Cleveland Sports Forum

Joe, Yandy is the guy who could become a 1B. Tribe loves Urshela's defense at third but not the hitting. Not sure if he has a role left for him unless Ramirez returns to 2B or LF and neither is available.

By Monday, the Indians need to decide

So we'll now soon enough.

And they'll have to make any moves for the 40 man roster shortly, too. The only obvious player to drop is Adam Moore. Crisp removed, too, puts the total at 38 and then Brantley and Carrasco are restored, and we're back to a full 40.
Not sure if they need to make room for any minor leaguers for Rule 5. I don't think Yandy has enough minor league time to require placement on the roster nor Zimmer. Greg Allen probably has reached that point. Perhaps some others, too.

I think probably Dolan was hoping that the series would go 7 so that he would make the most money and then they would win so he could get the trophy. Almost happened.

Thought this interesting


Napoli tallied a whopping 34 home runs and 101 RBI in 150 games this past season for the Tribe, but he struggled down the stretch and into the playoffs and the Indians were probably right to think that he might accept that $17.2 million sum. Granted, he's a more attractive free agent now without a tie to draft pick compensation. Napoli, 35, should find multi-year deal in the $30-45 million range.

If that's true....bye bye

I think we caught lightening in a bottle where Napoli is concerned. I would be shocked if he repeats those numbers next year. No way I spend 17 mil.

Although I do think that sleep apnea issue was for real and we caught him after that was cleared up I can certainly see why they don't want to overpay. (I did like his defense at 1b too)

I do hope they retain him but at a sane price.

TFIR wrote:Although I do think that sleep apnea issue was for real and we caught him after that was cleared up I can certainly see why they don't want to overpay. (I did like his defense at 1b too)

I do hope they retain him but at a sane price.

In my best Tom Hanks voice, "There is no sane price in baseball!!!!"

I just want to start off by saying that I love TFIR. He and I have disagreed about the veterans we picked up this year but in the past I've agreed with him far more often than disagreed. And he's a hell of a guy too.

Now saying that ... I totally disagree with any notion of Mike Napoli being a good defensive 1st baseman too. I think he's stiff, has little range, and boots too many playable balls.

Hell, he made a couple blunder just last week in World Series.

I wondered if I was crazy so I went and looked at the defensive split stats at ESPN.

I looked at fielding percentage first, ESPN ranked the Top 20 1st basemen this year. Napoli was nowhere to be found. So he's at least bottom 3rd in league in fielding pct.

Then I looked at range factor. They again listed the Top 20 1stbasemen in the league. And again Napoli was nowhere on the list. So again bottom 3rd in league at least in range.

Then I looked at Defensive WAR. This time they listed the top 40, and again Mike Napoli was nowhere to be found. So he had to be one of the worst. There are only 30 teams.

I know he was popular amongst fans and in the clubhouse. And I know he hit 30 homers. But there is literally nothing else good you can say about this guy as a player. He doesn't hit for average. He doesn't get on base. He strikes out at a record pace. He's slow. He has no range. And he is just not good defensively. He literally just hits a home run once or twice a week and that is it.

The Tribe would have no problem replacing him at a much cheaper rate.

We have Brantley who is a great veteran presence. Kipnis is emerging as a leader. Kluber, Tomlin, Miller, Shaw ... Hell, resign Davis if you want to. Do not make the mistake of paying through the teeth for Mike Napoli just cause he's a great clubhouse guy. You can find those types dime a dozen.

And by the way, my step dad and mother are huge BoSox fans. So I know for a fact that Napoli used sleep apnea as his excuse for his crappy 2014 season. In spring training of 2015 he talked about it and how he was going to have a much better year. Then he sucked in 2015 too...

http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/fielding/ ... order/true

http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/fielding/ ... angeFactor

http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/fielding/ ... t/defWARBR

I see only 10 players received qualifying offers of $17M this year down from 20 last year.

Tribe kept their powder dry.

The place they should be throwing money at is their pitching coaching staff....Callaway et. al.

Definitely agree there. Make Callaway highest paid pitching coach in league.

While waiting the dentist to see me this morning, I had an opportunity to read the SI coverage of the World Series. There was not a single photo of the Indians doing anything. The main article barely mentioned the opposition other than to note the two guys who hit successfully off Chapman and the one who made the final out. A modest one column side bar was politely positive about the Tribe. But they managed to somehow put together 8 pages on the Series which never once mentioned either the word Francisco, or the word Lindor. Let alone that other guy in the Indians bullpen who never allowed a run throughout the playoffs.

[and while preparing my deteriorating teeth for another crown, and my mouth was full of cotton, dentist gave his Series post-mortem that Francona should not have used Kluber or Bauer on short rest and should not have removed Perez or Crisp for strategic purposes.]

Don't get me started Civ. For you guys in Cleveland, it's over. I have to still live with it......everyday! Cars still flying Cub flags, homes doing the same, just a lot of subtle reminders everywhere...... radio, papers, tv, etc. The first thing I see every morning on my way to work are Cub flags dangling from my neighbor's car. My neighbors for over 30 years and this is the first inkling I had that they were involved in ANY sports.

Has anyone figured out how many Indian fans sold out? I keep hearing more stories about how Cub fans obtained their tickets.