Jamey Wright Signed to Minor League Deal

And the bullpen tryouts get more and more crowded, as Shapiro continues to throw spaghetti at the wall in hopes that this year something will stick.

Also T-12 till pitchers and catchers report.

about 2 years ago woodsmeister 49 comments 0 recs |

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Finally, we have a mentor to help Jeremy Sowers learn how to use his 85 mph fastball.

by Toxicadam on Feb 9, 2010 2:31 PM EST reply actions

On the second part of your post, I’ve never been less excited for an Indians season to start. I just can’t get interested at ALL.

by NickFantana on Feb 9, 2010 3:03 PM EST reply actions

Meant to add, anyone else feel this way or am I alone?

by NickFantana on Feb 9, 2010 3:03 PM EST up reply actions

Pitchers and catchers. Meaning Mike Redmond. Star of stage, screen, and his own 854-comment fanshot. I’m tingling all over.

by YoDaddyWags on Feb 9, 2010 3:39 PM EST up reply actions

And he hasn’t even taken BP yet.

by VA tribe fan on Feb 10, 2010 9:19 AM EST up reply actions

I think my total lack of excitement has made it exciting.

by Gradyforpresident on Feb 9, 2010 10:59 PM EST up reply actions

I’m actually looking forward to this season. Mainly, because there’s so many unanswered questions, i.e., Carmona, Hafner, Westbrook, the whole pitching staff, for that matter. Will Valbuena be sent down for more seasoning? Will Peralta finish the year with the team? Will LaPorta develop as hoped? With some good fortune, health and if Acta can light a fire, I would not be surprised with an 85-89 win season.

by DanMac on Feb 10, 2010 10:03 AM EST up reply actions

Maybe it’s because there were no other options, like being in a pennant race, but rooting for the youngsters to develop; forging in irrational affinity for kids like Roy Foster, Steve Hargan, Charlie Spikes; dreaming of renewed glory (irony!) from retreads like Chuck Hinton and Ted Uhlaender; hoping for more than nostalgia from returnees like Jim Perry, the Rock and Daddy Wags; even beginning the morning with a happy (we won!) or sad (what else is new) Chief Wahoo on the front page of, what, the Plain Dealer—all these things made spring for me the best time, even when 10-0 starts were frittered into a .500 season, and Billy Martin could earn my undying enmity when he sneered at the 17-9 (and first place!) Tribe, “I’ll see them on the way down.” Even lost summers didn’t dissuade me from saying, on September first of every year, “If we go 23-6 the rest of the way, we can win this thing!” We never went 23-6 the rest of the way. When the pennant races finally came, it was nice, but it was gravy on a birthday cake: not even really necessary. All that said, I fully expect this team to win 91 games and rip out my heart in the postseason.

by YoDaddyWags on Feb 10, 2010 11:32 AM EST up reply actions 5 recs

That was beautiful, in a depressing sort of way.

by VA tribe fan on Feb 10, 2010 11:44 AM EST up reply actions

This – plus the teaser that the AL Central has the real possibility of sucking (although Minnesota and Chicago have done a few good things), making anything possible.

by APV on Feb 10, 2010 11:36 AM EST up reply actions

I think I’m with ya.

by supermarioelia on Feb 10, 2010 10:43 AM EST up reply actions

I am excited

by APV on Feb 10, 2010 10:16 AM EST up reply actions

Me too. It’s not like we have a team filled with Jamey Wrights. We have seen that team many times before, but not now. This one is packed with potential.

by dgcambridge on Feb 10, 2010 1:37 PM EST up reply actions

This is part of being an Indians fan. Of course I’m up for 2010, and I expect the worst. It’s like being an Indians fan in 1982 or thereabouts.

by odradek on Feb 10, 2010 6:03 PM EST up reply actions

I find that it’s a a warped version of 2004. Half the team is one year away, the other half, I have no idea.

by Jay on Feb 10, 2010 6:42 PM EST up reply actions

Except I think it will be bleaker than 2004.

by odradek on Feb 10, 2010 8:46 PM EST up reply actions

Maybe I should have just copped to “bleaker version of 2004.”

I don’t know if the crushing disappointment of the 2009 tear-down has just warped my brain, but I just don’t see where the future pitching staff comes from. I mean, I see where it could potentially come from, but I just have trouble adding up all those pitching prospects and seeing a probable, high-quality, major league rotation.

by Jay on Feb 10, 2010 9:06 PM EST up reply actions

I agree with you. What is the expression: “Hope is not a business plan”?

Here’s hoping Hagadone and Knapp make it to the bigs in a hurry.

by odradek on Feb 10, 2010 10:50 PM EST up reply actions

Outside of CC, what did you see that was especially promising in 2004? Genuinely curious.

by Roger Dorn on Feb 11, 2010 8:57 AM EST up reply actions

For one, Sabathia by himself was a huge difference, as opposed to Carmona.

For another, Cliff Lee was higher rated than any of our pitching prospects now and considered totally ready for the majors.

For another, Westbrook was sort of Aaron Laffey at the time, only less injured.

For another, Jason Davis was seen as a Rondon-esque talent — unbelievable stuff, rose quickly through the ranks at a young age.

For another, still had hopes for Jeremy Guthrie.

For another, Cruceta had a 3.25 ERA in 14 starts for Buffalo, age 22.

Finally, we didn’t have $33 million tied up in contracts to anyone.

by Jay on Feb 11, 2010 12:01 PM EST up reply actions

This is an interesting exercise as I think the real difference is the first one you mention – Sabathia vs. Carmona.

For the others, the assertion could be made that there are some comparable arms at hand:
2010 vs. 2004
Huff vs. Lee
Laffey vs. Westbrook
Rondon vs. Davis
Sowers vs. Guthrie
Carrasco vs. Cruceta
Throw Masterson in the mix and there are even more variables in play for 2010 that weren’t in 2004.

It’s easy to look now at what Lee and Westbrook became/have become and forget how they were perceived back in 2004 – as not-yet-ready for middle-of-the-rotation contributions with the hope that they would get there. Isn’t that the same situation with Huff and Laffey in 2010?

Again, the CC-Carmona thing is the separator, but Westbrook and Wood come off the books next year (if not sooner, plus Peralta) and we all remember the KMTS (the actual KMS) that happened the year following 2004.

by The DiaTriber on Feb 11, 2010 12:16 PM EST up reply actions

This is kind of my thought, but I wasn’t really able to follow the team closely in 2004 as I was abroad. CC is obviously the most striking difference, but it seems like while there are maybe fewer sure things with the 2010 bunch, we have better strength in quantity.

by Roger Dorn on Feb 11, 2010 12:18 PM EST up reply actions

Yeah, I find it very difficult to play this game, while maintaining even just a little objectivity about how we saw these guys in 2004.

I think you are underselling Lee and Westbrook at the time. Westbrook was a former Top 100 guy who was taking a little time to settle in, and the Indians mostly were trying to figure out where best to fit him. Lee was considered a premium prospect and a likely number-two guy.

The point isn’t how good and/or ready I expected them to be in 2004, just as the point now isn’t how good they’ll be in 2010. The point is that these guys were expected to be contributors, some of them very good one, and I’m having trouble seeing that mix of guys coming up right now. I see lots of warm bodies, though.

To be honest, one of the main differences may be that I have a much better, more intuitive grasp of pitching prospect attrition now than I did then.

by Jay on Feb 11, 2010 12:28 PM EST up reply actions

It is hard to exclude what you now know about these guys, though the numbers bear out pretty similarly in the development of Huff/Lee and Laffey/Westbrook in terms of age and peripherals.

Interestingly, just doing a quick search of how Lee and Westbrook were considered against the rest of MLB prospects, I ran across this list from February of 2003 with B-Pro’s Top 40 prospects.
Of note:
4. Victor Martinez
6. Brandon Phillips
16. The BLC (then with Seattle)
20. Travis Hafner
32. CP Lee

Kind of puts the talent that was on the precipice in 2003 in perspective to what we’re looking at now, particularly with CC being 2 years in when 2003 rolled around.

by The DiaTriber on Feb 11, 2010 1:36 PM EST up reply actions

i had no idea choo was ever that highly thought of. man, how did we pull those two deals off? back to back.

by Brick. on Feb 11, 2010 1:40 PM EST up reply actions

It still is stunning to me that 1/2 of a season of Benuardo became a 20-year-old AAA (!) middle infielder Asdrubal and a 24-year-old AAA player in the BLC due to the magic of Bavasi.

by The DiaTriber on Feb 11, 2010 1:46 PM EST up reply actions

Yes, those two trades, taken together, must be considered at or near the level of the Colon deal, if only because Benuardo was nowhere near worth what Colon was.

by Jay on Feb 11, 2010 2:11 PM EST up reply actions

That combo were the worst moves Bavasi made.

I actually have no idea if that’s true.

by Gradyforpresident on Feb 11, 2010 10:30 PM EST up reply actions

The Bedard trade, maybe. We’ll see.

Steel Nick

by nickjs21 on Feb 12, 2010 10:25 AM EST up reply actions

Well I guess they still have Bedard, which has to count for something. I think it depends how Jones and company develop.

They were both bad, if I had to sum up my comment.

Steel Nick

by nickjs21 on Feb 12, 2010 10:26 AM EST up reply actions

A 20 year old middle infielder in AAA, with strong defense (or at least that’s what the reports were) and putting up anything north of a .650 OPS is an insanely valuable asset.

Choo, meanwhile, by OPS in the minors:

Age 18: 260 PA, RK-Low A: .936.
Age 19: 558 PA, Low A-High A: .872.
Age 20: 471 PA, High A: .823.
Age 21: 579 PA, AA: .845.
Age 22: 502 PA, AAA: .813.
Age 23: 427 PA, AAA: .897.

Couple that with at least average defense with a strong arm, and good baserunning skills … I mean for half a season of a decent platoon guy?

by Gradyforpresident on Feb 15, 2010 1:49 PM EST up reply actions

was thinking the exact same thing when I saw The DT’s post.

"I'm a baseball lifer. It's what I do." —Manny Acta

by westbrook on Feb 11, 2010 5:49 PM EST up reply actions

Kind of puts the talent that was on the precipice in 2003 in perspective to what we’re looking at now, particularly with CC being 2 years in when 2003 rolled around.

Sure, but Choo doesn’t count with the 2004 list, he counts on the 2010 list.

by dgcambridge on Feb 11, 2010 1:52 PM EST up reply actions

Masterson, Rondon, Hagadone….that’s the set. The warm bodies can fill in behind.

Note: this does not relect well on the Lee trade.

by dgcambridge on Feb 11, 2010 1:58 PM EST up reply actions

Second note: this is conjecture that is just as likely to in now way represent future reality.

Everybody should get ice cream every day.

by Joel D on Feb 13, 2010 1:21 AM EST up reply actions

TINSTAAPP, TINSTAAPP, TINSTAAPP, ……………………….

by DanMac on Feb 12, 2010 11:19 AM EST up reply actions

TINSTAAPP, TINSTAAPP, TINSKNAPP

/fixed

fka "DaytonDogg". Now a contributor to SBN's Dawgs By Nature. www.dawgsbynature.com

by Ryan Kelsey on Feb 12, 2010 3:00 PM EST up reply actions

I know this is just a game, but the Rondon – Davis comp doesn’t work for me at all. Rondon’s numbers have been better across the board. He’s had longer at each step, and is still at a younger pace. But mostly, they just seem like different guys. Davis had the stuff, and ok numbers. Rondon has better numbers – ones that we are constantly apologizing for.

by dgcambridge on Feb 11, 2010 1:45 PM EST up reply actions