The Dodgers have targeted Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee to bolster their pitching staff. Chances of Lee being traded remain remote — it would take one heck of a deal to compel the Indians to trade their only reliable starting pitcher. I wrote about the Indians situation on Sunday.
The Indians, by the way, privately are counting on this to happen for next season to be better: Fausto Carmona to get his head screwed on straight and Jake Westbrook to come back from Tommy John surgery. Those are two gigantic 'ifs,' but the team feels that if those two come through they will have starting rotation that begins with Lee, Carmona and Westbrook. That's the hope at least.
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Isn't next year the last one in Jake's contract too? So we'll be counting on two pitchers (Lee & Westbrook) to have good seasons only to trade them at the deadline because why let them finish out the season with the team and see what happens during the off-season. WE NEED MORE PROSPECTS!!!
I think Shapiro will be jonesing too much not to make a horrible deal by the end of next week. I'm not counting on anything at this point, certainly not the Indians brass to just sit pat and quit jacking this team up.
I think that would have been a better blog name than "Beside the Point." "Sitting Pat."
The Indians can privately, publicly, and from the bottom of a swimming pool, hope for Carmona & Westbrook to come back to the staff, but as long as Wedge and his coaches, AKA "The Pitcher Butchers", are still here, it's not going to make any difference. Sorry.
This year it was Pavano, Reyes and 'one of the young arms,' so it shouldn't surprise that Shapiro is hanging next year's hopes on a lightening strike again.
larry, a lightening strike? I've never heard of it. Is that made from the same cream that turned Michael Jackson white?
I'm sure there are more than a few teams that would love to have the results produced by those "Pitcher Butchers." But most people seem to forget this same coaching staff had back to back Cy Young winners. But maybe that was all due to Luis Isaac. Maybe they should consider rehiring him.