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From the Detroit Press

Here's a very well written article from the Detroit perspective.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070703/SPORTS0104/707030337/1129

It's refreshing to hear a sports writer (besides the Cleveland PD) write about some possible shortcomings of the team. All too often a World Series contender fails to notice what is going on with their own team.

Good read.

0 recs | Comment 8 comments

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Re: From the Detroit Press
Even though the schedule makers gave Detroit a day off yesterday, while we had a night game to play (!), we have to be awake enough at game time to be aggressive early and often against Robertson.  Of the three pitchers we'll see he looks to be the likeliest to get knocked out halfway through the game, allowing us to get to that helpful bullpen.  Rogers would also be a good candidate to make an early exit, but we'll probably see Verlander and CC go toe to toe for most of the game.  Great series coming up!

by MTF on Jul 3, 2007 10:07 AM EDT   0 recs

Re: From the Detroit Press
It'd be especially nice to put some serious pressure on their bullpen from the start since they have to go against the Red Sox after us and by abusing their bullpen we can help them help us.

by Nat on Jul 3, 2007 12:41 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

Re: From the Detroit Press
The Free Press article alludes to an interesting subject as the trade period approaches.  Detroit and Cleveland are both pretty solidly built teams whose primary thin part is in the bullpen.  Given the matchup of primary needs, any bullpen signing by one team not only helps alleviate its weakness but also adds pressure to the other.  You would think teams looking to unload a quality reliever (hello, Texas) would be drooling over the possibility of playing Cleveland and Detroit off of one another to drive up the price.

by APV on Jul 3, 2007 12:54 PM EDT   0 recs

Re: From the Detroit Press
Yeah, it's an unfortunate reality to the market. Hopefully Boston doesn't try to get in on the act....on WEEI (Local sports radio in CT) they were mentioning that with the yankees on life support, there would be no one with the buying power to beat the red sox to any needs they have.

Gulp, they know of our Kryptonite. Money.

God truly does hate cleveland sports.

by Gradysmanldy on Jul 3, 2007 1:25 PM EDT   0 recs

I was thinking the same thing regarding DET &
CLE in terms of raising the price up for any relievers we try to acquire; that's why I think it's good we have potentially good to great arms to go to in Adam Miller and Jensen Lewis down at AAA and an experienced bullpen arm in Matt Miller down at AAA - that can give us additional options where we DON'T have to pay the high price a team like Texas might demand; instead, we can keep "playing" with them, and if Detroit or Boston wants either Otsuka or Gagne, we can make them "pay through the nose" for them, weakening them long-term.

Yes, A. Miller and Lewis won't have Gagne's or Otsuka's experience, and M. Miller doesn't have that type of arm, but A. Miller and Lewis' arms would be just as good as either Otsuka or Gagne's, and as we've seen in the past from young relievers like K-Rod and Zumaya, sometimes, all you need (presuming you have a good solid team, of course, which I think the Indians would qualify as  :-) is a power arm or two to ride yourself to a WS victory or at least a WS appearance, and they don't necessarily have to be experienced like a Gagne or Otsuka to do it.  

And for what it's worth, Gagne and Otsuka don't have much postseason experience either, so they don't have much advantage over the Millers and Lewis in that regard.  That's why I think it's advantageous the Indians have them "in reserve" at AAA; I don't know what the Tigers or Red Sox's AAA options are, but I'd think they would be pretty hard-pressed for their AAA reserves to match that AAA trio in terms of power arms and experience.

Just my 2 cents.  :-)

Go Tribe! :-)

by indiansfan on Jul 3, 2007 4:58 PM EDT   0 recs

Re: I was thinking the same thing
I think you are clearly jumping the gun on a few things. Most of us agree that Adam Miller is being groomed for a relief role this year.

However, before Miller and Lewis can be used in the postseason, two things have to occur.

First they have both would need to be added to the 40 man roster. We are currently at 39, so someone would have to go. Most likely? Koplove, Stanford, Aubrey, Luna, maybe Snyder. Most likely scenario, only one gets added to the 40 (my money's on Miller)

Second, to get one on the postseason 25 man squad, we would probably need at least pitcher to be on the DL (although I am unsure if we have a hitter on the DL that we could swap the pitcher for him. Jay? What says the roster guru?). Fultz will be activated soon and noone else is on the major league DL (Dellucci). If you want both, then two players would need to be on the DL. Or the easiest route, they both are on the 25 man roster. Which in itself causes other roster problems (Stanford, Cabrera, etc)

Not saying it can't or won't be done, but don't assume adding either to the postseason roster will be a snap.

by talonk on Jul 3, 2007 5:46 PM EDT   0 recs

Re: I was thinking the same thing
You have it right.  The postseason roster has to be selected from:

  • The 25-man roster as of August 31.
  • The DL as of August 31.
  • The rest of the 40-man roster, but only as substitutes for players who were and still are on the DL, pitcher for pitcher and/or hitter for hitter.

by Jay on Jul 3, 2007 7:59 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

Good points, but I didn't say that BOTH have
to be added; after all, it's not likely any team, including us, would add both Otsuka AND Gagne, so it's not that likely we'd add both Miller and Lewis, but I did say that it's nice to have both (and M. Miller too) as options.

If it was necessary, the Indians could probably find a way to add both, but right now, it's probably likely we'd only add one reliever, even via trade, since outside of Cabrera's infrequent usage and Stanford rarely being used as a long man, the rest of the bullpen has been used on a fairly regular basis, but you'd either get Cabrera in the mix by the postseason or possibly include him in some trade, perhaps, and/or you probably wouldn't put a long man on your postseason roster, so a potential bullpen spot COULD open up by August 31 if the Indians deem that Cabrera or Stanford are expendable, since we haven't used Cabrera much lately and we didn't have a true long-man (unless you count Perez, and with his stuff, I didn't really see him as a long-man, but more of a late-inning shutdown/setup guy just being introduced to the MLs) in the bullpen for most of the season until recently.

As I implied above, unless you trade someone from the ML roster in a trade for Otsuka or Gagne, you'd have the same problem, so either way, whether you add from outside or within, you'd have to deal with that situation anyway.  I just said that having the multiple options is an advantage the Indians have in that they don't have to be forced to pay a high price in prospects if they don't want to.

Sorry if you got the impression I meant adding both, but at this point, I doubt we'd add more than one reliever, from outside or within; it's just nice to have multiple quality options, and internal options at that.

Just my 2 cents.  :-)

Go Tribe! :-)

by indiansfan on Jul 3, 2007 9:15 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

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