Cleveland Sports Forum

Yandy could be up for a trade showcase. Mejia was up before he was Handed his walking papers.

Why do we keep Guyer?

Yup. Matter of fact, we are facing two lefties this weekend. So Yandy could spell Alonso at DH a couple games for a showcase.

Guyer is .250 BA against lefties this year. Not all that great. But .385 OBP against lefties this year.

.278/.380 for career.

Not much power.

So I figured it ought to check out the depth in lefty relievers in the farm system. and the answer is: not much. There are a bunch of young righthanders who could make it to the back of a bullpen in a year or two [H.Martinez, Lovegrove, M.Brown,Karinchak, Sandlin] but the southpaw contingent is small and not impressive.
AAA no one unless Zarate and Wilk count
AA Kaminsky who's slowly coming back from surgery and was a good prospect; Brady who's being average
HiA: Ben Krauth, maybe, his stats are less impressive than in Lake County. Tully and Hentges are currently starters; Sam has more promise but not a fast riser.
LoA: Kyle Nelson has the best stats of any left hander in the system, but if the Indians aren't sufficiently impressed to move him up to Lynchburg, he's obviously on their list of major league prospects. 3 LH starters: Perez, Hillman and McCarty. Long way to Cleveland bullpen from Eastlake rotation.

Even before Miller's return, Otero and McAllister are shoved back to 6th and 7th men in the pen. When Miller arrives there's no room for one of them. The cheaper to get rid of is McAllister:

McAllister's contract expires the end of this season; he's making $2.45M so has about $1M left.
Otero is in the first year of a 2-year deal totaling $2.5M. About $1.7M left on the deal.
Dumping them both is the equivalent of taking on a $2.7M contract. They'd only need one body to replace them and George Kontos is no worse and he makes the minimum, $545,000. That's what I'd do, if I ran the Zoo.

Ben Krauth, the man, the myth, the legend. Was outstanding last night in a spot start.

Actually has been outstanding altogether of late. 1 ER in his last 10 games, 20.1 IP. There must be a reason not in the stats that he hasn’t been promoted. I mean, his WHIP is under 1. His BAA is like .150. ERA of 2. Not sure what is going on. I’d promote him already.

I have been a fan and have hopes for him.

Zimmer had surgery on injured shoulder. (Right)

Chisenhall has been moved to 60 day DL.

Another lost season for Chiz

One picture...

Rosenthal:

A trade more interesting than it appears

At first glance, the Cleveland Indians’ acquisition of relievers Brad Hand and Adam Cimber from the San Diego Padres for catcher Francisco Mejía seems reasonably balanced.

Hand, a two-time All-Star, comes with three additional years of control; Cimber, a surprising rookie, comes with five. Mejía, a switch-hitter with rare offensive tools, is the game’s No. 15 prospect according to MLBPipeline.com, giving the Padres a whopping 10 of the top 100.

Three rival executives, however, criticized the deal from the Padres’ perspective, questioning — just as some with the Indians did — whether Mejía, 22, is strong enough defensively to remain at catcher. A position change would reduce Mejía’s overall value. At catcher his offense might be elite; at other positions, it might not separate him as much.

The Padres intend to evaluate Mejía over the next several weeks before determining whether he should move to another position — perhaps third, where he played in the Arizona Fall League last year, or left field, where he also played at Triple A. The team’s scouts love his offensive potential, though he is batting a relatively modest .279 with a .755 OPS at Triple A this season.

So, did the Indians get a steal? Not so fast. As much as teams covet controllable assets — and as much as the Indians needed such pieces with both Andrew Miller and Cody Allen eligible for free agency — relievers are the game’s most volatile performers. Very few provide consistent production, making long-term control perhaps less meaningful.

Hand, 28, is something of an exception; this is his third straight impressive season. But even Hand can be vulnerable, as evidenced by his .952 opponents’ OPS over 12 innings in June. It remains to be seen how he will perform in post-season pressure after spending his entire career with non-contenders in Miami and San Diego. Cimber, of course, will face the same transition.

Wow.

Today's Minor League info

-Place RHP James Hoyt on the DL in Columbus (R knee soreness)
-Release LHP Robert Zarate in Columbus
+Activate OF Jose Medina from the DL in Lake County
+Sign FA C Rob Brantly (AAA)

Also LHP Ryan Merritt has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to the @CLBClippers roster

Ramirez hits 30th HR in 11-inning win vs. Texas

Third baseman homers, makes clutch defensive play and scores game-winning run

[I think we are all grateful that we never traded, at that time still an unknown quantity, Jose Ramirez, while all the hype was directed towards the phenom, Francisco Lindor. The only thing that Jose has not done since being promoted is clean the clubhouse or hose down the stadium after home games.......but, maybe he has ]

With his performance last night, Ramirez now ranks first in MLB with 6.7 Wins Above Replacement (via Fangraphs), moving ahead of Angels superstar Mike Trout and Boston's Mookie Betts, who have 6.4 apiece. The Tribe's switch-hitting slugger leads the Majors in extra-base hits with 59, is sporting a .302/.400/.635 slash line and has more walks (57) than strikeouts (48).

Against the Rangers, Ramirez also came up big in the field.

Texas was on the cusp of a walkoff win in the 10th, when reliever Zach McAllister gave up three straight singles to load the bases. He then induced a chopper off the bat of Ronald Guzman to Ramirez, who gloved the grounder and fired the ball to catcher Yan Gomes for an out at the plate.

"[That] almost looks like a game-winner," said Indians manager Terry Francona, referring to the Guzman grounder to Ramirez. "Josey backhands it. That was a harder play than he made it look."

SOUND SMART

Ramirez is the first batter in Indians history to have at least 20 stolen bases and 30 home runs within the team's first 100 games of a season. In fact, Ramirez has joined Alex Rodriguez (1998), Jeff Bagwell (1999) and Alfonso Soriano (2006) as the only players to accomplish that feat in MLB history.

Ramirez is the fourth Indians player (five times overall) to reach 30 homers within the team's first 97 games. The others include Rocky Colavito (1959), Albert Belle (1994 and '96) and Jim Thome (2001).

[ Just when you think he's reached his limits, he continues to expand on those limits. Good for Jose! Short on stature, Long on Pride !]

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Man, I placed exclamation points beside the blurb about Merritt and TFIR still missed it and reposted it.

TFIR, quit skimming over my charming, witty, thoughtful, stable genius posts