Plans for Laffey Remain a Mystery
Posted July 24th, 2007 by Stephanie Storm
Not long after left-handed picther Aaron laffey was pulled from his start after 48 pitches at Triple-A Buffalo Sunday, a post popped up in this blog from one our faithful readers wondering what was up. Props to Roger for being so on top of things - especially with just a week left before the trading deadline, when these kind of things happen regularly.
Yet, a few days later, we’re still trying to figure it out. The Beacon’s Indians beat reporter Sheldon Ocker reported in Tuesday’s paper that Tribe manager Eric Wedge denied anything is going on with Laffey - which in baseball terms almost always means something is absolutely going on.
The question is what?
I don’t think it’s that Laffey was involved in a trade gone bad, as many are speculating. Because if that were the case, the Indians wouldn’t have let him pitch at all Sunday instead of limiting him to 50 pitches (a sure sign to me that’s he’s being readied for the bullpen).
My guess is that the Indians finally have had it with struggling Fernando Cabrera (a solid starter with the Aeros a few years ago before he was converted to a reliever) and have plans to call up Laffey to join the Indians bullpen. Because Cabrera is out of options, he will likely be claimed on waivers (other teams also think they can fix a guy). With the open roster spot, Laffey can slide right in.
So what’s taking so long? If the Indians didn’t start the process with Cabrerra until Monday, they have to wait until the end of Wednesday to see if he was claimed or can be sent to Buffalo to begin the rebuilding process.
So hang on. There’s more to this story coming in the next few days. Fun, isn’t it?
July 27th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
Check it out Stephanie:
http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070727&content_id=2112635&vkey=news_cle&fext=.jsp&c_id=cle
Here’s the relevant passage:
It was Lee on waivers, not Cabrera. Now, I don’t know how the beat writer thing works, but is this something that Castrovince knew about and kept quiet until today, or did he just figure it out for himself when he wrote this piece, or did somebody in the FO tell him they’d gotten Lee through waivers?
July 27th, 2007 at 10:33 pm
Babe Ruth had a candy bar - The Baby Ruth.
Reggie Jackson had - The Reggie Bar.
I find it interesting that…
Aaron Laffey has Laffey Taffy.
July 28th, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Matthew - Good thought, but I still don’t think Lee being sent down had anything to do with the Laffey snafu. Lee’s situation came Friday, while Laffey’s deal was the Sunday before. Although it is likely Laffey will be coming up to fill Lee’s spot in the rotation the next time around, he wouldn’t have cleared out his locker and been limited to 50 pitches some two weeks before needing to pitch for Cleveland.
Good question about how the “beat writer thing works” as you put it. It’s very relevant in this sitaution. Although technically Anthony is a beat writer being that he covers the team on a daily basis, my guess is he got more information that the other newspaper and radio beat writers because he works for major league baseball via MLB.com. It’s just a perk of the job.
Please don’t get me wrong, I like Anthony a lot. He is a good beat writer and a very talented writer. But it’s not a stretch to assume he may have pieced the story together WITH the help of someone from the Tribe front office.