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.

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.

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.  :-)

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.