Helluva a lineup now with Bauer and Bourne. They should be able to blow some teams up. Is Bauer going to be #24? Does this mean we will achieve supremacy?

Nice to see them invest the money they were previously FLUSHING on Travis Hafner!

I like the signing, the only caveat I have is that he is no Kenny Lofton, he strikes out more and is caught stealing more. In fact, our strike outs should be phenomenal this year. I do hope we keep Brantley. and Stubbs, Bourn and those 2 in the OF should be able to chase down a lot. Let Swisher and Reynolds DH and play 1B until Stubbs disproves himself.

We at least have something to look forward to. If Bauer is the real deal we could challenge our division.

The team will strike out a ton but also steal bases at a league-leading rate. Stubbs, Bourne, Kipnis are all big time thieves. Brantley and Cabrera will add their share. 3 CFs means solid OF defense. Offense will be very interesting.

But team won't be able to compete to win the division unless the pitching improves in a big way. No way we can count on both Masterson and Jiminez to bounce back but maybe if one achieves his past form and if Bauer makes his mark for half a season or more we could race the Tigers to the top.

In any case, three cheers for the loathed Dolans for making a real effort for 2013.

Wild card would be fine.... The Dolans are not spending that much more money in 2013.

I guess we could look at this as an off-season trades of Hafner and Sizemore for Bourne and Swisher.

Rusty!

Does it really matter where Manny Acta is now ?!?!?! Does it really matter whether or not Perez had man love for Acta ?!?!?!?!

The fact is, and the point I'm making is that both called out management. Publicly for all to read and hear. Both were right to do so. Both spoke the truth. Sometimes the truth hurts.

The fact is, all of a sudden, someone sprinkled some magic dust over Cleveland. I'd like to believe that it was Acta and Perez.

Wierd, but I still have a feeling that Lohse ends up here too

JAYJAY: Wouldn't THAT be something? And it doesn't matter who or what lit the fire under the FO. I'm just glad it finally happened. A lot of it has to do with increased revenue, and payroll now off the books.

Can't underestimate Francona's influence. Best behind-the-scenes, off-season spokesman they could have hired. He has become defacto GM in attracting FAs. The selling of the Indians was not a job Antonetti did well. Francona also may have been the slap in the face the Indians needed as to talent evaluation. I bet he told the FO, get some freakin' speed. Too many slugs trying to run bases for too many years.

What he brings during the season is undetermined but what he brought durning the off-season was invaluable.

The fact is, all of a sudden, someone sprinkled some magic dust over Cleveland. I'd like to believe that it was Acta and Perez.

You would be wrong as usual.

I guess we could look at this as an off-season trades of Hafner and Sizemore for Bourne and Swisher.

LOL, hard to not love that trade. But good point.

That said, Hafner's salary matched up to either Bourne's or Swishers pretty well. Grady only made $5 mill last year so Dolan did shell out some cash in addition to that for Bourne.

Don't want to spur any controversy, but I do think the signing of Francona signaled that the team is much more serious now. Whether Francona directly influenced spending is certainly unknown and unproven either way, but I do think you don't sign Francona unless you are interested in getting serious.

Wow, did not see this one coming at all.

Indians' Chris Perez blasts owner's decision-making

DETROIT (AP) --

Cleveland Indians manager Manny Acta shrugged off comments by closer Chris Perez about the way the team has been run, saying he cares more about how the right-hander performs in the ninth inning.

Perez was quoted in a foxsports.com report, saying the difference between the Indians and Detroit Tigers is ''different owners,'' in reference to Tigers owner Mike Ilitch. "It comes down to that. They (the Tigers) are spending money. He (Ilitch) wants to win. Even when the economy was down (in Detroit), he spent money. He's got a team to show for it. You get what you pay for in baseball. Sometimes you don't. But most of the time you do."

..........Indians general manager Chris Antonetti doesn't like what his surly closer had to say but he also is not happy with the Indians play.

''While we work to understand various perspectives, we strongly disagree with Chris's comments,'' Antonetti said in a statement. ''Nonetheless, we are not satisfied with our recent results and our entire organization remains committed to fielding winning teams and that is the standard by which we will continue to operate.''

<

MLB Cleveland Indians: Manager Manny Acta Calls out Ownership

Cleveland

Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer had an interesting piece on August 15, as he focused on the struggles of Asdrubal Cabrera and Jason Kipnis in the second half. More importantly, he had a quote from Indians manager Manny Acta:

"It's no secret, we're going to need to improve our offense," said Acta. "We're going to have to find a solution in left field, we're going to have to find a solution at first base and we're going to have to find a solution at DH. That's pretty obvious. And the third base situation is not determined either. Lonnie [Chisenhall] has a broken arm. The guys that are here right now are fine and doing what they can, but we expect more."

Acta basically states that Kipnis, Cabrera, Shin-Soo Choo and Carlos Santana are the only players who can hit in the lineup. He clearly forgot that Michael Brantley has done well this year, but you certainly can't fight him on anything else.

Good for Manny Acta, stepping forward and declaring a need, sending the blame away from himself and to those who SHOULD be held responsible for the disaster that is the 2012 season for the Cleveland Indians: Mark Shapiro, Chris Antonetti and the Dolan family.

You would be wrong as usual.

WoW! Rusty! The content from above is some compelling evidence to the contrary. Disect the excerpts from those two articles. Study them. Use a little logic and let me know what the results look like to date. Hollywood couldn't have scripted it better

Joe, those articles just like most of your posts and all of you third world baseball following have nothing to do with what the Indians are doing.