the indians have made a signing. they signed david dellucci monday to a three year contract be be their everyday left fielder. i have mixed feelings on this move. the name might ring a bell to arizonans. dellucci was a member of the d'backs in 2001, the year they won the world series. the entire post season that year, he only had 4 AB's, in which he had 2 singles and scored a run. for his post season career, he is 5 of 16, all hits being singles. in 2003, arizona traded david to the (hated by all) yankees late in the season. he then bolted new york for texas for the 2004 season. his best year was in 2005. i believe he predominantly was their lead-off hitter. that year, had career highs in AB's (435), HR (29), and RBI (65). he played for philly last year. he fought a few injuries, was not a full time starter, which resulted in only 264 AB's. the most doubles he has had for a season is 19, which he did back in 1998 with arizona, the year he led the majors in triples with 12. he can play all three outfield positions, but left field has been his most played position in his career. i hear he is a good fielder, but in his best year in 2005, he played the most games at DH. he has very little speed. his most SB's in a year is 12, which he did in 2003. i am sorry folks, he is not a starter. we tried last year to convert a platoon player into a full time starter with jason michaels. the experiment did not work. at least by signing david, jason will once again be a platoon player. his versatility will be nice. the indians seem to love versatile players. but like i said, he has been promised the everyday left filed job. why? money, i believe. he is a cheap starter. he could work out. just like last year, the indians are hoping a questionable player turns into a 'diamond in the rough'. and he is ours for 3 years. come on! we didn't finish .500 last year. obtain a proven-in-the-past player. management claimed they have money to spend this off season. i am not suggesting to go crazy, like the cubs did in giving alfonso soriano the ridiculous 8 year, $136 mil, incentive and perk laden contract. or like the red sox in spending $51 mil just for the exclusive rights to negotiate with a pitcher from japan. but come on! i realize any free agent is a gamble, regardless of their past performances. but can't we obtain someone who has put up solid numbers as a starter in the past. besides, david is left handed. a majority of our starters are left handed. there are a lot of left handed pitchers in our division. we always seem to struggle against lefties. once again, i am not suggesting we give up our great prospects in the minors and tie up all of our payroll to re obtain manny ramirez, but i would like to believe we could have landed a better starter in left field than david dellucci. also, what about ryan garko? the word is that casey blake's primary position will now be first base, with shin-soo choo getting the majority of the time in RF. i was hoping for a platoon of victor martinez and garko manning 1B. hopefully, the grand plan is that the big money is going towards a proven closer that we will soon acquire. right?

barfield and buck

so, the off season is here. baseball happens all year round. right now, it just happens to be the less exciting time, the off season. although not as exciting, it is a crucial developmental period where teams remake themselves to fill holes and fix the wrongs that were evident during the past season. since the end of the world series, almost 200 players have made themselves eligible for free agency. not one yet has switched teams, but two teams have made trades. both teams reside in the AL central. yup, one being the indians, the other being the AL champs, the detroit tigers. both trades have been of major significance.

the detroit tigers have traded three young pitching prospects to the new york yankees for gary sheffield. unfortunately, i believe this is a good trade for the tigers. they needed a big bat to help with an offense that was sporadic at times, and they got such the bat they needed in shef. he is old. but the pitching prospects they gave up to get shef are very inexperienced. pitching is detroit's strong point. the yankess have been trading away their farm system over the years. they have plenty of offense, but not much young talent. sheffield was hurt for much of 2006, and the yankees did fine offensively without him. it is doubtful any of the three pitching prospects the tigers gave up will be ready to pitch at the major league level next year. and although all three have been successful in the minors, that is no guarantee of success in the majors. especially in the toughest stadium / market that there is in the majors, the bronx. so really, this trade works out well for both teams. sheffield is signed for two more years. as long as he can stay healthy, he should live up to his huge 13 mil per year contract. healthy or not, it is questionable whether sheffield's attitude / personality is one that will last two years in detroit, especially if the team regresses back to the loosing ways that were a trademark of detroit teams before this surprising, unexpected break through year they enjoyed.

now for the trade the 'good guys' made. they addressed their second biggest need, that of a second baseman. they obtained runner up for NL rookie of the year josh barfield from the san diego padres. they gave up two rookies to obtain barfield. third baseman kevin kouzmanoff and relief pitcher andrew brown. both of these players made their ML debuts this year. kouzmanoff has the distinction of being the only player in ML history to hit a grand slam on the first pitch he saw of his ML career. he did so in texas. he was called up after travis hafner was sidelined with a year ending hand injury that was sustained when a texas pitcher hit pronk on the hand. paybacks are a bummer, eh texas? i am a bit torn on this trade, but my initial gut reaction is that of approval. of course, as with all trades, only time reveal who got the better end of the trade.
barfield does seem to be a legitimate talent. most importantly to me, he finished third in the NL in fielding percentage for second baseman. infield defense for the tribe last year was average, at best. so i like this aspect of the trade. often, rookies experience what is termed a 'sophomore slump' when it comes to their offensive abilities. the sophomore slump most often does not effect fielding though. and speaking of offense, barfield has a 'nice bat'. he finished with a .280 batting average, clubbed 32 plus doubles and 13 home runs. his home run total was probably adversely affected by playing in gargantuan pertco field. he also provides decent speed that the indians also lack. he was 21 of 26 in stolen base attempts. he also finished third in batting average on the road, hitting .319 away from petco. one thing i do not like is that in 539 at bats, josh only walked 30 times, while striking out 81 times. this is something that can go either way. either pitchers will all figure out and take advantage of the 'holes' in his swing, and barfield cannot adjust and will fizzle, or he will learn and grow, and improve in this area. once again, only time will tell. from reading reports on the padres website, josh has an incredible work ethic, which of course, is a good thing.
as for what the indians are giving up. kouz may be a great hitter. he batted .379 between AA and AAA ball last year. he has decent power, and the grand slam claim to fame. as a third baseman, he is not good defensively. being in san diego, he will not have the DH to reside in where his lack of fielding talent can a non factor. he has been tried out at first base, and supposedly this option has not showed much promise. but he is young. any power hitter will suffer in petco park. this is something that can feasibly mess with a young players mind. and as stated above, minor league success does not always translate into major league success. but it is very conceivable that kevin will become a major league force with the bat. and offense is somewhat of a strong point of the indians. they have andy marte at third. although marte's bat does not seem as strong as kevin's, it is well above average, and andy has the obvious edge in fielding. but next year will be his first full year in the bigs. if he flops offensively, or gets hurt, the indians right now do not have a capable replacement on the big league roster, or the minors. ok, they do have casey blake. blake used to play third base before he switched to left when the indians added aaron boone in 2005. casey had decent range, but always made alot of errors. and that was when he was playing regularly there. so, although casey could play there, it is not a desirable long term solution. they are well off at first though, as they have ryan garko, victor martinez, casey blake, and travis hafner who can all play there. i can easily foresee kevin becoming the next brian giles or sean casey. young players the indians traded away in the late 90's who ended up becoming all star players with their new teams.
so, because of kevin's offensive potential, i felt this trade would have been fair straight up. but instead, josh barfield's one year of success prompted the indians to include young and talented andrew brown in the deal. andrew was acquired in the milton bradley deal with the dodgers. he has a power arm. he was expected to be a part of the bullpen much earlier than he actually was. problems with his control kept him in the minors though. and he is now out of options, meaning any team that owns him MUST keep him on the major league roster, or fear loosing him to another team. he did well in his limited, late season appearances this year. but a majority of them were when the games were not close. either the indians were blowing out a team, or themselves being blown out. pitching primarily in spacious petco will help keep his HR total down. but as with kouz, he is an unknown commodity. having a suspect bullpen, i would have preferred to keep a promising young talent like brown.
right now, i do like general manager mark shapiro's move. now, before he does anything else, he MUST acquire a proven major league closer. he took care of priority number two. priority number one now must be addressed.

then there is buck showalter, who is rumored to soon be joining the tribe as a special assistant to mark shapiro. apparently, his main focus will be helping set up the indians(hopefully) imminent move of their spring training home to goodyear, AZ. supposedly, he was suggested by manager eric wedge. i have not been 'sold' on wedgy. but i love that this was wedge's suggestion. buck has been a successful manager for many years. he was 'let go' by texas. eric knows if the tribe once again does not live up to expectations, he will be on the hot seat. having a viable replacement in house often would be disconcerting to a manager. but wedge must truly want what is best for the indians. this fact is proven to me by wedge's suggestion in the hiring of buck.

hello again everybody. padraic here, welcoming all you friends of a feather to another season of indians baseball, er my baseball only blog.

my most favore-ist team in the whole wide world, the cleveland indians, will be my main focus. but i do love the game of baseball in general, so any baseball related topic is fair game.

i have thought about doing this for awhile now. i love talking baseball. it all started when i was a kid. i was on a baseball team. i sucked. the main highlight for me was after the game at the concession stand. this is when i would forego candy and whatever crap they sold and just purchase baseball cards. this is back when baseball cards were good. yes, they were somewhat plain, compared to today's 'flashy' cards, but they were affordable to kids. and they displayed the players complete stats, and each one usually had a small bio and / or piece of baseball trivia to boot.

then i attended my first baseball game at old cleveland municipal stadium. i cannot remember the year. i may write baseball digest, to which i am a subscriber, to print the box score of that game. i remember enough about the game, i believe they will be able to find the box score. that is their specialty in the large the fans speak out, the letters to the editor section. anywho, the specifics were the indians were playing the baltimore orioles. gregg 'zeke' swindell started. he was a left handed starting pitcher who was the indians best starter. he finished his career with the arizona diamondbacks, i believe. anywho, he was dueling a relative rook in bob milacki. yes, that was his actual, real name. it was a scoreless game going into the ninth inning. i have no idea how the indians were doing in the standings, or even how far into the season it was, but i was totally into the game regardless. i couldn't believe there were no runs scored, and it was the ninth inning. that NEVER happened in little league! it was so exciting. one run could win the game. the littlest play, lucky hit, error, anything could be the difference. the orioles were held scoreless in their half of the ninth by zeke. now it was the tribes turn to try to win it, in 'walk off' fashion, if they were to avoid extra innings. somehow, someway, a runner for the 'good guys' had reached third base. the problem, there were two outs. but joe carter was up. joe was our clean up hitter. he could crush monster home runs. he had some speed too, as i believe he was a member of the rare (at the time) 30 - 30 club. membership requires hitting 30 home runs, and stealing 30 bases, in the same season. this is the guy you want at the plate in this crucial situation. i felt for sure he would send home everybody happy with a home run into the night sky. instead, he bunts! and he is safe at first! the runner scores! the tribe wins! on a 'walk off' bunt! boo ya!

this is when i officially became hooked on baseball, and the cleveland indians. consequently, this is why i am a 'pitching and defense' guy. i will take an exciting 1-0 win any day, and twice on sundays, over any other kind of win. a 10-1 win is nice too, because it means you dominated both aspects of the game, but where is the drama? baseball games are the ONLY times i love drama. ok, drama is cool in movies also. baseball and movies. that is all. in that order.

so, catching back up to the present. the year is 2006. cleveland has just ended a uberly disappointing season. the st louis cardinals (inexplicably) are the world series champs. the detroit tigers came from nowhere to become the AL's best team. the indians were supposed to occupy that spot. they were supposed to make the playoffs. many sportswriters, and myself, had picked the indians to contend for the AL central title. they seemed poised to knock off those cocky world series champs from'05, the chicago whitesox. mother#$%&#ers! but there were some changes in the off season. most seemed good. we still had alot of good young players though, and they seemingly had gained valuable experience from almost winning a playoff spot in 2005. things did not go as planned :( we did not even finish .500 :( 78-84. still, despite living in arizona, i watched (on the major league ticket), or listened to (on XM radio), or watched the game but listened to the XM broadcast, as many games as possible.

ok, my intro is now complete. i hope i have conveyed the true 'die hard' status. the depth of my passion. if you still are not convinced, just follow this blog. you shall see.