There’s a rumored interest (various sites) in OF/3B Mark Teahen of the Royals. The Royals are reported to be possibly interested in one or more of Franklin Gutierrez OF, Ben Francisco OF, or Trevor Crowe OF AAA.

Mark Teahen Stats

2005: .309 OBP, .376 SLG, .685 OPS

2006: .357 OBP, .517 SLG, .874 OPS

2007: .353 OBP, .410 SLG, .763 OPS

2008: .313 OBP, .402 SLG, .715 OPS

This is the kind of waste of money Shapiro gets interested in every year.  The Indians could probably end up paying him around $5 million and get another below average veteran in return.

Teahen can’t beat anybody out of the Indians OF right now so my guess is they are interested in him for 3B. It is funny that Casey Blake is too rich for them now.

But a hole in the lineup is a hole in the lineup whether its name is Teahen or Marte. I’d rather stick with the one that has upside yet (maybe) and save the 4-5 million.

Mark Teahen has a slightly better chance than David Dellucci did here of making an impact. And everybody should know by now that if they get him and he continues to suck, the Indians will stick with him because he is a veteran at the ‘right price’.

The only way this would make any sense is if they are picking him up and kicking Dellucci to the curb. He could serve that role for the Indians. But only for someone like Ben Francisco.

Crowe should be packaged in another deal (save roster spot too) to help upgrade the Indians pitching. Gutierrez also still has upside and is way more talented than either Crowe or Francisco. He can play all three OF positions too and CF better than Grady Sizemore. (arm)

I really hate how every year Shapiro spends literally millions and upgrades the team in the tiniest increments possible, usually on ultility players, part time platoon projects, or bullpen reclamation jobs. It really is no wonder why this team can’t get anywhere.

It’s like he still has it in his mind that the problems last season were all due to injuries and he keeps forgetting that this ownership let their ace go. The Indians got lucky that Lee went crazy but it still wasn’t enough to cover not only the injuries that did happen, but the problems in this lineup with this patchwork philosophy to building it.

Mark Teahen is more of the same and if the Indians acquire him, the only possible noteworthy thing about it will be who they gave up to get him.

Washington 14, Cleveland 11

I bet Phil wishes he had those two future 1st round picks instead of Derek Anderson.

I’ve written about Anderson once before and if I recall, was concerned about his accuracy problems even last year during his so called good run.

Some facts:

There is no QB in the NFL this year that has a completion percentage below 60 that would be considered middle of the pack as far as their overall ratings go.

In the handful of times where it has been done over the last 5 years, it has coincided with a lopsided TD/Turnover ratio, which was at 2:1 and sometimes closer to 3:1.

Here are Derek Anderson’s career completion rate numbers along with his overall quarterback rating.

Year     Comp     QBR

2006     56.4     63.1

2007     56.5     82.5

2008     49.2     62.9

So not once as an NFL quarterback has Derek Anderson accomplished a 60% or higher completion percentage. And as noted above, it takes at least that, the overwhelming majority of the time, just to get in the middle of the pack as far as overall qb ratings go.

Why is completion percentage important?

It is a good measure of a qb’s accuracy as a passer, the most fundamental skill of their job.

Derek Anderson is not accurate. In fact he is below average at it. Below average accuracy corresponds with a below average QB. He’s been this way from day one and this is not likely to change.

Here are some career average completion numbers of NFL quarterbacks:

Kurt Warner 65.4

Chad Pennington 65.9

Ben Roethlisberger 63.2

Tom Brady 63

Jon Kitna 59.8

Joey Harrington 56.1

Kyle Boller 56.9

Rex Grossman 54.3

Notice who Derek Anderson has the most in common with

Even last year’s fluke 82.5 overall rating, Anderson still only finished just below dead center amongst all NFL quartbacks. It was because of that poor completion rate. Anderson may have a rifle for an arm but he’s not sure where it is going and in fact, misses his target half the time or more.

Phil should have sold high.

Somebody passed along a note about this sweepstakes that Positively Cleveland is running.

What you can win: 4 tickets to the Rock &  Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, included a private tour with the museum’s curator.

Entry: free entry but entries must be received by Friday, 10-17-2008.

The winner will be chosen that day also and notified via email or phone.

Where to enter: Cleveland Rock & Roll entry form.

Gook luck!