SB Nation User Blog: TheDanimal

If Brewers make the playoffs, Tribe chooses PTBNL

TheDanimal — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 16:19:43 -0000

If Brewers make the playoffs, Tribe chooses PTBNL

If the Brewers make the playoffs, the Indians get to choose the "player to be named" to complete the Sabathia deal. If the Brewers don't make the postseason, they get to choose the player they'll send the Indians.
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The player to be named could come from a list of four players. Outfielder Michael Brantley and third baseman Taylor Green are the most talented players on the list.

Most depressing sentence of the day?

TheDanimal — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:41:19 -0000

Most depressing sentence of the day?

Jensen Lewis pitched the ninth for his fourth consecutive save. It's the most consecutive saves by a Tribe reliever this year.

More Tribe Trade Speculation from Olney

TheDanimal — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 17:03:49 -0000

C.C. Sabathia made pitching look easy Tuesday night, writes Jim Ingraham. The Indians have reportedly been scouting the Red Sox farm system, presumably in preparation for the possibility of trade talks with Boston about Sabathia. Let's play this scenario out a bit.

Here's how the Red Sox could rationalize a deal for Sabathia: They have a whole lot of depth in their farm system, and by adding Sabathia for the last two months and the postseason, they could strengthen an already deep rotation and apply a 6-foot-7, 300-pound hammer as they pursued their third championship in five years. They have the talent depth in their farm system to tell the Indians: Look, you can't have Justin Masterson, Jon Lester or Clay Buchholz, but we can make a deal built around others. Double-A pitcher Michael Bowden could be an interesting conversation piece, given his dominant showing for Portland.

And at the end of the year, the Red Sox could just offer Sabathia arbitration and let him walk away as a free agent and recoup two draft picks for the 2007 Cy Young Award winner. To repeat: All of that is pure speculation, and probably won't happen.

Some folks within the industry think that if Sabathia is traded, the Cubs will be the most aggressive in bidding for him. "They're going for it this year," said one GM. "Other teams are laying back and might not want to trade prospects, but the Cubs will."

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=olney_buster

I'm still naive enough to not want to consider trading C.C. yet.

But if we did trade him to the Red Sox, I would hope we would at least get a bat and an arm. Would Lowrie and Bowden be too much for half a season of C.C.?

The Cubs would seem to be more interesting. Maybe we could get Pie and a promising arm, like Gallagher . Is Vitters too far away to be of use for the Tribe?

We should really be focusing on trading with the Giants. It's been about five year's since Sabean's last great trade. Time to offer him Victor for Cain, Lincecum and Angel Villalona.

Olney: Hafner hasn't been the same since HBP

TheDanimal — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:17:30 -0000

Buster Olney seems to think that Pronk's struggles have something to do with getting hit [insider] by a Ron Mahay pitch.

There is a clear statistical crossroad in Travis Hafner's performance, dating back to the moment when Hafner was hit by a pitch thrown by Ron Mahay on April 25, 2007. The following numbers come courtesy of ESPN research monster Mark Simon:

In the 180 games since he was hit by Mahay:

BA: .243
HR: 23
RBI: 107
K: 145
AB: 635 (154-for-635)

He was hitting .373 with five homers and 15 RBIs that season, through and including the April 25 game.

In the year and month leading up to that at-bat, if you go from 2006 through that 2007 game in which he got hit …
Games: 147
BA: .317
HR: 47
RBI: 132
AB: 521
K: 125

That's just bizarre. Hafner bounced back pretty well from that pitch to the face from Buehrle. I can't imagine anything Ron Mahay brought could be any worse.

Josh Barfield thinks he would "absolutely" be a productive Major League player

TheDanimal — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:06:37 -0000

Josh Barfield thinks he would "absolutely" be a productive Major League player

A month ago, I would have said his .246/.290/.382 line in Buffalo disagrees with him. But now I would kill for a hitter to put up those numbers.

Tribe scouts in Japan find team's new DH

TheDanimal — Thu, 22 May 2008 19:54:58 -0000

Tribe scouts in Japan find team's new DH

PH? Let's try DH-ing him

TheDanimal — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:43:11 -0000

PH? Let's try DH-ing him

However, the one pitcher the Indians would like to see at the plate probably won't get there. C.C. Sabathia, a career .297 hitter - 11-for-37, a home run, six runs batted in - worked on Wednesday and will not face the Reds.

Manager Eric Wedge said he could possibly use Sabathia as a pinch hitter for another pitcher "in a situation that would make sense."