News and Notes: February 26, 2012

LaPorta may be in mix for outfield vacancy | indians.com: News
It's still February, so I suppose anybody has a shot to win a roster spot at this point. But it still seems silly to even talk about the possibility of Matt LaPorta, starting left fielder. If the Indians were confident in his bat, they wouldn't have searched the entire off-season for a first baseman. So why, after all this effort to replace LaPorta at first base would they not only keep him on the major-league roster, but to a position which he hasn't played in several years?

Cleveland Indians had a role on and off camera in ‘Moneyball’ - Top Stories - Ohio
The Oscars are tonight, and one of the contenders for Best Picture included several key scenes involving the Indians. In the movie, Beane travels to Cleveland(!) to negotiate a trade for Ricardo Rincon. The trade doesn't happen, but Beane notices Paul DiPodesta stand-in (Paul declined to have himself portrayed) Peter Brand and later hires him as an assistant. Of course, the actual trade for Rincon is also portrayed.

Obviously there were some large dramatic licenses taken:

And, [Bob DiBiasio] said, "We know a GM would never travel to another city to sit in an office to talk about a guy like Ricardo Rincon. You wouldn’t even do that to talk about Albert Pujols. That’s what the telephone is for."

DiBiasio was sent dailies of the movie, and was allowed to object to some aspects of the script:

"One of the scenes they shot, Billy Beane is sitting there and they portrayed it as Mark’s first day as general manager. And Billy says, ‘Hey, Mark, you look good in that chair your first day. That chair fits you.’ And Mark leans back, puts his arms on the armrest and said, ‘Yeah, I feel like Captain Kirk on the Starship Enterprise.’ And I was like, no, no, I don’t think we’ll have Mark portrayed that way. ... I thought it was a goofy line. With the other options that were available, that was one that didn’t make sense. Mark wouldn’t talk like that."