Cleveland Sports Forum

Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports that the Indians and Johnny Damon have agreed to a one-year, $1.25 million contract.
Nothing official from the Indians yet, but Heyman reports that the deal includes $1.4 million in performances bonuses. Damon is expected to take over the starting left field job, even though he'll be a pretty big liability defensively. The 38-year-old batted .261/.326/.418 with 16 home runs, 73 RBI and 19 stolen bases last season for the Rays. He's worth considering in 12-team mixed leagues.

Source: Jon Heyman on Twitter Apr 12 - 7:21 PM

Johnny Damon spent a year with the Oakland A's when I first arrived in California as a permanent residence.


Ironic that the nomadic former Indian Bartolo Colon is in the starting rotation for the A's now, and former Indian Coco Crisp is a regular in the lineup at The Coliseum.

Johnny Damon's one-year deal with the Indians is expected to include a verbal opt-out agreement.
According to MLB.com's Peter Gammons, the deal does not include a "set opt-out," but instead a "verbal agreement" between Damon and Indians GM Chris Antonetti that if "(Damon) isn't getting ABs, it will be worked out." The deal should finally become official on Friday, while Damon could make his Tribe debut late next week.

Source: Peter Gammons on Twitter Apr 13 - 8:54 AM

Nearly anyone on the roster can fear the possibility of demotion to make room for him. Cunningham would be the obvious choice, but I think every player with options left should feel pressure to do something useful in the next week. I'd have no problem demoting Bradley for some AAA refreshing if he is eligible and can't start to hit. Ditto Kotchum but I doubt he has options and I guess we'd need someone else to play 1st (could use Duncan).

Underwood reports during broadcast today that there is no opt out in Damon's deal. Called that bogus reporting. Makes me wonder if there is a no trade clause as well.

Johnny Damon's one-year deal with the Indians is expected to include a verbal opt-out agreement.
According to MLB.com's Peter Gammons, the deal does not include a "set opt-out," but instead a "verbal agreement" between Damon and Indians GM Chris Antonetti that if "(Damon) isn't getting ABs, it will be worked out." The deal should finally become official on Friday, while Damon could make his Tribe debut late next week.

Source: Peter Gammons on Twitter Apr 13 - 8:54 AM

I know what was posted, just saying that Matt Underwood talked with team brass and says that report is not true. Manning and him both said they thought it was bogus, cause it never made sense when they first saw it. Said that during game today.

Peter Gammons gets all his information straight from Mark Shapiro. Damon does not have a formal opt out clause which was reported yesterday. He has the Indians top management word that he would be free to leave if he is not playing.

rusty2 wrote:Peter Gammons gets all his information straight from Mark Shapiro. Damon does not have a formal opt out clause which was reported yesterday. He has the Indians top management word that he would be free to leave if he is not playing.

Sounds like a cool deal.

No sense in staying, if he's not playing.

I want some more wins with this team that Mark Shapiro has dealt us, and I have no problem with offering Damon an exit promise.

He can still hit, and I think he can still field.

By Jim Ingraham
JIngraham@News-Herald.com
@jitribeinsider

Let's call them The Goodyear Seven.

They are Felix Pie, Russ Canzler, Aaron Cunningham, Ryan Spilborghs, Fred Lewis, Shelley Duncan and Matt LaPorta.

That's the cattle call of candidates the Indians brought with them to spring training in order to find a left fielder for the 2012 championship season.

Five games into the season, the Indians have pushed aside the whole mob and signed 38-year-old Johnny Damon as the club's newest left fielder du jour.

If you want perhaps the most revealing barometer that best reflects the Indians' systematic demise as an American League powerhouse from the late 1990s until now, look at the evolution of the left-field position.

It goes something like this: from Albert Belle to David Justice to Ellis Burks to Matt Lawton to Coco Crisp to Jason Michaels to David Dellucci to Ben Francisco to Michael Brantley to Austin Kearns to The Goodyear Seven.

Go ahead, connect the dots.

It is not a pretty picture.

Left field is supposed to be a big-time run-producing position. Not for the Indians. In recent years, the production they've gotten out of that position has instead resembled what you might get from a second baseman.

Indians officials counter with the argument that they are getting above-the-norm production from their shortstop and catcher — two positions that typically profile as second- or third-tier offensive positions — so that makes up for the lack of production from left field.

That's true to a certain extent, but why not aim higher than that? Why not aspire to have above-average production from your shortstop and catcher and also from your left fielder?

This is why: the Indians' player development system hasn't developed an impact home-grown left fielder since Belle, who was drafted in 1987 — think about that! — and they don't have the financial wherewithal to make it not matter by going out and signing a big-ticket, big-bat, free-agent left fielder.

So they have to cut and paste.

Which is what they've done in left field for most of the last mostly declining 15 years.

Which leads to situations such as they had this spring, when they brought a cluster of fringe major leaguers to training camp and hoped to catch lightning in a bottle with one of them.

That didn't happen, not surprisingly, so five games into the season, with their offense looking DOA in the season-opening homestand, the Indians went into scramble mode, which led to the acquisition of Damon — a 38-year-old Band-Aid.

He is not being asked to throw the Indians on his back and carry them to the postseason. Best-case scenario: he makes the offense incrementally better, and brings some leadership and experience to the team.

The irony of it all is that this year and next year comprise a two-year window for winning, in the judgment of Indians officials. Teams who are "going for it" don't normally have a revolving door at such an important offensive position as left field.

That's not to say it can't be done. It's only to say that it's a bit unusual. The Indians have the makings of an above-average pitching staff, and teams with that generally are able to stay in the vicinity of contention for most of the season.

However, teams in contention from year to year tend to have huge payrolls, or a consistent player development system, able to fill most of the holes on the major-league roster when needed.

That's where the Indians' model breaks down. Their last homegrown impact left fielder was drafted a quarter of a century ago.

Nobody said this is easy. It's hard to build a really good baseball team. You need money. You need really good baseball decision makers, and you need some luck.

Teams that have all three are tough to stop. The good news for the Indians is that there aren't many teams that have all three. That's also the bad news for the Indians, because they are one of the have-nots.

So Damon is here for now, with one of three likely outcomes to his arrival.

1. He'll play well and the Indians will stay in contention all year.

2. He'll play well, but the Indians will fall out of contention and they will trade him at midseason, for a marginal prospect.

3. He'll play like many 38-year olds play, won't make much of a difference either way, and will be gone if and when Grady Sizemore returns, or if and when the Indians decide to move on and look at another member of The Goodyear Seven.

In case you're wondering, the left fielder at Triple-A Columbus is Ryan Spilborghs. [actually last night it was Matt Laporta, until he was hit by a pitch and left the game, replaced by Ryan S]

Try to contain yourself.

Good article although what was unsaid is that teams that have none of the three important factors for contention are usually not very good.

OSWEGO, Ill. –  A 12-year-old sports fanatic has died in Illinois after being hit in the neck by a baseball while warming up for a game this week.

Eric Lederman, a sixth-grader from Oswego, Ill., roughly 50 miles southwest of Chicago, was hospitalized after being hit while throwing a ball with a teammate Wednesday night before a league game in Wheaton, the Chicago Tribune reported.

He died Thursday night, leaving his local community in shock.

"He was an inspiration to his teammates, coaches and baseball family," Brian Zacker, the coach of Eric's baseball team, told the newspaper. "He played with an infectious smile and played the game with tremendous passion and heart."

Oswego Softball and Baseball Association executive director John Thorson told the Chicago Sun-Times that officials were working on plans to set up a memorial for the Lederman family.
"I've played baseball many years and in college and I've never seen anything like this," he said.

"It's a tragic freak accident. But right now we're concentrating all our efforts on the family and the team and the coaching staff. They are all literally beside themselves."

Sad.

I remember playing catch with my best friend who was the center fielder in between innings once in a little league game. I was in left. I threw the ball to him kinda high, like a mock fly ball, he lost it in the sun and it came down in his face. He had a black eye for a while. But that story above is horrible.

Hillbilly wrote:Sad.

I remember playing catch with my best friend who was the center fielder in between innings once in a little league game. I was in left. I threw the ball to him kinda high, like a mock fly ball, he lost it in the sun and it came down in his face. He had a black eye for a while. But that story above is horrible.

I was an outfielder on a Little League all-star team and we were warming up before the game. A coach standing in left field was hitting fly balls to a group of us outfielders who were in right field, while the infielders were taking infield practice. I caught a fly ball a little towards the first base side of right field, and I fired a hard line drive back towards the coach in left field when my best buddy chased a grounder towards second base from the shortstop position. He ran right into my throw, which hit him in the temple and knocked him out for a minute. It was real scary and I felt like crap. Luckily he ended up being okay.

We are gonna have to start having our kids participate in safe sports. Like cage fighting.