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Indians News and
Notes
12-03-2006
Decided to put this on the front
page since it is not really a rumor but makes you wonder. I
caught the back end of a comment on Sports Time Ohio last night.
Matt Underwood asked Mark Shapiro about things to improve upon
this off season. Shapiro mentioned the defensive problems and
thought they had solved some of it by adding Andy Marte at third
base, Josh Barfield at second base, and Casey Blake at first
base - no mention of Garko. This would lead to the following
possible conclusions:
Ryan Garko, if he is not traded,
will either be in a backup role or sent to AAA Buffalo again. It
is really doubtful that Garko would be kept on the ML club in a
backup role since he can only play 1B and isn't very good there.
It serves no one's purpose for him to go back to AAA. So the
logical conclusion is that he is on the trading block this
winter. Another possible clue to this is that he was sent home
from the Dominican Winter League, supposedly due to his
performance not being up to par. He wasn't doing great there (I
think around .250 average) but not terrible either and the
season down there had barely gotten started. Then, you have to
consider that these winter leagues are used by the ML clubs for
certain reasons - Fausto Carmona is down there stretching out
his arm and making up for the innings he lost in the bullpen
experiment this year, Trevor Crowe played in the Arizona Fall
League to make up for missed time due to injury this year.
Garko's entire purpose down there was to work on his defense at
1B. It just doesn't make a lot of sense that he got sent back so
early if that was the goal.
If Blake is the primary 1st
baseman, that leaves an opening in right field, since Dellucci &
Michaels have left field nailed down. The only two players that
are qualified to play that position on the Indians are Shin-Soo
Choo and Franklin Gutierrez. Seeing how the GM has been signing
veterans (and not significant ones), it would not be a surprise
if Shapiro is out looking for another veteran corner bat. There
is one familiar name he is rumored to be interested in on the
rumors page.
Also, the Indians have signed
Roberto Hernandez (RH RP) and Aaron Fultz (LH RP) to one year
deals with an extra team option year added to both.
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