trot nixon?

hmmm. i was as shocked as i am guessing most were with this signing. but that tricky mark shapiro. after signing keith, he proclaimed that the indian's roster was set to go to spring training as is. trades and signings seemed finito. then enters trot.

trot is the owner of a lifetime .278 BA and .366 OBP with 133 HR, 523 BBI, 621 KO's and 454 BB's. despite hitting only.249 away from beantown in '06, his lifetime away average is .274. another lifetime stat, his BA against RHP is .292, against LHP is only .213. guess that tell us his role in '07 with the tribe. i guess that also means that the somewhat speedy shin-soo choo will be part of the buffalo bisons and not the tribe in '07. in a mere 28 plate appearances in the bigs, choo is a lifetime owner of a .200 BA against lefties. the thing is though, casey blake is only a .253 hitter against lefties, versus .263 against righties.

so, when a righty is on the mound and trot is starting in RF, i would assume he would be in the two hole with his LF buddy and fellow free agent signee david dellucci in the sixth spot. against lefties, jason michaels and case blake most likely would man the outfield corner spots with jason in the two hole of the line up. as for the rest of the lineup, well that will come later. for now, it is all about trot.

so, i do believe trot is an upgrade over shin-soo. trot has experience on his side. he even batted . 357 in the world series in '04. and shin-soo is definitely prone to the strike out. 45 KO's in 150 AB against righties. despite the tribe's offensive prowess, they did lead the AL in that dubious category with 1,204. trot is definitely an all out dude, which (hopefully is not an indicator of things to come with grady) is part of his downfall. his beat up body has been injured, a lot lately. coincidentally, his slugging percentage has slipped every year from a career high .578 in 449 AB's in '03 to .394 in '06. in between, he finished '04 with .510 and '05 with .446. can he rebound in '07? only time will tell. regardless, assuming he can stay healthy, i definitely feel trot is an improvement over shin-soo. and if he does get injured, well in steps shin-soo after all.

ok, it is too late for me to discuss the rest of the batting order and the bumping of RHP jeremy guthrie to make room for trot.

i wil continue somewhat. not too long ago i read a sweet article regarding u of a grad trevor crowe on the cleveland indians website. after reading this article about trevor, my appreciation of the additions of david dellucci and trot nixon, not to mention the signing of jason michaels to a two year extension , reached a new level. trevor's words seemed sincere. i do not believe trevor was just whistling some baseball cliche dixie tune. it seemed more an indicator of an attitude that seems destined for success. an attitude you just gotta love for a young, multi talented player seemingly destined for success in the bigs. ok, to take a step back for all those who do not know about trevor. in his rookie season in the minors in '05, he made it to AA Akron by the end of the season. that is very, very uncommon from a player who started just finished his college career the same year. he started the '06 season back down at A, but earned another AA call up at the end of the year. he most likely will start the '07 season at AAA with the bisons. given the talent of the tribe's young outfielders throughout, he could feasibly start back in AA just so he could receive everyday AB's. the word on the 'street' is that he could maybe / possibly / feasibly end '07 with the tribe. he is a switch hitting machine. not a consistent home run threat, but i guess he does have good gap power, from what i hear. his speed seems comparable, if not better than grady's. and his defense is pretty good too. once he (hopefully) sticks with the tribe, the plan is for him to be an everyday corner outfielder. i believe he holds some records at the u of a to boot. the ironic part, he sounds like a coco crisp-type player. the only (and it is a biggie) difference being trevor has shown much better adeptness at taking a walk. that and coco, despite his speed, has yet to develop in a baserunning threat, where trevor seems to utilize his talents much better in that aspect. ok, ok, the now much ballyhooed quote:

"Since the time I was 10 years old, I've always said that if you want to be a Major League baseball player, you have to beat out a Major Leaguer. And that's the way it works in this organization. If you're not confident enough to beat out the other Minor League guys, you'll never fulfill your potential in the Major Leagues. For me, if I take care of my business, prepare and play as well as I can every day, where I fit in in Cleveland will take care of itself."

did that pump you up, like it did me? i love all aspects of this. the quote was taken at case western reserve university btw, where the indians were holding their winter developmental program for minor leaguers, of which obviously trevor was a part of. more than anything, it tells me the indians ARE doing the right things. the moves they are making ARE improving both their major league roster, and improving the overall system at the same time. i think that sums things up pretty well, don't you?