Not sure what to make of this, since the Tribe no doubt got more than its money's worth from Feller during his great years, but nevertheless it's an interesting reminder of how different an athlete Feller was as compared to players of today.

He captures my opinions (both of them) on the state of the Indians.

Idle thought/question: if the Nationals sign Fielder, would the Tribe have enough to get Morse? If Fielder doesn't make him redundant Harper soon will.

Nah...an Indians pitcher needs surgery? Can't happen.

"So even if the Red Sox win their final two games, they will still match the 1969 Cubs for late-season futility — the team that, prior to the Bartman Ball, had been most closely associated with the franchise’s alleged curse."

An interesting visualization looking back to 1995, which is all the time period that matters for many Tribe fans (and beat writers), that comes to us courtesy of Nate Silver's fine FiveThirtyEight blog.

"Just watching the way last year unfolded, we want to get him off to a good start," Francona said. "We'll pitch him that game in Cleveland. I think that's a good place for him to start."

Surprisingly, the avalanche of publicity about Rob's new column seems to have passed us by. Well, today the SB Nation national baseball editor covers the Indians.

Should teams in Cleveland's or KC's position even try to trade elite pitchers for young pitching prospects, even in masses as we have tried to do, or are we just kidding ourselves and should we instead try to accumulate hitters (who can more reliably be evaluated and also expected to get to the majors)?

Rob Neyer directs our attention to a public Google Doc compilation of 21 years of Baseball America top 100 lists (pretty good work from anonymous, in and of itself) and draws the sad old TINSTAAPP lesson. He then goes on to bemoan the recent Greinke to the Brewers trade. Given that the Tribe has itself been known to trade a Cy Young award winner or two (nearly three) in recent years, his criticism of KC can be seen by reflection as also a criticism of Cleveland.

Should teams that are predictably going to be mediocre at best while rebuilding keep or trade a great pitcher for more though younger pitching prospects? And if the team decides to trade that pitcher, should the team try for pitching or hitting prospects back in return?

Attempting to keep a good pitcher on a terrible team is unrealistic and a waste of money, we can all probably agree. "Cashing in" before the pitcher reaches free agency seems to be the only way to go, pragmatically speaking, and not just the right way. Neyer, pointing to TINSTAAPP, seems to be saying by way of warning, "just don't think you are getting any real pitching back in return" if you trade for pitching back.

He's inclined to rank 26 players in the top 15, which seems good. No "A" grades yet, but he mentions a couple of players that could be there with the right sort of 2011 season.

If you are like me and like to keep track of offseason milestone dates, then you may also want to bookmark this handy dandy article. Or not.

..including some on Santana, a hint of winter news and a pitching review

Lastoria reports Marson up to take Santana's spot and Huff takes Hafner's. The news on Santana's knee is that it is a "sprain". Anyone know how serious a knee sprain is?

Update: Anthony Castrovince says the detailed diagnosis is a "High grade sprain of the LCL," and that no timetable has been set for Santana's return as of yet. (Ryan)

Fangraphs declares Choo a star. Boras smiles.

Still, you might not have read this and so here you go...

Travis Hafner has a ten game hitting streak and has been a very good hitter this month. Worth keeping an eye on him.

Sounds precautionary.

It's preliminary, given that roster churn may still be ahead. But, in a close division, the south side pitching might just be enough to win.

Our veteran pitcher is good to go

In case anyone missed the headline from yesterday, here's the link. The Aeros did well.

He wasn't alone in hitting well, as many on the team hit well through the series, and Barnes pitched well for the latest win.

"Asked about the backlash, Shapiro laughed and replied, "I've been through worse, believe me."

You might be interested in bookmarking this site, since it puts on one page a quick statistical compendium of each days activity throughout the entire organization.

By the way, Jeanmar Gomez pitched very well again last night. Akron has consistently very good pitching right now.