Baseball Musings: Indians Goals

November 07, 2005

Indians Goals

Sheldon Ocker interviews Cleveland GM Mark Shapiro about his off-season wish list. Not suprising, pitching is at the top of the menu. Shapiro, to my surprise, seems unwilling to trade his young talent to acquire his needs:

It’s possible but unlikely that the Indians can fill a key position through a trade. Why will it be so difficult to make a deal?
Teams almost surely will ask for Shapiro’s best young players - Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee, Jhonny Peralta, Victor Martinez, Coco Crisp - because they are both talented and affordable.

"Making a trade for a cornerstone guy is unlikely but not out of the question," Shapiro said. "If teams ask for one of our eight or 10 core guys, it doesn’t make sense to rob Peter to pay Paul."

I'm all for developing youngsters (see previous post) but at some point the Indians need to make the jump from being a good young team to being a winner. It's approaching 60 years since the Indians won the World Series. Which would the fans of Cleveland rather have at this point, a good young team that keeps falling short of the playoffs, or a couple of veterans that might put the club over the top? One reason to develop good young talent is to have currency to pick up the players you need to complete the team. Shapiro should be more open to trades than he's indicating here.

Posted by David Pinto at 07:47 AM | Management | TrackBack (0)

Comments

It really all depends on whether they can sign Millwood or not. If they are able to sign him, I think they already have cornerstone guys in place to be able to win the division. Travis Hafner is quite the hitter, Victor Martinez is a very good catcher, and Jhonny Peralta was probably the best all-around shortstop in the majors this year. They just need to keep the pitching going. If they do not get Millwood, that changes everything though, as they are in need of another starter.

Posted by: Marc Normandin at November 7, 2005 08:47 AM

Marc: You would be right if Millwood weren't absurdly overrated. There's no way Millwood's going to keep up his 2.86 ERA when he's pitching with a WHIP of 1.22 and striking out fewer than 7 per 9 innings. I would be that his "good numbers" are a result of jumping leagues. He'll fall back to Earth next year. Millwood's always been valued more highly than his numbers would suggest.

Posted by: Benjamin Kabak at November 7, 2005 11:02 AM

Oh, I should have made my thoughts on Millwood clear.

Millwood is overvalued, certainly, but just like Derek Lowe is valuable in LA, Millwood is useful in Cleveland due to the rise in groundballs there. With the defense Cleveland has, Millwood is a better pitcher in Cleveland than he will be most likely anywhere else.

If they have to pay Millwood more than $8 or $9 million, they should let him walk unless they have no one else to sign. Does Cleveland have any pitching ready in the prospect pipeline to replace him?

There are a few free agent pitchers to sign who will be worth more than they earn this winter, and Cleveland may end up with one or two of them if Millwood takes off.

Posted by: Marc Normandin at November 7, 2005 12:03 PM

By the way Benjamin, congrats on moving to Statistically Speaking at MVN.

Posted by: Marc Normandin at November 7, 2005 12:27 PM

Thanks, Marc. Stats should be a good outlet.

Cleveland doesn't seem to have many viable Major League-ready pitching prospects. Their AAA team is fairly devoid of pitching, but their AA club seems to have a couple of guys with peripherals that would suggest success at higher levels. Jeremy Sowers had a 70:9 K:BB rate in 82 innings at AA and 75:19 K:BB at A. He made one AAA start. J.D. Martin in 10 starts at AA had a 63:8 K:BB rate in 56.2 innings while giving up just 42 hits. I don't know if any of them could replace Millwood right away, but Baseball American last off-season said a 2006 debut isn't out of the question.

Posted by: Benjamin Kabak at November 7, 2005 01:46 PM

CLE is easily the favorite for the Central next year, and probably for years. I'd stay on task.

Posted by: Al at November 7, 2005 09:04 PM