Don't ask me why, I just find this kind of thing fascinating. Jim Thome went nearly nine years without putting on an Indians uniform, and obviously many dozens of people played for the Indians while he was away. What's interesting to me is how many players never played with Thome as an Indian and still haven't — despite having had significant, multi-year careers with the Indians while Thome was away. Here's the fairly interesting and incomplete list, obviously subject to change:

POSITION PLAYERS, by games played as an Indian

1000 — Travis Hafner
923 — Jhonny Peralta
882 — Grady Sizemore
810 — Casey Blake
408 — Ryan Garko
390 — Ronnie Belliard
305 — Jody Gerut
301 — Kelly Shoppach
284 — Franklin Gutierrez
278 — Andy Marte
249 — Jason Michaels
247 — Aaron Boone
235 — Ben Francisco
214 — Michael Brantley
206 — Jamey Carroll
205 — Luis Valbuena
190 — Trevor Crowe
183 — David Dellucci
159 — Josh Barfield
141 — Austin Kearns
87 — Jose Hernandez
74 — Alex Escobar
73 — Ryan Ludwick
73 — Chris Gimenez
46 — Ramon Vazquez

It's a huge list, largely reflecting how complete the 2003 rebuild was. Still, a host of 2004-2008 stalwarts aren't on this list as they debuted in 2002: Bard, Crisp, Broussard, Phillips, Bradley and Victor Martinez. Dellucci debuted with the Phillies in 2006, just a few months after the Phillies had shipped Thome to the White Sox. Jose Hernandez and Thome both played briefly for the 1992 Indians, but they never appeared in the same game. Thome appeared as a pinch hitter in eight games with Blake, with the 2009 Dodgers.

STARTING PITCHERS, by games started as an Indian

84 — Paul Byrd
71 — Jeremy Sowers
52 — Scott Elarton
49 — Aaron Laffey (+30 in relief)
42 — David Huff
40 — Mitch Talbot
33 — Carlos Carrasco

Not much to see here, as the Indians rotation was impressively stable in Thome's absence. Sabathia and Westbrook debuted well before he left, and Thome was in the lineup for Cliff Lee's first two starts as a September callup. Carmona is still in the rotation, so that basically just leaves four guys filling in the gaps for eight years.  

RELIEF PITCHERS, by appearances as an Indian

371 — Rafael Betancourt
161 — Jensen Lewis
116 — Bob Howry
96 — Matt Miller
94 — Fernando Cabrera
87 — Joe Borowski
82 — Scott Sauerbeck
0 — Adam Miller

Have to feel bad for Jensen. The amazing thing about Betancourt is that he's already pitched in 163 games for the Rockies, too; over the past nine years, he's one of only five pitchers with more than 500 appearances and fewer than 25 saves.

It's official, Jim Thome has waived his no-trade clause to allow the Indians to acquire him from the Twins for the stretch run for a player to be named later. More details momentarily.

[UPDATE (Ryan)]: The PTBNL, according to Jordan Bastian, will be chosen by the Twins by October 15th from a list of players agreed to by the two clubs. Thome will be in the lineup in time for Friday's game, and will wear his customary #25.

Extra innings. Can the White Sox go all the way on fluke triples and horrible officiating?

More details to come. Howard signed in the final hour, Lindor evidently in the final minute.

[UPDATE (Ryan)]

Here's the details on the last-minute signings:

SS Francisco Lindor (1st Round): $2.9M, minor-league contract

Lindor had some leverage (a full scholarship at Florida State), but given where he was selected (8th overall), there wasn't much upside to waiting three years to go back into the draft. Tony Lastoria believes he'll get into some games in the Arizona League, and possibly end the minor-league season in Mahoning Valley or Lake County, though it's doubtful he'd play in either place.

RHP Dillon Howard (2nd Round): $1.85M, minor-league contract

According to Baseball America, the slot for this pick was $545,000, but as we've seen in recent years, clubs don't really pay attention to the slot. Howard had committed to Arkansas, and was going to be a tougher sign than Lindor. The Indians ended up paying him first-round money to forgo pitching for his home state college. 

With Lindor and Howard signed (and 18th round selection Shawn Armstrong), the Indians have eighteen of their first nineteen picks signed. The two major misses were Stephen Tarpley (8th Round) and Dillon Peters (20th Round), two high-school left-handed pitchers who elected to go to college.

Not a lot of surprises in tonight's game, and in particular, no surprises of the exceptionally unpleasant kind.

The preternaturally steady Josh Tomlin shut down a meek Twins lineup for six innings, allowing just three batters to reach first base and not a single runner to reach second base. Tomlin started to lose it in the 7th, as expected, allowing a leadoff double to Justin Morneau, unsurprisingly. Jim Thome, the active major league leader in walks, drew a walk; it was the only walk allowed by Tomlin, who averages about one walk allowed per start. An RBI single from Delmon Young ended Tomlin's night with about the line you might have predicted: 6.1 IP, 2 K, 1 BB, 1 ER.

The Indians amassed 10 hits but stranded all of them, save for a beautiful home run shot by Asdrubal Cabrera (yawn, see photo) in the third. Joe Smith, Rafael Perez, Tony Sipp and Chris Perez all dominated the Twins to finish the game for Tomlin. Thome, the active major league leader in strikeouts, struck out to end it. Perhaps the only odd thing about this game was that LaPorta and Fukudome each collected two hits.

Four of the club's best lefty bats — Hafner, Kipnis, Brantley and Chisenhall — were on the bench tonight for the start against Brian Duensing — who pitched, you know, okay, like usual — so manager Manny Acta basically got away with sneaking in a key rest day for half of his best players. Jason Donald made the most of his opportunity, gritting his way to second base in the first inning and tripling in the 7th — stranded both times. Donald also singled Choo to second to set up Cabrera's three-run homer.

Totally unexpectedly, the Orioles jumped out to 5–0 lead over the Tigers. As expected, the Orioles blew it, and the Tigers notched yet another one-run victory — their tenth in four weeks — to maintain a three-game lead over the Indians. The Twins now have the second-worst run differential in the AL, after the Orioles of course.

via www.fangraphs.com

Just to make the argument: The Indians are every bit as good as the Tigers. Since the All-Star break, the clubs have the same run differential, –5, but coming into tonight's action, the Tigers were 13–12 while the Indians 11–15. Detroit was 8–3 in one-run games, while Cleveland was 3–6 in one-run games. In that difference lies the entirety of Detroit's slim lead over the Indians — and tonight, that key difference almost grew a bit larger. As of 9:15 p.m., the Indians were poised to lose yet another maddening one-run game hosting the Twins, while the Tigers were poised to win another one in Baltimore.

Justin Masterson likely will not compete for Cy Young votes, but nearly every advanced metric shows that he's one of the league's best five pitchers this season. He's not doing it with BIP luck (.295), which somewhat benefitted our "surprise ace" groundballers Westbrook in 2004 (.272) and Carmona in 2007 (.280), but rather with a league-leading groundball rate combined with solid numbers across the board.

Masterson gave the Indians another gem tonight, allowing only three baserunners — all singles, one of them an infield single — through seven innings. Those two solid hits, however, both came in the third inning and produced the Twins' first run. In that same inning, Carlos Santana air-mailed a throw to second on a stolen base, but that play proved to be fairly inconsequential, and Santana redeemed himself by throwing out two consecutive baserunners just minutes later. In four different innings, Masterson faced only three batters and induced two of them to ground out.

Despite a series of defensive miscues by rookie shortstop Tsuyoshi Nishioka, the Indians failed to put together any kind of a threat against LGFT Carl Pavano until the 6th, when the lineup seemed to flirt with Twins-style, slappy, flukey baseball. Ezequiel Carrera reached base on two infield singles, and he led off the 6th with a bunt single. Returning to the lineup after seven weeks on the Disabled List, Shin-Soo Choo hit the ball pretty hard in three at-bats but somehow reached base only on an infield single, pushing EZ to second base. The Indians eked out a run in that inning, but a pair of fielder's choices limited the damage.

Masterson yielded three more baserunners and a second run with one out in the 8th before being lifted for Rafael Perez, who closed out the inning. With the score 2–1 and lineup looking rather ineffectual against Pavano, that old sinking feeling was setting in again. This time, however, the Indians came through with a couple of solid pieces of hitting from Hafner, who battled through a tough at-bat to shove a hard grounder through the Twins' non-shift on the left side, and then Santana, who smoked a huge gapper to right-center to drive in the tying run. Matt LaPorta followed with a flare that fell in just a few feet in front of the full-sprinting LF Ben Revere — evidently playing at "no-doubles" depth, which ironically turned a shallow flyout into a double — driving in Santana for the go-ahead run.

Chris Perez notched a quick save to secure the 3–2 victory. The Tigers held on to their one-run lead in Baltimore and are now 9–3 in one run games since the break, while the Indians are now 4–6 in one-run games and still three games behind. Having said that, we won a very lose-able game tonight, while for the second night in a row, the Tigers barely won a game that they should have won easily.

Looking for a walkoff. Also looking to see if the Tigers have acquired Coco Crisp, Ben Broussard and Jody Gerut yet.

Dave Huff improbably is looking like a strong number-two starter, more or less exactly what we imagined him to be 30 months ago. Brad Grant has two home runs tonight and a monster trade to his credit. Indians lead halfway through the sixth inning. Kosuke does not look so great at the plate. And judging from the sheer volume of comments in game threads the last few days, the Indians have electrified the fan base with their deadline deals — although, to be sure, the inadequacy of our divisional rivals helps, too.

The Indians acquired Cubs outfielder Kosuke Fukudome today in exchange for two minor leaguers, RHP Carlton Smith and OF Abner Abreu. Smith was a depth relief option still developing in Triple-A Columbus at age 25; his strikeouts spiked this season, but his overall numbers remain mediocre. Abreu was an interesting C-grade prospect toiling away in Advanced-A Kinston; he has great power potential but probably will never hit for enough contact to make it to the majors.

The Indians reportedly pay less than 800K of Fukudome's remaining salary, meaning the Cubs will send nearly $4 million in cash to balance out the deal. The Indians basically got this guy for nothing. 

Fukudome has been a huge disappointment in Chicago, signed with no U.S. experience to a Hafner-sized deal to great fanfare and then failing to produce any power at the plate. Leaving aside the disappointments of Cubs management and fans, the Indians are getting a plus defender and plus on-base guy. He won't set the world on fire — and he certainly doesn't give us an upgrade against lefties — but he is a solid if incremental upgrade to the club's shockingly depleted outfield picture.

Travis Buck was designated for assignment to free up a roster spot for Fukudome. The Indians reportedly are still in the hunt for a right-handed bat (Ludwick?) and possibly a starting pitcher. Stay tuned, the Indians are officially "buyers" now. 

NOTE: I posted a recap sometime around 9:00 p.m. last night, and evidently the system rejected it, or ate it, or something. Rather than attempt to re-create it, I'm just going to plagiarize the very astute recap of some other guy named Jay, from the comment thread below. "Our best stories are in the comments," or something like that. Take it away, TribeJay ...

So this is what the Angels had to have happen to take the series from the Tribe:

• Get 5 infield hits off Masterson and extend the game long enough to get to the tired Tribe’s bullpen and their long reliever.
• Manage to catch 7 of the 10 rockets/long drives in Friday’s game.
• Have a ball go through the glove of a noted glove man to extend an inning that otherwise would have been over. That’s right, not off the glove, but through the webbing of the glove.
• Get not one, but two choppers in a row to tie the game and eventually go ahead.

And this is with two of the best starting pitchers in the league starting for them in the series. You know what, if that’s what it takes, then I’m okay with losing the series. I’m fired up. This is our Cleveland Indians. Let’s Go Tribe.

To all of you who hate the Twins, you should hate the Angels more.

For those of you who still want LaPorta hitting sixth, if you’ve watched the games on this road trip, you should understand why Orlando Cabrera is hitting there now. He may be due to hit into a key double play at some point, but for now you have to appreciate how often he does what it takes to deliver that key run.

I’m high on LaPorta, mainly because of the special way the ball jumps off the barrel of the bat. But until he gets, receives, or is bequeathed a clue, he needs to stay at the bottom third of the order. Ideally, he’ll figure enough things out so he can eventually hit sixth later this year, but I want him where he is for the moment.

via www.fangraphs.com

It appears that our long nightmare of horrible Indians coverage on FanGraphs has come to an end, or at least to a respite. Evidently, the Indians are now a big enough story to attract their A-List contributors (and let's just admit it, that means the Seattle guys plus Szymborski), so we no longer have to endure error-riddled, sloppy analysis from some ass-clown Yankees blogger. If so, that alone may be the second-best thing to happen in Indians media this year (trailing the "Hammy overlay" feature of course). Let's take a look.

FanGraphs: Jack Hannahan’s Crazy April

So far this year, Hannahan is hitting .529/.619/1.059 against LHBs, good for a .684 wOBA. Yes, it includes a ridiculous .700 BABIP, but Hannahan has also shown legitimate offensive skills against lefties – four of his nine hits have gone for extra bases and he has a 4/5 BB/K ratio in 21 plate appearances, which isn’t easy to do against same-handed pitching, even in a small sample size.

He’s obviously not going to keep this up, but looking through his career, it’s interesting to note that Hannahan has actually hit LHPs better than RHPs, posting a slight reverse platoon split. He has only 250 career plate appearances against southpaws, so we’re still dealing in small samples, but his core numbers don’t change much regardless of who is on the mound. It sets up an interesting – and somewhat unorthodox – option for the Indians.

Hannahan was essentially brought in to keep the seat warm for top prospect Lonnie Chisenhall, who is currently performing just okay in Triple-A. Chisenhall is clearly the future at third base for the Tribe, but he’s not quite Major League ready just yet. His biggest problem? Hitting left-handed pitching.

I'm going to go farther and suggest that Chisenhall will not be our Opening Day third baseman in 2012, because Hannahan will be. Is this irrational exuberance for Hannahan? Perhaps, but I don't think so. I have drunk the Kool-Aid on Hannahan in the sense that I believe a legit major leaguer, albeit not the impact player he has appeared to be over short stretches. His defense is strong enough that he sticks on the roster as long as he can sustain a 700 OPS. Effective, cheap, and under club control for multiple years, Hannahan is everything we hope Chisenhall can be, and while Hannahan is unlikely to be a star, many feel that Chisenhall won't be, either. And anyway, as Cameron suggests here, why not make room for both?

Hannahan represents two positive, early trends for the Antonetti regime. First, the acquisition of what you might call neo-prospects (or perhaps "junior retreads"), players who have some big-league experience but have washed out for one reason or another. Guys who never reached their ceiling on the one hand, and who have minimal service time on the other. Turn one of these guys into a solid player, and the club gets to treat him like a late-blooming core player, keeping him on the roster inexpensively for four or five seasons, rather than watching him drive up his price with a nice make-good season and then walk away, like Bob Howry or Kevin Millwood.

Mark my words, among Hannahan, Buck and Duncan, at least one of these guys will still be on the roster in 2013, and possibly a second one will have been traded for something more than a bag of balls.

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