Asdrubal feels Acta not to blame for recent struggles | indians.com: News

A roundup of quotes from Asdrubal Cabrera, Carlos Santana, and Vinnie Pestano on the current state of the team.

Cabrera on whether Acta's job is in jeopardy:

"Everybody worries about that," Cabrera said on Thursday morning. "We don't want anybody losing a job here. This is our team and we've got to be together. We've got to pull everything together and try to get everybody happy in here."

Santana on his benching on Wednesday:

"It's something I'll learn from," he said. "I was running like that because I was mad about the pitch. It was a good pitch and I got a ground ball to third base. I was so mad at myself. I want to help the team."

Pestano on his recent struggles:

"It's just frustrating. I don't have the words," Pestano said. "I know for a fact that I've never been in this position before, to go on this bad of a stretch. It just [stinks]. It takes the wind out of you. You can talk all you want. For the first four and a half months of the season, I can say whatever I want to say and do whatever I want to do.

"What it comes down to is, when the team's needed me the most, over the past two weeks, I haven't gotten the job done. That's not acceptable."

Financial strategy in baseball: Everything must go | The Economist

A look at both sides of the Boston-LA mega-deal and whether Boston's "large market rebuilding" will pay off in 2013.

In theory that should be possible, since the triumvirate’s fair market value is only around $185m. But in practice, the offseason free-agent market is illiquid: only a handful of top players are available in any given year, and many of them play positions where a potential buyer already has an incumbent. The 2012 free-agent class is full of question marks. Josh Hamilton has slumped after a hot start, and his history of substance and alcohol abuse makes him a big risk for a long-term deal. Zack Greinke has fared poorly since his trade to the Angels. And Nick Swisher and Aníbal Sánchez are nice complementary players, but not the cornerstones of a championship team. Would any of them be markedly better risks than simply hoping Boston’s underachievers returned to form?