Freeman has a good glove and range. He just has an average arm and that’s why most people see him switching to 2nd base. I gotta say, from the little I’ve seen him though he has always seemed pretty damn good at short. But a move might definitely be in the cards. Not sure Rocchio will be ready when Lindor leaves, he’s still in rookie ball. So you might see Freeman start off at short and move after a season or two in majors.

As far as Lindor, hey, we’ve all seen all our stars walk time after time, we all get it. I get it too. But Lindor is a bit of a different animal. The dude could be the face of all of MLB, not just our team. Always smiling, always friendly, great player, may be best at his position in majors. I think you might see Indians at least try to keep him.

Again, we dumped 16 mill in salary this past offseason. Losing Kip’s 14 mill after this season. With the emergence of young pitchers I think we could all see a Kluber trade in the next year or so. Even if we don’t his deal is up same time as Lindor’s. That’s another 17 mill off the books.

Hey, I won’t hold my breath, but something tells me just this once not to totally shut the door either.

All makes sense and I hope you are right....kind of.

Because it would, under the system, then kind of handcuff the rest of the payroll. Frustrating.

Francisco Mejia homered Monday off Trevor Bauer in the Padres' 3-2 defeat of the Reds.

Mejia has seven homers in 184 at-bats, five of which have come since the All-Star break. He's hitting .348 in 89 at-bats during the second half, which is why he's starting over Austin Hedges right now.

Baseball is the only major sport that does not do anything very substantial to ensure that smaller market teams are not severely disadvantaged financially in their ability to pay top talent to come to (or even stay with) those teams. Yeah, they can make the playoffs if they are extremely well managed, but it takes a perfect storm for them to get a chance to win a championship and it is virtually impossible for them to keep a veteran championship team together, much less to add players in their prime through free agency. It's pretty hard to compete with teams that are allowed (and can afford) to carry payloads that pretty much double what smaller market teams can afford.

MLB's pat answer is to complain that some of the smaller market teams need to spend more to compete. The marginal improvement that might create won't materially increase small market teams' overall ability to compete for championships. It will just drive up the price of middling teams, and cause more teams with little or no real chance to compete regularly to lose money in the hope of occasionally catching lighting in a bottle for a year or two.

Cleveland is probably about as well run a small market team as there is over the past couple of decades, if you really think about the balance they must strike between financial limitations and success in player drafting, development, and cost-effective free agency management. Despite what fans want, it really isn't reasonable to expect small teams to spend themselves into annual losses on a regular basis in the hope of beating a system that is unfairly stacked against them.

No wonder they are having trouble attracting new fans in those markets.

Assuming this list is correct, only 3 MLB cities are smaller than Cleveland.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... population

Cincy, Pitt, and St.Louis.

You could make an argument that the Cardinals are best run small market club, but Cleveland is definitely in the conversation.

And Cincy has tried to spend their way into contending. They paid big money contracts that ended up killing them. Homer Bailey, that 2nd baseman they got from us. You could even say they are regretting Joey Votto’s last extension.

You have to be absolutely perfect in your spending or else it ruins you.

Hillbilly wrote:Assuming this list is correct, only 3 MLB cities are smaller than Cleveland.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of ... population

Cincy, Pitt, and St.Louis.

You could make an argument that the Cardinals are best run small market club, but Cleveland is definitely in the conversation.

And Cincy has tried to spend their way into contending. They paid big money contracts that ended up killing them. Homer Bailey, that 2nd baseman they got from us. You could even say they are regretting Joey Votto’s last extension.

You have to be absolutely perfect in your spending or else it ruins you.

The Votto contract is definitely killing them these days an it's not close to being done. (I think 4 years left and he's sucking this season!!!)

St. Louis has ONE big league sport - baseball. So that does help them somewhat in ticket sales and likely in tv contract.

Cincy and Pitt do not have NBA teams.

So Cleveland has 3 big league teams, with of course the Browns being the main focus! They have it even tougher. Small market divided 3 ways.

Great posts!

One last thing.

The Yankees, as of the other day when we were playing them, had over 100 million dollars of salary on the I.L.

There were only 5 teams in baseball that had a higher total payroll than the amount of money the Yankees had just in the I.L.

This all according to Matt Underwood on TV telecast.

And they still have the best record in baseball.

Yeah, nothing wrong here.

agreed but the Yankees have been either very lucky or very well coached/managed to win with Gio suddenly hitting well enough to bat cleanup; Maybin! over 300; and more not household names leading the offense and making up for rather inferior starting pitching and much of their offense on the mend

Obviously Tribe related:


TREVOR BAUER
SP, CINCINNATI REDS


Trevor Bauer allowed eight runs -- seven earned -- over three innings on Sunday in a loss to the Pirates.

Bauer allowed seven hits, and he walked two with a pair of strikeouts. Unlike his start against the Nationals where he allowed nine runs in 4 1/3, this was a consistently poor effort rather than just a (really) bad inning, as he allowed three in the first, two in the second and three more in the third before being pinch-hit for.

Bauer has made five starts with the Reds since the trade, and two of them have been brilliant while the other three, well, haven't. His ERA on the season is now 4.34 with a 217/73 K/BB mark in 182 2/3 frames. He's back on the mound next weekend against the Cardinals.

The Giants have released Scooter Gennett.

Scooter had two really good years for the Reds last two seasons, 50 homers the two seasons, then started this year off with a bad groin pull and missed a big chunk of time. The Reds traded him to Giants at deadline, but hasn't been able to find his swing. Only hitting like 250.

He has played a handfull of games at 3rd base for the Reds. If I were Indians I would claim him off waivers. He is owed 1.7 mill for the rest of this season. And is a free agent at seasons end.

We could play him at 3rd down the stretch, and then after getting a look at him might consider signing him in offseason for next year, since Kipnis will be gone.

we could definitely use another IF at this point

Yeah, but the way Tito rides his Scooter everyday could be dangerous!!!!!!

Agree, and he is a righty which would be a nice feature too.

Rosenthal and Stark: The Royals are discussing a sale of the club


By Ken Rosenthal and Jayson Stark Aug 27, 2019 88

Kansas City Royals owner David Glass is discussing the sale of the club to a group headed by Kansas City’s John Sherman, the vice-chairman of the Cleveland Indians, sources tell The Athletic.

It is not known if the two sides are close to a deal. Glass purchased the Royals for $96 million in April 2000, and had not publicly disclosed any intention to sell the club.

Sherman became a minority investor with the Indians in 2016 and later increased his share in the team by an unspecified amount, according to published reports. Paul Dolan, the Indians’ chairman and CEO, has said he considers Sherman his partner.

The purchase of any club is subject to approval of the major-league owners.

Forbes estimated in April that the Royals were worth $1 billion, but baseball routinely challenges the publication’s valuations.

Glass, who turns 84 on Sept. 2, became interim chairman and CEO of the Royals in September 1993 following the death of the founding owner, Ewing Kauffman. He purchased the team from the Kauffman estate 6 1/2 years later. His son, Dan, 60, is the team president.

The Royals initially floundered under Glass, but the hiring of Dayton Moore as general manager in June 2006 proved a turning point in franchise history.

Moore presided over a long rebuilding process, improving the team’s farm system and upgrading the club’s infrastructure. The Royals ended a streak of nine consecutive losing seasons in 2013, then reached back-to-back World Series after a dramatic wild-card victory over the Athletics in ’14. They lost the 2014 Series to the Giants in seven games, then prevailed over the Mets the following season to win their first title in 30 years.

After declining to 81-81 in ’16 and 80-82 in ’17, the team again cut payroll and launched another rebuild, winning 58 games last season, its fewest since 2005. The Royals’ $98.8 million Opening Day payroll ranked 23rd in the majors. Their 46-86 record is the third-worst in the American League.

Royals revenues are expected to increase significantly once they negotiate a new deal with a regional sports network. Their current deal with Fox Sports expires after the 2019 season. The team’s lease at Kauffman Stadium runs through the 2030 season.

Glass, the former CEO of Walmart, helped grow the company from a reported 123 stores in 1976 to more than 4,000 nationally and internationally in 2005.

Who wins the Bauer trade will be determined, of course, in the long run, but we win this year. SD got this top prospect:

Taylor Trammell, OF, Padres. Trammell had two hits and drew a walk for Double-A Amarillo. The leadoff hitter had a double and a triple while driving in a run and scoring once as well. While his .229/.316/.381 slash line in 32 games since coming over to the Padres is pedestrian, Trammell ended the season with a quality five-game hit streak, including three multi-hit performances and five RBIs during that span.