Tony Lastoria ‏@TonyIBI 18 minutes ago
Indians lost Anthony Santander in ML phase of Rule 5 to Orioles. Lost Trevor Frank, Grant Sides, Nick Maronde & Jon Fitzsimmons in AAA phase

Tony Lastoria ‏@TonyIBI 12 minutes ago
The Indians picked up Holby Milner in ML phase from Phillies. I had a feeling they were going to try and nab a lefty arm

Justin L. ‏@JL_Baseball 25 minutes ago Columbus, OH
Good video here from @2080ball on Hoby Milner. Lanky, left handed side armer. Loopy breaking ball.

http://2080baseball.com/draft-prospect- ... by-milner/

Hillbilly wrote:TFIR, rumor is a couple teams have made one year offers to Napoli but he wants at least two.

The new CBA has an increase in luxury tax and has slowed the spending a bit. I do wonder if we may not have a better option drop into our lap. Not expecting it but wouldn't be shocked.

Encarnacion has already dropped a year from his asking price. Bautista and Trumbo still searching for love. Hopefully we can do bette than Carter or Napoli.

HB - totally agree on all. And I do think the Tribe agrees as well. They may fall into an unexpectadly good option at this point, inarguably better than Nap.

It seems that the glut in the (hitter) market assures them that Nap/Carter is a worse case scenario and that's a good place to be. Best case an EE, Bautista, Trumbo.

(For those not following it so closely, Chris Carter (41 homers right handed and all) was outright cut by Milwaukee! He is a Nap-like option.

Remember, assuming Brantley is back, the team becomes very lefty again. So the RH bat works.

Indians Rumors: Tribe Only Option Left For Edwin Encarnacion
by Nick Dudukovich3 hours ago
Follow @dukeofnick

In Cleveland Indians rumors, the Tribe may find slugger Edwin Encarnacion falling into their laps as rival teams shy away from shelling out more money in free agency.

Toronto Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins said he doesn’t see a way in which Edwin Encarnacion returns to the Rogers Centre. Everything’s bigger in Texas, except for the Rangers’ payroll. Texas said it doesn’t have the cash to sign him, either.Colorado just gave $70 million to Ian Desmond.

What’s it all mean?



Unless some other teams comes out of no where, the Cleveland Indians are the only logical option left for Encarnacion.

Encarnacion overplayed his hand in free agency and should have never turned down the four-year, $80 million contract the Blue Jays offered him earlier this offseason. A majority of teams, maybe with the exception of the Angels, don’t give multi-year deals to guys over 30.

Teams saw Encarnacion, 34, as a player who wanted to be a $20 million per season player and moved on. Carlos Beltran went to the Astros on a one-year deal. Matt Holiday became a Yankee. Mitch Moreland went to the Red Sox. Steve Pearce and Kendrys Morales signed with Toronto.

Nobody even wants to give Encarnacion three years at $60 million, according to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale.

Encarnacion appears to be in no rush to sign a contract, even though his market collapsed.

The longer this plays out, the more likely it is that Encarnacion will sign a one-year contract, so that he can try free agency again next season.

Encarnacion needs to look no farther than Desmond, who turned down $100 million with the Rangers last offseason. Desmond rebounded nicely, getting $70 million with the Rockies.

Additionally, the Indians may be willing to overpay for at least one year of Encarnacion, because of their influx of World Series money, as well as the addition of a limited partner.

This article is wrong and I cant believe that I am telling the tribe not to overpay. You dont give up a first round draft pick for a one year rental. The Tribe will need a 2 year contract at a reasonable price and a club friendly 3rd year team option to come to agreement.

I was afraid of losing Santander. The fact that he's had surgery will only work to the Orioles' advantage as I understand the rules, since they can stick him on the 60-day DL for as long as necessary and don't have to worry about giving him major league time. Just curious: let's say he's finally ready to play Sept 1, when rosters expand to 40. I believe that they then will have met the requirements under Rule 5 and can ship him back out in 2018, still only age 23, to AA and will not have had to keep him on the major league bench at all.

Lost a whole batch of not very impressive relievers in the AAA portion. Those guys with almost no exceptions never see the majors. There's no return policy on them either, so we'll have to fill in the minor league bullpens with some free agents probably.

I'll bet the Indians kicked the tires on McCutcheon.

It makes too much sense. RH bat. Can play center. Signed 2 more years and cheaper than Encarnacion.

Huntington an old buddy. That said they might want too much.

And now Dexter Fowler to Cards. The McCutcheon market totally dried up.

I don't much care for guys who make a point of getting hit by pitches. The elimination of body armor has reduced those who just stand there and get plunked. I suppose if Guyer were sticking out over the plate he'd not be awarded his base each time so I suppose his hit by pitches are marginally legitimate. But that habit was one of the things among numerous that I disliked about Ryan Garko

I am not sure what the objection is to a player who stays put and lets himself get hit by wayward pitches, unless it is concern about risk of injury.

Obviously, the tactic gets the batter a free base when he is actually hit. It is thus like a walk that requires only one bad pitch and not necessarily four. (I assume that he does not let himself be hit by a pitch that would be ball four even if he got out of the way.)

It is just using another rule to his advantage to get on base as often as possible, especially in circumstances where it is more important that he get on base any way he can. That is when the pain and risk of injury are best traded off for the free base. It is one of those things that feels like a cop-out when opposing batters do it, but is clearly permitted by the rules.

But it would seem likely to pay dividends even if he is not hit by a pitch. With a batter known to be willing to let a pitch hit him, opposing pitchers will be deterred from trying to pitch inside if they are not confident in their control. That increases the batters chances of getting and ball in the middle of the plate or a hit on the outside edge of the plate.

HBP was a big problem in college baseball a few years ago. They changed the rule to have the batter make an intentional move to get out of the way or it would be called a ball. I assume it helped.

A few yrs back, USA SOFTBALL, decided to change the rule that high school has, make an effort not to be hit, softball went to if the ball is entirely with the lines of the batters box, the batter can stand there and take one for the team. And to think, softball has safety rules.
I know for years that if the baseball batter doesn't make an effort, I will make him stay put.
One All Ohio player from Orrville was interviewed about the hit by pitch that he excelled at, said that until an umpire makes him stay he would keep on getting hit.

CHEERS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUqDEO2Hlxk

As far as i know, batters have to make an effort to get out of the way of a pitched ball.

THAT SAID, I can tell you as an umpire myself that it's a rare occasion that an ump will actually call that. You can interpret almost any kind of move/flinch to be the effort.

So unless a batter outright TRIES to get hit, and Guyer does not do that (he sort of turns away but without actually moving) then an ump will call it a HBP with an advance to 1B.