Cleveland Sports Forum

I apologize to anyone who may have been annoyed with my excessive number of posts yesterday.

I got caught up in the moment by moment of the Tribe swinging for the fences(damn OBP!) on the trade market.

I had the different Twitter links open in their own windows and sat waiting for the writers to tweet their brains out like a hot pinball machine.

It was a blast, an engaging story from start to finish. One thing the internet does is allow you to experience many things in the moment from completely different perspectives. Fascinating and a time eater.

I just lost the substance of the flow when I realized I have never opened Twitter links in their own windows.


Way no apologies necessary.

I hope everyone here quits worrying about The Future.


We're gonna do this, THIS YEAR!


Or at least make a good showing.


No pussy footing allowed.


Criminy, many teams before us at this point in the historical standings have excelled and achieved.


Forwards and onwards.

Neal broke out in 2009, batting .337/.431/.579 and leading the California League in on-base percentage. He's maintained a strong batting average in the upper minors, batting .293/.357/.431 in 745 at-bats this season and last, though his power stroke has cooled. Neal has done most of his damage versus lefties at the Double-A (.958 OPS) and Triple-A (.821 OPS) level. He doesn't run well, which limits him to a corner. He throws well enough, but probably lacks the power to be anything more than a righty-hitting part-time outfielder.

August Trades
By Ben Nicholson-Smith [August 1 at 12:00am CST]
Teams can still deal after the July 31st trade deadline passes. This MLBTR Glossary entry explains how trading in August works:

•Teams have to pass players through revocable waivers to trade them after the July 31st deadline.
•Players acquired after August 31st can't play in the postseason.
•Teams will often put most of their players on waivers to determine interest, since they don't have to give up every player who's claimed.
•Unclaimed players can be traded to any club in August (or even September).
•Teams don't have to trade players who are claimed. They can hand the player and his salary over for nothing.
•If a team places a player on waivers after he is claimed, but not traded, the team loses the right to pull its player back. In other words, the waivers are revocable at first, but not revocable afterwards.
•Clubs have two days to deal claimed players, but they can only negotiate a trade with one team.
•If only one team claims a player, he can only be dealt to that team.
•If more than one team claims a player, he can only be traded to the team in his league with the worst record.
•If a player's only claimed by teams in the other league, he can only be dealt to the team with the worst record.
•Teams cannot pass players on the disabled list through waivers.
Thanks to Cot's Baseball Contracts and this article by ESPN.com's Jayson Stark. This post was first published on June 25th, 2009.

Why did the Indians FO think Jiminez was worth the price ?

From June 18 to July 19 Jimenez made 7 starts against the following 6 teams.

Atlanta (twice)

Chicago White Sox

Detroit

New York Yankees

Milwaukee

Washington

Jiminez went 5-2 pitching 44.3 innings giving up 15 runs for a slightly over 3 ERA while striking out 46 and walking 14.

Not bad for a guy struggling. Not quite Masterson's stats but better then anyone else on the staff.

Taken from elsewhere.

Last night on WTAM, Indians beat reporter Nick Camino was talking about Cabrera with Dennis Manoloff of the Plain Dealer in a very informal discussion about the trades after the game. Both agreed that a serious rift developed between OC and Manny once Phelps was promoted, and that this disaffection "was widely known." Some reporters they were during that time, huh? Because they left this guesswork to fans, and afterwards they observe sagely that everyone knew Cabrera had developed into a problem in the clubhouse

Tribe has finally gone for it.

How many years have fans begged the Dolan ownership and front office led by Shapiro to step up and make the BIG deal/signing.

Getting Ubaldo is that move.

Sure it's a gamble. You ever get much really good in your life without sticking your neck out?

Pomeranz and White could both be good but the products on the farm are there to help the big club win, either by coming up and being a part themselves, or being moved in a deal.

Does anyone know the % of pitching prospects who actually pan out at the MLB level at something close to their potential? Far more failures than otherwise.

If Jimenez had been a FA, Tribe would have had zero chance of getting him, just as with any other ace or near caliber arm that hits the market that way.

I'm tired of the win in the future attitude. Win now and the future will take care of itself in a positive manner.

Jimenez isn't pitching on the level of Verlander(who is?) but he will be the best pitcher in Cleveland not named Masterson for the next 2+ seasons.

Yes, I think Justin is the real thing.

Tribe now has 2 STUDS at the front of the rotation. Both are young, inexpensive and under team control for multiple seasons.

I like it.

Rocky:

Don't look now but Carmona has actually pitched pretty well last couple weeks too.

I don't know if we have enough hitting to get to the playoffs but if we do we have an interest playoff rotation and bullpen. And Lord knows October is all about the pitching.

HB- Right now Fausto would be #4 in the rotation, Carlos #5. CCs mental meltdown might not play well down the stretch.

Another positive from the Ubaldo deal is that it should leave $$$ in the coffers to get a bat this off season.

I'd keep Huff at No. 5, he's done nothing wrong in his first couple starts, and let Carrasco regroup in Columbus. Carlos can be excellent but needs some refresher work and some mental health time.

As I have had time to think about this trade it is evident that the brain trust thinks the window is unti 2014 and then another rebuild will be ineffect and u might as well go for it with a cheap 1. Problem with logic is 1 is this guy a 1 like the Pedro the redsox got from this spos or a 3 like the Pedro after he came out of the bullpen against us. The first Pedro u would give them wright and "poncho" no problem. The second u wouldn't give them poncho. the second problems that it necessitates that the dolans go out and get a rigt handed slugging corner outfielder to be competitive. We will see whether that happens. Final problem with the trade why is not starting until the weekend?

I'm getting a little long in the tooth, so I feel like we need to go for it anytime we're close. Sure wish we had some bats.

From an article posted by ROCKY:
Over the last 10 years, Baseball America has placed a pitcher among its top 50 exactly 200 times. It’s only fair to exclude Nick Adenhart’s(notes) two years on the list, as he died early in his major league career. Of the remaining 198, just 67 made the Good list. Which means 131 times – almost exactly two-thirds – the pitcher ended up at best middling starter or a reliever with a worthwhile career and at worst on the Bad list.

And the vast majority were Bad, 96 of 131. In other words, nearly half the time a pitching prospect ranked in Baseball America’s top 50 over the past decade, his career bombed.

This isn’t limited to the players toward the bottom of the list, either. In 2000, for example, the top six pitching prospects were Rick Ankiel(notes) (No. 1 overall), Ryan “The Little Unit” Anderson (No. 9), John Patterson (No. 10), Mark Mulder (No. 12), Kip Wells(notes) (No. 14) and Matt Riley (No. 15) – all ranked higher than Pomeranz and White. Ankiel forgot how to pitch, Anderson ended up in culinary school, Patterson threw his last pitch at age 29, Mulder threw his at 30, Wells gave up more than 1½ baserunners per inning in his career and Riley debuted at 19 and finished at 25.

The next pitcher on the list is Josh Beckett(notes), and the one after that A.J. Burnett(notes), and Francisco Cordero(notes) and Jon Garland(notes) and Barry Zito(notes) and Eric Gagne appeared that year, too. So did Chris George and Wes Anderson and Chad Hutchinson and Jason Standridge, who, like Alex White, Baseball America ranked 47th.

Ken rosenthal:

More than a handful of teams called the Indians "to gauge the club’s willingness to flip Ubaldo Jimenez less than 24 hours after acquiring him." The Indians wanted Jimenez for themselves though. Rosenthal adds that the Indians entertained a "flurry of offers" for starter Fausto Carmona before the deadline.