FOR PEAVY! Do it, shap!

What’s wrong with DeRosa at third? It’d be brilliant really.

It’s on ESPN rumor mill saying that Giants wouldn’t be opposed to moving him for corner IF.

what did those numbers get him? a few good innings before giving up run explosions?!

Blake’s last 3 years OPS+ are 114, 101, 110 while DeRosa’s are 108, 102, 118. Seems like DeRosa makes up for less power with a better OBP which ends up making their stat lines closer than you’d think.

i would think carroll is still our best utility option, with derosa starting.

It’s quite possible and likely that Shap knows he won’t be outbidding anyone for Dunn. Let’s see what he signs for before we freak out

Really?

Oh, very funny. Some of us like home runs.

Maybe a guy like Sonnastine, Saunders (very doubtful, although they could use a 1B now), Texas (but they don’t have established starters either) …. I don’t know … just throwing the idea out there.

Healthy Westbrook or now-Westbrook? Even with the injury, though, Westbrook is probably to valuable. He was pitching like a #2 last year.

for historical perspective, it’d likely be more like the sean casey – dave burba deal

Oh I know, I was just supposing, not actually thinking that it was possible.

All I do know is that one of Carroll and Marte have to go before spring training is up, they both will not make the 25. If it is Marte, it makes more sense to deal him now, than at the end of ST.

And personally I think Marte might actually have some value (not a lot) on the market as he is still young. Plus, as much as a lot of us dislike Garko, he isn’t a terrible trade piece, just not a great one. Shipping them both in deal could net us a starter. But you are right, it wouldn’t be for a #3 caliber guy.

Garko and Crowe may not get dealt. For one Crowe can sit in the minors for a bit. Garko is still semi-useful as a platoon with Shoppach.

But Marte, he’s a goner. If we can’t deal him, he will have to be released at the end of spring training. He has no options left.

zing!

Except you forgot that we no longer have Snyder (he’s now in the Cubs organization, I think) – no deal! :-)

Unless we can get them to send back Snyder in the Stevens-DeRosa deal. :-)

In all seriousness, DeRosa seems very solid. While I liked Stevens, thinking about it more, of Miller, Sipp, Meloan, and Stevens, Stevens would have been the first one of those four I would have given up, so I think it makes sense.

Overall, another nice trade made by Shapiro – hopefully, it will pay huge dividends for us!

Happy New Year everyone! :-)

btw, just kidding I bleed Cubbie blue .. and any team that has a chance at beating the Idiots, the Yankees or the White Sux automatically has my support ..

Ummm…..

You can have Rich Hill.

Question: why would you want him???? He is out of options and his ability to throw strikes is currently AWOL. He even lost his rotation spot in the Venezuelan Winter League because he walked too many guys. As many young pitchers as the Indians have, you could certainly do better than Rich Hill. I’m sure Jim Hendry was being merciful when he didn’t force Mark Shapiro to take Hill in the DeRo deal. DeRo can probably throw more strikes than Hill can.

Yeah, man, something creative like that.

Why can’t DeRo still be my hero while wearing an Indians uniform? It means more losses for the White Sox and more saves for Kerry Wood…

For draft entries, I consolidate all MLB-relevant players from each draft into a single line. Huff has crossed my threshold into MLB-relevant, as (a) we probably will need him this season, and (b) he was about an MLB-average starter last season, if you trust the translations.

You probably don’t realize, I’m just building off this timeline from 16 months ago. I recently turned it into a database and have been going through and updating it for the last 16 months of roster changes.

if choo hits like he did in the 2nd half we won’t be hearing anyone clamoring to move grady down

Thinking about it more, DeRosa could fit quite well in that #2 spot, making me like this deal even more. A potentially great move by Shapiro – keep up the great work! :-)

Hello Nick,

I’m not sure I understand why you’re aggravated – if we have more flexibility at 2B, then that would imply (to me, at least) that we have less flexibility at 3B, which means we need someone who can fit that hole.

We no longer have Blake, and Marte doesn’t seem able (partly because of him and partly because of the Indians) to hold down 3B, so someone needs to step up and take it. And I’m not sure many want Carroll to have too many ABs over there (though some wouldn’t be bad, certainly), nor do they want Peralta to shift to 3B unless we absolutely feel that is the best move (and while Cabrera’s upgraded defense at SS would be a major positive, potentially dropping Peralta’s possible trade value at some point in the future with a move to 3B would be a major negative that the Indians would probably want to avoid unless they felt that a move to 3B was absolutely necessary, and the acquisition of DeRosa would seem to imply that shifting to Peralta to 3B on a permanent is no longer necessary for the 2009 season).

Acquiring DeRosa may enable the Indians to keep Peralta at SS and keep his value high, while not hurting the overall defense, since most seem to think DeRosa can handle 3B pretty well and Cabrera is very good to outstanding at 2B, thereby enabling Jhonny to only have to cover a certain area over there at SS, and for the most part, he’s done that fairly well, and probably should be able to do a comparable job for another year or two if need be (which would now seem to be the case).

This doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll never see DeRosa filling in at 2B from time to time, but I think this may lead to the fact that Peralta will probably NOT shift to 3B after all for 2009 and that Cabrera may only start at SS in place of Peralta on rare occasions.

Therefore, I don’t see why you wouldn’t want DeRosa over at 3B most of the time – that’s where our primary hole is. You have Cabrera, along with Carroll and Barfield, to handle 2B. Who’s going to handle 3B if DeRosa is not primarily over there? Marte? Carroll? Peralta (like I said above, I don’t think the Indians want to jump the gun on shifting Peralta over there and dropping his value unless it’s clearly the best option, and with the acquisition of DeRosa, it no longer seems like shifting Peralta to 3B for 2009 is the best option in the minds of the Indians’ FO).

Just my 2 cents.

I like DeRosa at third base. He’ll be better defensively there than at second, and it leaves Hodges and Valbuena to battle it out and dictate the infield alignment in 2010.

Also, with the depth chart looking at SS (Peralta, Cabrera, Carroll) and 2B (Cabrera, Carroll, DeRosa), I bet Marte is still pegged to make the team as a backup 1B/3B over Barfield or Valbuena (not that Carroll isn’t on the depth chart over there too), or at least the situation will be portrayed as such until a spring training deal. If Shoppach really is going to get increased time, the Indians should have a third catcher on the roster. Chris Giminez can do that and be insurance at 3B, but I’m not sure that’s being discussed out of the gate.

That’s a very fair assessment. DeRosa should provide better defense, less power, and more OBP than Casey.

Hello Ryan,

Essentially, the Indians got back a “Blake-type” player without having to sign Blake for 3 years. And being that Blake was an important part of our 2008 team, I don’t know about “not improving their team very much.”

I think it depends on how well DeRosa performs – unlike Valbuena, DeRosa is an experienced and proven MLer. And, unlike Peralta shifting to 3B and Cabrera shifting to SS, DeRosa has ML experience at 3B, which has been a major hole for us, and one that likely wouldn’t be filled by Marte or Carroll to the level we need it to be filled. And, of course, Blake is no longer here, so any chance of Blake coming close to his 2008 level would not benefit us, so we needed to try to fill that hole somehow – DeRosa might have been the best way to do that without paying a multi-year contract or giving many notable prospects.

So I don’t know about “not improving the team much” – potentially, it closes that 3B hole for 2009, while not forcing Peralta and Cabrera to shift positions. It may not be the most “glamorous” or “eye-opening” trade, but analyzing it more, I think it’s a very smart and solid move by Shapiro that could pay solid dividends in 2009 and even beyond (in regards to financial flexibility and the potential of getting an extra draft pick or two).

Just my 2 cents.

Dammit .. I came back here to say this and you beat me.

“Hey, sonny, let me tell you about Joe Tinker. Now there was a ball player.”

Which is also a WTF move.

Yeah, apparently they reached an agreement with Bradley, but the owner dictated they clear a couple million in payroll to before they added him.

yes yes yes

“our Cy Young conveyor belt.”

i like this.

a lot.

No worries about CarmonaWestbrook…
He’s next in line on our Cy Young conveyor belt after coming off of the DL and tossing 75 consecutive scoreless innings with 2 no-hitters.

fixed.

I’m not saying it’s that easy, but if anyone is going to take “our excess crap” for a fair player it would be Florida. As long as they have talent and don’t cost much it’s a starting point, yes?

I also meant to add:

You don’t do that already?