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Winter Meetings
12-09-2007
Jamey Carroll
It seems as though every year
Mark Shapiro just can't get through an offseason without picking
up more veteran bench players. Jamey Carroll (UIF) was just
acquired from the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named
later. Unless there is some other deal coming where Josh
Barfield is going to be traded, this is yet another pickup that
makes no sense. Carroll will only cost $2 million but when the
Indians have a guy that is younger and really can't do any worse
as a hitter it is just throwing money down the drain. Money,
that is, that could be pooled to say re-sign CC Sabathia.
Unlike previous years bargain
pickups, Carroll has shown no ability to hit - ever. His
career OPS is .702 and his last two years were spent with Coors
Field being his home field. He joins the yearly parade of
questionable NL bats that the Indians have gone after the last
few years - Jason Michaels, David Dellucci, & Josh Barfield were
three recent ones.
Why not just hand Mike Rouse $2
million if you're in the mood to throw money away?
What this says is that Barfield
isn't in the plans going into 2008. He will either be traded or
ticketed for AAA to start the season.
The Indians also had to remove
J.D. Martin from the 40 man roster to make room for Carroll.
Miguel Cabrera
The Detroit Tigers got him for
prospects Cameron Maybin and Andrew Miller. There were other
prospects added to the deal but no one of note. They also
received SP Dontrelle Willis who, at the least, is good starting
depth for them. If they get him straightened out they've got
another front line starter. But Cabrera alone was worth that
deal. And the Indians could have easily beat it but for whatever
reason chose to sit still.
The Tigers have to be favorites
to win the Central next year. They've already got two young
starters in Bonderman and Verlander that are capable of putting
up dominating years like Sabathia and Carmona did for the
Indians in 2007. They also added Edgar Renteria. With that
offense, which is now an elite one, anything else they get from
their starting staff will be gravy. Great offenses win tons of
games during the regular season against all of the mediocre to
bad pitching staffs. They could throw any warm body out there in
the 3, 4, & 5 spots and come away with a winning record vs
others teams 3, 4, & 5.
The Indians have to count on
getting another year of dominating pitching from both Sabathia &
Carmona and then hope that both Hafner & Sizemore get back to
their 2006 levels just to have a chance next year.
It appears the Indians went into
value mode again this offseason instead of going for a
significant acquisition. It was obvious when most of the talk
was centered on the very questionable Jason Bay that Shapiro was
content with what he had. Kudos to the Tiger's GM for rightly
recognizing what a real veteran acquisition is. Dombrowski could
even turn around and deal Willis to restock his farm system. I'm
sure he could get one prospect that was the equivalent of Miller
or Maybin.
Matt Whitney
The Indians lost Whitney in the
Rule 5 draft to Washington. Let's hope he doesn't make the
National's team and they can get him back. If not, this may turn
out to be the worst move of the offseason.
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