Comments on: Solutions for Indians

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:03:35 +0000

Can someone please point out one…JUST ONE…free agent signing or player-trade (other than the long-ago and subsequently-botched Colon trade) in which Shapiro has significantly bettered this club?

(crickets)

Talk about overrated. Both the GM and his roster.

By: larry d.

larry d. — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:07:17 +0000

Crisp for Marte didn't turn out too well, either. Grady, Crisp and Phillips at the top of the order would be pretty decent.

By: Dale

Dale — Mon, 19 May 2008 12:59:48 +0000

Even though no MLB GM can bat 1000, I'm sure there are two deals that would easily make Mark Shapiro's "I Wish I Hadn't Done That" list. One was trading Brandon Phillips to the Reds for a player to be named later (it turned out to be pitcher Jeff Stevens). The other was trading Ryan Church (whom we had in our farm system), along with utility infielder Macier Iszturis, to the Mets for veteran set-up man Scott Stewart. Stevens hasn't done anything for the Indians, and Stewart turned out to be washed up. On the other hand, Phillips, and more recently Church, have put up big numbers offensively for the Reds and Mets, respectively. Their two big bats would be just what the Indians need right now.

By: alan t.

alan t. — Sun, 18 May 2008 23:32:31 +0000

Josh, you refuse to give up on Hafner. While you're at it, I simply refuse to give up on Luis Gonzalez and Brady Anderson. At least until they run out of syringes. Which ol' Travis apparently did. Or, more likely, his wife hid them.

By: larry d.

larry d. — Fri, 16 May 2008 11:56:17 +0000

There's no choice but to ride it through with Hafner.

Josh is also right about Crawford and the Indians could have nabbed him for a pitching prospect or two in the offseason or last year, but that ship may have sailed. The Rays are trying to change their image and trading their best player in the middle of the season would kill a lot of the work they've done in that regard.

I'd move Peralta to third and put Asdrubel at short. Putting your best infielder at shortstop seems like a no-brainer for me.

But the Indians one fault as an organization is they don't seem to value athleticism much. They draft a bunch of first basemen types and hope they can find a spot for them on the field. That might be why they may not be as interested in Crawford as they should be.

By: Josh

Josh — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:21:58 +0000

Dangle Jhonny Peralta and a prospect or two (Marte?), and see if you can get a guy like Carl Crawford. Tampa wont be in the running by mid June and they know Crawford will be gone eventually. We may miss Peralta's occaisional monster games, but I cant even imagine what a lineup with Crawford at leadoff and Sizemore in the 3 hole could do to the American League. That would be something to see.

With Peralta gone, Asdrubal moves over to his natural SS, Barfield comes back up to take 2nd, keep Carroll in the utility role and let the outfield play itself out. The guys in this lineup WILL hit, especially in the summer months. Just keep the staff healthy and hope the bullpen holds up.

Either make it an impact trade like the one above, or stand pat. The worst thing they can do is gamble and roll the dice on a guy with injury history or mediocre numbers and hope for the best just because the guys we have are underachieving early.

I refuse to give up on Hafner, Ron. I wont do it. He's been too valuable to this club for the fans and the front office to just write him off. The guy hit 46 homers just a few years ago and drives in 100 every year. That wasnt a fluke. We have to ride him through this massive slump and hope he comes out on the other side.