SB Nation User Blog: The Animal

Raiding Shapiro's Cabinet

The Animal — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 14:46:15 -0000

According to espn, the pirates are close to signing neal huntington as their gm today. Link.

Before reading this I must admit that I did not know who Neal Huntington is. But after a quick check of indians.com, he is listed as the "Special Assistant to GM". So I don't know important he was to the tribe, or what he exactly he assisted with, but I guess this is something us tribe fans should begin to get accustomed to. As Shapiro and the Indians continue to have success, others are going to continue to want our brains.

Zambrano signs extension

The Animal — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 15:33:29 -0000

Word came down today that Carlos Zambrano (stats) signed a 5 year, 90 million dollar extension. Here's the link to the story, though it doesn't really give any of the contract details.

This got me to thinking about whether CC (stats) would accept a deal in the same neighborhood. Their stats are pretty similar, although Zambrano is 11 months younger and is hitting free agency a year earlier.

I was personally shocked to hear about this, I thought that once they got this far into the season there would be no way he would sign. He could have gotten a lot more money had he waited until the end of the season. I'm not ripping him for this, just saying I was suprised.

So the real question is, should the Indians offer CC something like 100m over 5? Would he take it? It seems like this would be the only type of extension that CC would consider signing. In my heart I would love for the Indians to offer this and keep around a very likeable guy, not to mention the ace of our staff. The thing I do not know is if it is smart for any smaller market team to put that much money into one player.

Also, does anyone have a link or information on the Tribe payroll for future years? It seems that with the Westbrook and Hafner extensions that Tribe payroll will already be rising to new heights.

Starting Pitcher Arguments

The Animal — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 03:42:11 -0000

I have noticed in the first two weeks of the season that Jay has been very quick to point out when an excellent pitching performance results in a loss. It is obvious that he must be hearing arguments from many people that certain pitchers really are "winners", and that they really do have some way to control their own team's offensive production. I think Jay has posted something of this nature in just about every game thread, and I'm thinking now that he is probably just pissed off at Bob Dolgan(one of the apparently many who try to make this argument).

I addressed this topic today in my blog, looking at the differences between Kevin Millwood and Cliff Lee in the 2005 season. You can read it here:
http://the-cleveland-sports-animal.blogspot.com/2006/04/cliff-lee-vs-kevin-millwood.html

I would really appreciate any feedback as well as any thoughts that all of you might have on the subject.