Shrugs Amid Frowns: Michaels DFA'd for Francisco

Well, I mean, super. Francisco's certainly got more pop than Michaels. But we're hardly swapping Casey Blake for Alex Rodriguez here, and we may be downgrading defensively. It's at best a modest improvement.

I'm reminded of a letter Tony Kornheiser received on PTI a few years ago. "Would drafting so-and-so fix the Browns?" His response: "They need 12 first-round picks." And that's kind of how I feel right now. Obviously, even an average major-league hitter would make this offense noticeably better. But we need 5 more.

5 months ago fleerdon Comment 27 comments 0 recs |

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Somebody on the Cleveland.com forum said the press conference was to announce an extension for Breslow. Someone else said, an extension for Casey. Now, that is funny.

by odradek on May 5, 2008 3:30 PM EDT 0 recs

For the cleveland.com forum, that really does count as wit.

Free Andy Marte!

Pronk Needs You

by woodsmeister on May 5, 2008 4:22 PM EDT up 0 recs

I’m impressed.

The Disabled List just called ... it was trying to unload Joe Borowski. I offered a bagel but balked at giving up a ham sandwich. It wanted to keep Westbrook.

by westbrook on May 5, 2008 5:19 PM EDT up 0 recs

FREE. ANDY. MARTE.

Sizemore-Shapiro 2008. The Official Red Bull of Let's Go Tribe Game Threads.

by Gradyforpresident on May 5, 2008 4:15 PM EDT 0 recs

I took note of the PBR can in the pic of Castrovince in this blog.

A friend of yours, GFP?
A kindred spirit?
Or your secret identity?

"It's hard to win when you don't score." Cliff Lee, 9/28/05.

by Harry Doyle on May 5, 2008 4:49 PM EDT up 0 recs

the second, maybe. i’m sort of a free spirit though

Sizemore-Shapiro 2008. The Official Red Bull of Let's Go Tribe Game Threads.

by Gradyforpresident on May 5, 2008 5:26 PM EDT up 0 recs

what? you like drinking free spirits?

by Brick. on May 5, 2008 5:32 PM EDT up 0 recs

who doesn’t?

Sizemore-Shapiro 2008. The Official Red Bull of Let's Go Tribe Game Threads.

by Gradyforpresident on May 5, 2008 6:11 PM EDT up 0 recs

I am convinced that the Indians need to hire a new batting coach. The more I watch, the more I’m convinced the hitters are focusing too much on working counts instead of focusing on which pitch to sit on. And I see this bias up and down the lineup. I am not opposed to working counts, but I don’t think you do this at the expense of other strategies. These guys all could hit major league pitching vey recently, but there has to be a reason that the majority of the lineup are not seeing the success they once had.

by elsandito on May 5, 2008 5:04 PM EDT 0 recs

The last thing we want it is our hitters focusing on sitting on a specific pitch.

That’s why Gutz developed that nasty curveball aversion of his.

by gahnki on May 5, 2008 5:14 PM EDT up 0 recs

I think you might be overestimating the efficacy of batting coaches.

by ken from alexandria on May 5, 2008 5:51 PM EDT up 0 recs

Michaels cleared waivers today.

this just means that we can deal him to anyone. i suppose it’s worth noting, barely.

by Brick. on May 5, 2008 5:10 PM EDT 0 recs

I say we make an offer for him. He can be our mascot.

by gahnki on May 5, 2008 5:15 PM EDT up 0 recs

Team barber maybe?

by cclemens31 on May 5, 2008 5:58 PM EDT up 0 recs

Tigers DFA’d Jacque Jones today. Overpaid outfielders available in aisle 2

by IndyDave on May 5, 2008 5:14 PM EDT 0 recs

Michaels wouldn’t make a Top 100 list of overpaid major leaguers.

by Jay on May 5, 2008 5:19 PM EDT up 0 recs

agreed.

The Disabled List just called ... it was trying to unload Joe Borowski. I offered a bagel but balked at giving up a ham sandwich. It wanted to keep Westbrook.

by westbrook on May 5, 2008 5:20 PM EDT up 0 recs

Really? It depends what you mean by overpaid. If you divide cost by value, you get infinity for Michaels.

by oxforddave on May 5, 2008 5:53 PM EDT up 0 recs

This is just a failure to understand value. Michaels is comfortable in all three outfield positions and is a competent CF. Most teams have at least two lefty bats starting in the outfield, making it particularly helpful to have a righty on the roster. He’s also good on the basepaths. In short, he’s quite valuable as bench players go, and considering the likes of Willy Taveras still get starting jobs, don’t think for a moment that Michaels would be the worst starting outfielder around.

The Indians have collected a bunch of rangy outfielders over the last 5-6 years, so we may have developed a distorted view of how useful a player like Michaels really is by most teams’ standards. Kind of like coming out the 1995-2001 era, when we had no sense of valuing a guy with an 800 OPS and would have considered Garko a bum.

by Jay on May 5, 2008 7:50 PM EDT up 1 recs

Garko versus Paul Sorrento?

by odradek on May 5, 2008 10:08 PM EDT up 0 recs

Right. We’d have traded him for a bag of balls back then.

by Jay on May 5, 2008 11:07 PM EDT up 0 recs

That’s true, unfortunately. Speaking of balls, maybe MLB got their orders confused, and the NL Central got the AL Central balls. What a deadball division. The White Sox have an impressive offense. The Cubs hit like Detroit was supposed to.

by odradek on May 5, 2008 11:33 PM EDT up 0 recs

maybe he will sign with the Buffalo Bisons.

The Disabled List just called ... it was trying to unload Joe Borowski. I offered a bagel but balked at giving up a ham sandwich. It wanted to keep Westbrook.

by westbrook on May 5, 2008 5:18 PM EDT 0 recs