

Others

Jon Meloan - not drafted, but clearly a developmental failure. Were never able to right his once promising ship.

Asdrubal Cabrera - huge victory. Cabrera was a hugely underrated guy when we acquired him, but he has been able to translate that potential into actual performance.

Fausto Carmona - huge victory....turned huge failure? But this also involves the major league staff.

Frank Herrmann - Transition to bullpen was successful this season and might prove to be a very smart developmental move. That said, he didn't actually improve any of his numbers in the process.

Hector Rondon - Definitely looks like a victory in progress, has been getting better as he has advanced (at least until the final month of this season).

Rafael Perez - Another victory in terms of his minor league performance. Was a borderline starter turned into a momentarily great reliever.

Jeanmar Gomez - Another seeming victory in progress. His stuff has become more effective as he has moved through the system.

Josh Judy - 34th round 2007 pick, his numbers have also shown steady progress. Could warrant a bullpen look in 2010.

Carlos Rivero - was looking good, but had a definite set back this season in his AA debut

Summary

There are lots of guys I have no doubt missed, and I have intentionally left most of the guys acquired from 2007-present out, because for most of them development is still a work in progress. Generally, I think the Indians developmental system has been adequate, if not extraordinary. We have had pitching successes (Aaron Laffey) and failures (Jon Meloan), hitting successes (Asdrubal Cabrera) and failures (Brad Snyder), college successes (Ryan Garko) and college failures (Wes Hodges), high school successes (Nick Weglarz) and high school failures (Chuck Lofgren). Again, a real study would try to assess this quantitatively and comaratively, but I don't have time for that.

I will say the Indians success with pitchers have seemingly been with developing downward movement on their fastball and/or the development of a slider in particular as an effective secondary pitch. There aren't a ton of changeup success stories in the system, or guys who have developed great power fastballs.

At the plate, it is my sense that certain players who have struggled have gone back and forth between trying to achieve their power potential, while also maintaining a reasonable plate approach. Beau Mills seems to be a case of this in progress, where last season he was showing some signs of actually improving in both areas (following a half-season debut with good power and bad discipline), only to come crashing down in many ways this season. I always find it disappointing when guys who showed plus defensive skills, like Brad Snyder, could not ever quite work it out at the plate enough to get a shot at the major league level. Fire everyone! - mabe. But I'd probably rather see an easing of the constraints on the system. Not an abandonment of the over-arching organizational philosophy on player development, but an openness to the reality that Cleveland is not the greatest organization on the planet and does not have all of the answers.

Just about any individual performance success story or failure can be viewed either as a result of the player's contribution or that of the coaches - so it is impossible to really get at the latter. Only systematic problems give reasonable evidence of organizational failings in this regard. By and large I don't think the Indians system has those. I question sometimes whether the one size fits all approach to development and advancement works for everyone, but some of the player development decisions made this year (Abner Abreu, Lonnie Chisenhall, Zach Putnam) suggest a more flexible approach on behalf of the front office. The bottom line is that I think the Indians do a good job of getting players to perform to the level that is expected of them. There are not that many examples of guys turning into something more than was ever thought possible, but I would guess these are rare in every organization. There are also not a lot of total failures which don't have some major injury component to them. Fire everyone! - maybe. But I'd probably rather just see more humility in the current organizational philosophy towards development. The Indians are not the greatest organization on the planet and do not know the answers to every (or these days any) question. Allowing a little flexibility and opening the channels of communication regarding development up to a few more smart voices might not be a bad idea.

Early Weekend 6-pack (7/30/09)

APV — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:50:26 -0000

This week's early weekend 6-pack is going to be heavily focused on prospects - in part because we have so many new ones coming in, but also because I've started working on an end of July minor league system overview (hopefully out sometime this weekend). But as with Betancourt, Lee, Francisco and Garko have all been here long enough to get an early weekend salute.

1. The sleepy kitten has left the building

Lee had about as interesting, or perhaps unexpected, 7-year run in Cleveland as is possible. Coming in as the second big piece of the Colon deal, Clifton Phifer Lee achieved quite a bit of success early on in Cleveland. In his first two full seasons in the rotation, 2004 and 2005, Cliff went 32-13 with a 4.56 ERA. It was in part derived from luck (2004...) and at times he struggled with control and HR tendencies (52 in those two seasons), but Cliff showed three good major league pitches enough to be considered at times the perfect compliment to CC Sabathia in a young rotation. Ironically, the Indians big step forward in 2007 coincided with Lee's big step back. The homeruns (17 in just 97 innings) and control caught up to him and his ERA ballooned over 6 as he made just 16 starts with the big league club. He even got some work out of the bullpen in a hope that he would regain some usefullness for the club. But he didn't, and so as the Indians moved in the postseason, Cliff wasn't even part of the roster. Lee then found himself auditioning for the 5th starter role heading into 2008, eventually winning it more by default than performance. But something clicked as the regular season began. His pitches, all of them, were hitting their locations with zest, all of them. After giving up 17 HRs in less than 100 innings the previous season, he gave up just 12 in a career high 223 innings in 2008. He walked a league leading low 1.4 batters per 9 innings. Despite the disappointment of the season for the team, Cliff Lee's unarguable Cy Young (and back-to-back with CC for Cleveland) highlighted the season. And this season, without quite as much success, Lee has been doing much the same. To show what an unexpected turnaround Lee made in 2008, here are the numbers from his first 7 starts of the 2008 season.

6-0, 0.67 ERA, 53.2 IP, 32 H, 1 HR, 4 ER, 4 BB, 44 K, .412 OPS against

Memo to the Columbus to Cleveland shuttle bus - that is how you nail down your rotation spot.

2. Here's to you, Ryan Garko

Garko's career line in Cleveland (which in a very strange coincidence includes an identical number of minor league and major league ABs):

409 G, .282/.354/.449, 1411 AB, 398 H, 72 2B, 53 HR, 235 RBI, 180 R

Compared to his minor league career in the organization:

388 G, .293/.379/.488, 1411 AB, 414 H, 84 2B, 60 HR, 251 RBI, 216 R

And not to be forgotten, Garko was pretty good in the 2007 playoffs (.314/.385/.514). I tried to find that image of Garko shotgunning a beer from one of the 2007 playoff locker room celebrations, but failed. This is a nice picture of him, though (and several other no longer with us and possibly soon to be gone guys):

3. The Ben Francisco-Ryan Garko love-hate cycle goes on

High school teammates, college rivals (UCLA, Stanford). Cleveland teammates, NL rivals. Francisco is not a bad fourth outfielder candidate, especially for an NL team, and now he gets the opportunity to be just that. Unlike Garko, Francisco spent more time in the minors (.291/.357/.459, 611 games) than in the majors (.261/.332/.437, 234 games). Baseball...like the civil war, pitting brother against brother, but with better hot dogs.

4. About those prospects...

Jason Knapp, age: 18.9, low-A (SAL)
2009: 2-7, 4.01 ERA, 3.09 FIP, 17 GS, 85.1 IP, 63 H, 3 HR, 39 BB, 111 K
Carlos Carrasco, age: 22.3, AAA (IL)
2009: 6-9, 5.18 ERA, 3.91 FIP, 20 GS, 114.2 IP, 118 H, 14 HR, 38 BB, 112 K
Jesse Todd, age: 23.2, AAA (PCL)
2009: 4-2, 2.20 ERA, 2.62 FIP, 41 G, 49 IP, 39 H, 3 HR, 13 BB, 59 K
Connor Graham, age: 23.6, high-A (CAL)
2009: 7-4, 3.14 ERA, 3.56 FIP, 16 GS, 80.1 IP, 68 H, 41 BB, 87 K
Scott Barnes, age: 21.9, high-A (CAL)
2009: 12-3, 2.85 ERA, 3.87 FIP, 18 GS, 98 IP, 82 H, 29 BB, 99 K
Lou Marson, age: 23.1, AAA (IL)
2009: .294/.382/.370, 63 G, 13 2B, 1 HR, 30 BB (12.4%), 40 K (16.6%)
Jason Donald, age: 24.9, AAA (IL)
2009: .236/.297/.332, 51 G, 15 2B, 1 HR, 14 BB (6.1%), 53 K (23.0%)

5. I'm just going to steal this list from Jay, who posted it in one of the threads

This is where all these players fit in (roughly) according to Kevin Goldstein's preseason rankings from Baseball Prospectus:

Five-Star Prospects
1. Matt LaPorta, LF
1. Carlos Carrasco, RHP
1.5 Justin Masterson, RHP*
2. Carlos Santana, C
Four-Star Prospects
3. Nick Weglarz, LF
3. Chris Perez, RHP
Three-Star Prospects
4. Adam Miller, RHP
5. Beau Mills, 1B
5. Lou Marson, C
5. Jess Todd, RHP
6. Hector Rondon, RHP
6. Jason Donald, SS
7. David Huff, LHP
8. Connor Graham, RHP
8. Nick Hagadone, RHP
8. Trevor Crowe, OF
9. Carlos Rivero, SS
10. Lonnie Chisenhall, SS
10. Jason Knapp, RHP
10. Bryan Price, RHP
11. Michael Brantley, CF/1B
unranked
Scott Barnes, LHP

UPDATE: I added the players acquired for Victor into this list. Masterson was beyond rookie status and thus was not ranked by Goldstein as a prospect in the preseason. However, Goldstein also ranks each team's "Top 10 Talents 25 and Under," and Masterson is placed on that list in between Boston's #1 and #2 prospects, each of whom is rated a five-star prospect. Just think — Brantley no longer makes it into the Indians pre-season Top 20, based on who would eventually be with the team. [Jay]

6. Hmm....here are the new guys with their 2008 and 2009 season-to-date Progress Score (PS) and Net

NAME	Jason Knapp	Carlos Carrasco	Jesse Todd	Connor Graham	Scott Barnes	Lou Marson	Jason Donald
2008 PS	4.54	6.63	1.39	-0.16	8.30	7.3	6.3
2009 PS	1.85	1.04	6.23	-2.14	0.19	7.9	4.2
2008 NET	20	39	34	14	45	18	5
2009 NET	45	18	34	0	39	5	-16

more to come...

Early Weekend 6-Pack (7/2/09)

APV — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:19:57 -0000

It is a holiday weekend and I am still living quite a few hours in the future, so this week's edition of Early Weekend 6-Pack will be very early (with appropriately chosen beverage below).

1. Eric Wedge is in Hall of Fame company

In 2007, Eric Wedge coached the Indians to an impressive .593 winning percentage. Going into Thursday night’s game, the 2009 Indians are winning games at a less impressive .388 clip. If that .200+ drop-off in win% in a 2-year span seems impressive, that’s because it is. I looked at managerial records over the past 50 seasons, and it turns out this feat has only been equaled once. This is obviously a difficult list to get on, because as that gap might suggest, you have to go from coaching a very good team (~.600) to a very bad team (<.400) in a short amount of time. Given roster sizes and player movement restrictions, even in the era of free agency there tends to be a lot of continuity on a roster from one year to the next, so such a rapid change doesn’t often overcome the forces of inertia. Quite a few managers have come close. Dusty Baker did it in three years between 1993 (.636) and 1996 (.429) with the Giants. Phil Garner did it in three with the Astros, 2004 (.649) to 2007 (.443). Cito Gaston did it in three following the Jays last WS title in 1992. Tony LaRussa is good enough to have had such a drop over a 3-year time span twice, one with the White Sox in the mid-80s and again with Oakland in the early 90s. A few others got fired too early in the third season to count (i.e. Gene Lamont, Buddy Bell, Don Zimmer). But only one other coach has done it in 2-years, and that is HOFer Sparky Anderson, who saw the Tigers go from a .605 team in 1987 to a .364 team by 1989. So Wedge is truly in the company of legends. Now there is one coach who has actually topped this, and accomplished the task in just a single season. I probably don’t need to remind you, but Jim Leyland coached the 1997 Marlins to a .568 record and the eventual World Series title, only to come back in 1998 and coach the AA Marlins to a pathetic .333 record.

2. But maybe the best is yet to come...

The Indians have over the past two decades had a tendency to be a strong second-half team. Indeed, 2007 (.595) and 2008 (.588) are the 12th and 13th best back-half W% for the team since WWII. And 2005 (.622) is actually 7th on that list. As you go through the years, those ‘80s teams were generally awful, first half and second. The ‘70s teams were not great, but tended to have decent second halves. The ‘60s teams, which were better, were strikingly bad late season teams and had a few epic fades (e.g. 1965 - tied for 1st on the 4th of July, 14 games over .500, played below .500 the second half of the season and fell to 5th place). And the golden era teams, 1948-1954, were just awesome all around. Here’s the complete top 10:

	Year	Rec	W%		Year	Rec	W%
1	1954	55-16	.775	7	2005	46-28	.622
2	1995	54-23	.701	8	1953	44-27	.620
3	1952	51-28	.646	9	1955	43-27	.614
4	1996	47-27	.635	10t	2000	46-30	.605
5	1948	52-30	.634	10t	1950	46-30	.605
6	1951	49-29	.628

3. More Matt LaPorta please

Speaking of records – here is the team’s record when different individuals have appeared in the game. The "best" record goes to Matt LaPorta, who in his brief stint in Cleveland, helped the team to a near .500 (6-7) record. Way to go Matt! The worst record title is shared by Travis Hafner (10-24) and Josh Barfield (5-12).

Shoppach	18-29	Peralta	28-42	Crowe	13-17
Martinez	29-49	Choo	31-47	LaPorta	6-7
Cabrera	21-35	Hafner	10-24	Dellucci	5-9
DeRosa	29-42	Garko	24-36	Gimenez	5-7
Francisco	26-42	Carroll	13-24	Barfield	5-12
Sizemore	23-34	Valbuena	14-23

4. The defense rests

It’s only the half-way point, but at least according to UZR, the Indians defense is on pace to being 51 runs worse than last year, helping make Cleveland one of the most underperforming teams in baseball. According to the numbers, these are the four biggest culprits:

Ben Francisco -6.9
Luis Valbuena -6.1 (split between SS and 2B pretty evenly)
Shin Soo Choo -3.6
Mark DeRosa -3.1 (although about +3 in the outfield, -6 in the infield)

The Indians best defenders so far; Jamey Carroll (+3.8) and Jhonny Peralta (+2.9). Note: This is just one metric for measuring defense and half a season, and for many of these guys less than that, is generally not considered a large enough sample to be particularly reliable. I'd be interested how these numbers match up with people's perspectives...I haven't seen enough games live to say.

5. Can I get two Wegz with that LaPorta?

The Indians full-season minor league teams all have three full months in the books. Matt LaPorta had the team’s best month of April (1.103), while Nick Weglarz beat off some stiff competition from a number of players to claim the best May (1.055) and June (1.007). There are a number of other high performers, of course. Carlos Santana has been steadily good all season. Jordan Brown and Andy Marte both had big Mays. Abner Abreu screamed back from a terrible April with months of May and June not far behind Weglarz before separating his shoulder. Lonnie Chisenhall has been solid.

6. The future looks different when you get there

One of the things Baseball America does every year when it produces its organizational top 10 lists is put together a mock-up of what the team’s lineup might look like 3 years in the future. Here is what, in November 2006, they projected as the Indians 2010 lineup:

Catcher – Matt McBride SP #1 – CC Sabathia

First Base – Victor Martinez SP #2 – Adam Miller

Second Base – Josh Barfield SP #3 – Jeremy Sowers

Third Base – Andy Marte SP #4 – Cliff Lee

Shortstop – Jhonny Peralta SP #5 – Jake Westbrook

Left Field – Trevor Crowe Closer – Tony Sipp

Center Field – Grady Sizemore

Right Field – Shin Soo Choo

DH – Travis Hafner

Ahh...back when the Indians future was so clear. I actually think they did a pretty good job with this. They correctly predicted Victor’s transition to first base, while being surprisingly optimistic about Jhonny staying at SS. They got the easy ones of course, Grady in center and Hafner at DH, but also pegged Choo in RF. McBride as catcher was obviously a fail...why people love that guy is something I don’t entirely understand. Barfield did, coming off a ~~great~~ good rookie year in San Diego, seem like a reasonably safe call. Marte was still one of baseball’s top prospects. Crowe...see McBride. They may very well have 40-60% of the starting rotation correct. Adam Miller, more optimism. I’m not sure why they thought CC would both still be a #1 starter and still be with Cleveland.

It’s hard to pretend I don’t know what has happened since November 2006 and try to compare how good I thought this team would have been versus how good I think our projected 2010 team currently looks. It’s probably impossible to match my view of the above projected starting rotation (it is truly a dream world where Jake Westbrook is our #5 guy), but I think I like our offense better. Put LaPorta in for Crowe, Santana (at least by the end of 2010) in for McBride, shift Jhonny left and put Droobs and Valbuena up the middle...and I like that lineup a lot. The pitching, though...

via www.beerbeacon.com

Better Know a White Sox Division Rival: Cleveland Indians

larry — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 11:00:10 -0000

This is the third in a series about AL Central division rivals and the race to be the tallest midget.

Offseason Comings and Goings

In contrast to the Twins, the Indians had an active offseason – and, if you include the midseason deals such as those involving CC Sabathia and Casey Blake, an even more sizeable makeover from the 2008 opening day Indians has occurred. The biggest splash was the 2/$20.5M deal to install Kerry Wood as closer. Coupled with the addition of sidearming groundball machine Joe Smith in the massive three-team deal with the Mariners and Mets, GM Mark Shapiro hopes to convert the bullpen from a weakness to a strength.

Their other major move was to trade for the versatile Mark DeRosa to (apparently) start at 3B, though he can play all over the diamond. The ~~oft~~ always injured Carl Pavano was brought in to help fill out the rotation.

On the departures list are a slew of players who made up the atrocious 2008 bullpen – Scott Elarton, Brendan Donnelly, Juan Rincon, and Matt Ginter – along with OF defensive maven Franklin Gutierrez.

All things considered, this was a successful offseason for Shapiro. He added the necessary corner infielder and addressed the bullpen. While the rotation still looks to be very much a work in progress, there’s probably only so much you can do in one year if you aren’t the Yankees and he's got enough to throw up on the wall for some of it to perhaps stick.

Offense

A projected lineup: Grady Sizemore CF, Mark DeRosa 3B, Travis Hafner DH, Victor Martinez C, Jhonny Peralta SS, Shin-Soo Choo RF, Ryan Garko 1B, Ben Francisco LF, Asdrubal Cabrera 2B

Bench and Spare Parts: Kelly Shoppach C, Jamey Carroll (INF), David Dellucci (OF), Josh Barfield (INF/OF), Trevor Crowe (OF), Tony Graffanino (INF)

While the Indians have been madeover, the core offense isn’t much different. It is the best offense in the division but it’s not without question marks. The Tribe will be banking on a return to full health and productivity from Martinez and Hafner. Martinez is the likelier of the two to rebound as he has age on his side and a capable catching caddy in Shoppach to spell him. Expect to see Martinez play a significant number of games at 1B in place of Garko. Hafner, on the other hand, is on the wrong side of 30 for a player with his skill set and has had two consecutive seasons of injury-hampered poor productivity.

The Indians will also look to Cabrera and Choo to live up to the projections. Sizemore is going to be Sizemore and another MVP caliber season is on tap. Garko is a rather poor use of 1B but, as noted above, he won’t be playing full-time and is likely keeping a spot warm for their top prospect. Francisco is another weak use of a corner position but is also keeping a spot warm for that same guy. Peralta is a below average defender at SS but his stick makes him more than acceptable.

Pitching

Rotation: Cliff Lee, Fausto Carmona, Anthony Reyes, Carl Pavano, Aaron Laffey

Bullpen and Spare Parts: Kerry Wood, Jensen Lewis, Rafael Perez, Rafael Betancourt, Masahide Kobayashi, Joe Smith, Vinnie Chulk, Matt Herges, John Meloan, Zach Jackson, Jeremy Sowers, Scott Lewis, Jake Westbrook, Kirk Saarloos, Juan Salas

That stab at a rotation is a best guess. If those five - or any five - make it through five turns intact, it will be a shock. While Lee is not going to repeat last season’s Cy Young Award campaign, he shouldn’t regress too much. And then the questions begin. Carmona is coming off an injury ravaged, ineffective campaign. His walks ballooned and his strikeouts disappeared. A return to something closer to 2007 form will be required for contention. One-time top prospect Reyes was impressive for the Indians in six late season starts after being acquired from St. Louis. But based on his past record, banking on him is specious at best - though he has pitched well this spring. And Pavano? He’s penned in as something other than their #5 starter. Meaning they’re relying on a guy who has pitched about 45 innings in the past two seasons more than someone else. And that someone else appears to be lefty Aaron Laffey, who has been the favorite for the #5 spot - though Scott Lewis has had a much better spring and may force his way into the rotation. The Indians sent out 13 different starters last season and this season, while not matching it, is likely to approach double digits. Westbrook is targeting a midseason return from Tommy John surgery and may provide some necessary stability for the run-in. Sowers and Jackson are also in the wings to fill-in. Shapiro appears to be hoping that from all this quantity, sufficient quality will emerge.

With that mess of a rotation, the bullpen will need to be a strength. Wood’s health is always going to be a question but his installation as closer pushes Jensen Lewis back down the depth chart into a set-up role - and everyone else down a spot, too. As Assistant GM Mark Antonetti points out, the difference between Wood and the seventh guy is massive. Lefty Rafael Perez will again be a primary set-up man. Smith’s groundballing ways should provide added seventh inning stability against righties and the return of Betancourt to pre-2008 form could make this an extremely formidable and deep bullpen and take some pressure off the starters, whoever they are.

Farm

Finally I get to talk about a legit prospect.

Matt LaPorta came over as the centerpiece of the Sabathia trade. The 24 year old is a legit 30+ home run talent with plus plate discipline to boot. While initially dismissed as only a 1B, he’s made strides in the outfield and looks like he could adequately perform in LF. He’s likely to start the season at AAA but fans of the Indians’ new affiliate in Columbus shouldn’t get too attached. Both Garko and Francisco will be looking over their shoulders and he provides excellent insurance – or simply a production boost – to an already potent offense.

At some point in this preview I expected to discuss righty Adam Miller. He was projected to make the bullpen – which would have made it downright filthy – but the oft-injured top prospect recently got bitten again. His troublesome middle finger on his throwing hand now requires a complicated surgery which will force him to miss the entire season and may be career threatening. So, instead, I’ll focus on yet another potential starter.

David Huff is a 24 year old lefty who is described as a bit better than the average finesse southpaw. The Indians’ top pick in 2006 has a fastball that reaches the low 90s, a plus change, and a decent slider – and he has excellent command and control of all of them. He had very good numbers across two levels last season. He’s essentially a finished product now but the plethora of backend candidates means that the Indians will send him back to AAA to start the season. He’ll be a top option when Cleveland inevitably needs a starter.

Outlook

This midget is the experts’ favorite but the rotation is sketchy. The offense can carry the club – but only if the pitching isn’t weighing it down too much. With Mauer’s availability questionable, the Indians would be the slight favorite.

Up Next: Detroit Tigers

Previously: Minnesota Twins, Kansas City Royals

Friday's Frosty Mug

KLSnow — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:48:46 -0000

Some things to read while not watching soccer.

So, a quick stroll through Rumorville this morning revealed that there's renewed buzz around Mike Cameron, with the Yankees once again rumored to be seeking his services. Tom H. says nothing is imminent right now. Hopefully that'll be the end of it.

Of course, it's also possible Melvin has been too busy to answer the phone: Yesterday he was unable to work out a trade so Eduardo Morlan has been returned to the Rays. (Also noted in FanShot)

He also had to evaluate new Brewer Wes Littleton, who pitched a 1-2-3 inning in his debut. He's probably not the first Brewer to say something like this about his new surroundings:

As for those familiar faces, there were non-roster outfielder Jason Bourgeois and pitcher Sam Narron, who have neighboring lockers and were once teammates of Littleton in the Rangers' farm system.

Or he could just be holding his breath as Ryan Braun tests out his sore intercostal muscle to see if he can take batting practice and/or play in the WBC semifinals. The Brewers get to make the final call, so don't be surprised if Braun is held out.

This one probably didn't take too much time, but I'd assume there was also some paperwork involved in returning Lorenzo Cain, Jonathan Lucroy and Scott Thorman to minor league camp.

Melvin may not have had time to talk to Ken Macha about his decision to try Jason Kendall in the leadoff spot. (Also noted in FanShot) Yes, Kendall takes some pitches and will draw a walk, but Two-Fisted Slopper notes that Weeks actually did both of those things better than Kendall in 2008. The Book blog has another conversation starter on whether any of this matters all that much.

Also, further down in that Journal Sentinel story is a note on Tony Gwynn, who is expected to play in the field for the first time on Saturday. Don't read too much into it, but there may be a note in there about who Macha likes among his outfield candidates:

The other thing is there are two (reserve) outfield spots. You've got four guys there: Nelson, (Trot) Nixon and the other two guys.

Speaking of Nixon, thanks to TheJay for spotting this note on his number change:

Former Tribe outfielder Trot Nixon has an uphill fight to make the Brewers' roster and thought he needed an edge.

Nixon wore No. 3 on the back of his uniform then abruptly changed to 93.

"I'm just trying to shake things up," he said.

Visual evidence of yesterday's game:

A ball snuck through the infield while J.J. Hardy was working on his belly flop.
Mike Cameron and a guy who should really put a shirt on both chase a fly ball - Cameron wins.
Cameron also did his best to break up a double play.
Was Prince Fielder congratulating Corey Hart for yet another spring training home run, or for reaching first base on his knees? We may never know.

After a tumultuous few seasons, it sounds like things have finally settled down in Nashville, with the Sounds getting new ownership and spending $2.5 million renovating Greer Stadium with the hopes of repairing a relationship with the city and fans that has been allowed to deteriorate.

Elsewhere in the minors, former Brewer Callix Crabbe and current farmhands Zelous Wheeler and Maverick Lasker are among the 64 players invited to MLB.com's Moniker Madness tournament.

In other camps:

Dodgers: Released Yhency Brazoban.
Giants: Are reportedly in the market for a backup catcher and relief pitching.
Indians: Former top prospect Adam Miller may require surgery to regain movement in his right middle finger, and could miss the entire 2009 season.
Mets: Have reportedly made an offer to Pedro Martinez.
White Sox: May be scouring the trade market looking for a proven center fielder.

Could the Brewers lose a divisional rival in Arizona? Jealous of new facilities built for the White Sox and Dodgers, the Cubs are threatening to leave Mesa if the city doesn't improve HoHoKam park. Sarasota, Florida is being named as an option.

Of course, when you train in Arizona you get spoiled sometimes, with so many things you don't have to worry about anymore. The Rays training complex in Florida, for example, has wild boars roaming the facility at night.

Being generous is a good thing. Forcing generosity onto others is a different problem: Apparently the Dodgers have decided that all new contracts must include a donation to the Dodgers Dream Foundation. Frank McCourt has set himself up for a bunch of $1 donations.

Last year, the Padres were bad. This year, the Padres may also be bad, but Geoff Young says they'll at least be bad in an interesting way.

Oh, and if you're lobbying at the Capitol and you want to have any kind of success, you probably shouldn't snatch wallets while you're there.

Drink up.

Walking Wounded Roundup

Jay — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:29:27 -0000

Shin-Soo Choo's elbow is hurting, or his arm near his elbow, or whatever it is, we're not happy about it. The Indians have taken the procedural initiative and filed a grievance, exercising their right to keep Choo from playing. The Times headline says "Indians Try To Keep Choo Out Of WBC", but this truly is a case of "do or do not, there is no try." The Indians have every right to pull Choo from the series if they want to, either because of his time on the DL during the 2008 season or because of his current injury. Those are the rules, as Team South Korea's manager readily acknowledged:

The final decision to decide is with the professional team in the U.S. We have to have big ears to listen to what the decision-makers are saying.

So, that settles that. In the AP account, Shapiro sums up the Indians' view succinctly:

It's an uncomfortable situation for us.

Which means several things. For one, they'd like to allow Choo to play for his country. For another, they might even like to curry favor with the South Korean government, with an eye toward making Choo's military obligation less of an issue in 2011. (I'm speculating on this, but when I asked Chris Antonetti about this in January, he was pretty insistent that the Indians have no standing to negotiate on that issue, that it's strictly between Choo and his government.) But no doubt the most uncomfortable thing for Shapiro is that he trusts in his own medical staff above anyone else, and right now, Choo is in Japan.

In Castrovince's overview of the situation, we learn for the first time that Choo's involvement in the WBC always came with preconditions:

In the first round of the Classic, he is forbidden from playing in the outfield more than one of the potential three games. In the second round, he can only appear in the outfield in two games, and they must not be consecutive.

It intrigues me when little details like this go unreported for so long. I don't know about you, but I personally had no inkling that the Indians viewed Choo as still being this fragile. Anyway, Castrovince's take on the decision-making doesn't entirely square with other sources:

But when he left the Tribe's camp on Feb. 24 to join his Korean teammates for training in Hawaii, Choo officially became the property of his Classic club. The Korean team will decide whether or not he plays Friday and beyond.

Is this a simple misunderstanding, or a genuine controversy? It is, in fact, pretty serious stuff for a club with minimal quality depth in the outfield. If Choo is injured in the WBC and misses significant time in the regular season, it means more playing time for Dellucci and Crowe, and our badly needed margin for error with Ben Francisco vanishes into nothing. The net result is probably at least one hole in the lineup that we didn't count on having.

Speaking of holes, apparently the one Adam Miller had in his middle finger apparently continues to haunt him. He's been shut down for ~~four years~~ eight days and will be shut down for at least another eight. What is the deal with this guy's finger, anyway? Well, let me just look it up in my handy-dandy Indians Annual 2009 ...

Miller was squarely in the mix as depth starter for the big-league club the following spring [2007], but he strained a tendon on his troublesome right middle finger, putting him behind the eight-ball as Fausto Carmona sparkled in the majors ... When Miller arrived for spring training in 2008, the finger injury continued to linger, precluding any game action and eliminating any thought of his making the big-league club out of Winter Haven. By mid-May, the problem had been identified as a pulley strain, which had caused multiple blisters and eventually a finger tendon injury, which in turn caused his skin to rub up against the baseball, resulting in two large calluses and an open hole in Miller’s hand. At that point, the Indians opted for surgery, shutting Miller down for the remainder of the minor league season.

You have to hand it to Paul ... that description is totally gnarly. Anyway, I stand by my previous recommendation: It's time to just amputate that finger. We need that arm.

With all this going on, I tend to feel fairly sanguine about Kerry Wood's back soreness. He says he has back soreness every spring; call me stupid, but I believe him. Spring training is a week or two longer this year, so the Indians (and I'm sure some other clubs) are taking it easy with a bunch of their guys early on, especially the ones with significant injury histories. They have a lot more time than they really need for all the veterans to get their work in. The AP wire story says that Wood experienced no problems in his first batting practice session on earlier today:

Wood, who signed a two-year, $20.5 million contract with Cleveland in December, threw his fastball and slider, striking out Dave Dellucci and Andy Marte.

"It felt good to face hitters," Wood said.

Must ... resist ... layup ... too ... obvious ...

Deep Sleepers AL-Only

faketeams — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:00:09 -0000

Maybe the time hasn't quite come to delve into sleepers, but I will do so anyways. The definition of sleeper is always up for debate. So I'll offer my working definition for this sleeper list:

A sleeper is a player who one would expect to go for less than $5 in a traditional 4x4 AL-only 12-team keeper league. These are the deepest of sleepers.

RHP Adam Miller, Cleveland Indians: The power righty has spent most of this decade as one of the Indians top prospects, but injuries have derailed his ascension to the major league club. Miller is expected to be in the Tribes' bullpen in 2009. The two-year contract given to Kerry Wood precludes an easy path the closer's job, as does the presence of Jensen Lewis. However, Miller's K potential will place him on that fantasy favorite list - Future Closers.

C John Jaso, Tampa Bay Rays: A left-handed catcher with pop will always have a place on a major league roster. Jaso also has that rare ability to walk more than he strikeouts out. With Dioner Navarro entrenched as the starting catcher, Jaso could see time in multiple roles this season. For a $1 as my second catcher, I'd be thrilled to roster him.

RHP Russ Springer, Oakland A's: Billy Beane has continued the transformation of the Oakland A's from rebuilding club to a veteran one with the signing of Springer. With two very young pitchers filling the presumptive closer role, I would not be surprised to see Russ Springer get the chance to close this season despite his complete lack of experience doing so. After all, I'm still surprised with the move to being a veteran club.