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January 28, 2011Antonetti: If Healthy, Sizemore Will Be in Center
January 28, 2011
Two separate stories have been percolating this week about some potential moves involving the Indians. Let’s take them one at a time.
The first has pegged the Washington Nationals as a potential trade destination for Grady Sizemore and Fausto Carmona. For a fanbase as cynical and tortured as ours seems to be, any such rumor picks up steam rather quickly. It’s hard to blame the fans for getting nervous about these sorts of stories given what’s happened here over the last several years, but let’s backtrack for a second and try to figure out what’s really going on.
First, the “story” was first reported by Phil Wood of MASN. In a piece that was primarily about some minor roster moves, Phil drops this nugget:
“On another front, one pretty consistent source tells me that the Nationals are working on ‘a number’ of other trades, though didn’t have enough specifics to flesh anything out. Another big league scout tells me he’d heard some ‘conversations’ had taken place between the Nats and the Indians about starting pitcher Fausto Carmona and outfielder Grady Sizemore.
The Tribe is looking to move salary, and Sizemore, coming off of knee surgery, is eligible for free agency in 2012. You may recall that Sizemore was originally an Expos product and was traded – along with Cliff Lee and Brandon Phillips – to Cleveland for Bartolo Colon and Tim Drew in 2002.”
Right. So, in case you missed it, the only actual quotes are “a number” and “conversations”. Most of the piece is speculation on Wood’s part about the Indians “looking to move salary” that haven’t really been confirmed (outside of the fact they’d love to move Hafner). That’s not sounding too reliable.
Further, people don’t seem to understand that acquiring Grady Sizemore in a trade is a dangerous proposition: his club option for 2012 becomes a player option if he’s traded—so any acquiring team will basically lose a year of control over him compared to what the Indians have.* As far as Fausto is concerned, the Indians don’t have a glut of starting pitchers who are relatively cheap and under club control for several more years. I just don’t see them moving him: two years ago the organization decided that some players would be part of the next cycle and some wouldn’t. They gave Fausto a six-year contract. I’m thinking he’s in the former category.
*Or, an acquiring team could be forced to pick up his option if he goes on the DL for an extended period of time: if Grady is significantly injured after a team trades for him, he can exercise his own option to make sure he gets paid in 2012. Interesting.
So, when I first heard the story, I said to myself: self, do you think this is a real story? Don’t you think AT MOST the Nationals called to see if either player was available, were told that they weren’t, and that’s the end of it? Yeah, self. That’s what I think too.
And yahtzee. At most, indeed. According to Buster Olney, it never even got that far. There were not even any conversations. Story over. I’m always happy when self and I are on top of these things from the beginning.
The other note of interest—this one with a bit more substance—is that the Indians are interested in adding Casey Kotchman to complement Matt LaPorta at 1B. Kotchman is a LH bat, which means he could find himself in a platoon role of some sort. On the other hand, perhaps I should say he’s a LH “bat”—last season he hit .217/.280/.336. I don’t know what sort of platoon that qualifies him for, but I’m thinking something involving Oliver Stone rather than Matt LaPorta might be appropriate.
I have to say, this interest (if true) would worry me. Paul Cousineau and I have written before that 2011 has to be about finding out about our young players—LaPorta especially. Adding Kotchman—who has no value beyond average-ish defense at 1B—would signal either that: (1) LaPorta is hurt; or (2) the organization has already lost faith in him. Neither one of those scenarios bodes particularly well. As, I suppose, is always the case when your team is considering acquiring Casey Kotchman.
Anyone miss the Russ-Bus yet?
Spring training is right around the corner. Real baseball stories will start soon. Stay tuned.
13 Comments
I’d rather see Ryan Garko come back from Siberia or wherever he went to then Kotchman. Signing him makes no sense as I thought the plan this year was to have Santana play a little first or DH. Time is starting to run out on LaPorta. He can’t seem to stay healthy and when he does he’s awfully Marte like at the plate.
The Tribe should listen to offers for Fausto, Grady and even Choo. Unlike Lee or CC the Tribe doesn’t have to trade them but if someone wants to give up the farm for our players then its foolish not to listen.
I always look forward to the start of Tribe baseball. Last year I couldn’t wait to see Santana make his debut and this year I look forward to the coming of Kipnis and the Chiz. I saw all of Nix that I care to see last year so I hope the kids make it to the show quickly.
Agreed on all fronts.
Please, please, please – let these young guys play. No flip flopping them between positions. No platooning. No musical chairs. Fill out a lineup card, xerox eighty or so copies, and wait until the all-star break.
What really surprised me (and it shouldn’t at this point) was the “What a tragedy!” response to the possibility of trading Grady. I love the guy and what he’s accomplished for us, but he’s an unknown commodity at this point thanks to the surgery. Would it really be some crime against the city if the Tribe decided to deal him (assuming we got something solid in return)?
Of course to your average Indian fan that answer is a teary eyed, yes.
Fausto isnt going anywhere till atleast the deadline…Grady i dont care about becasue we can actually get a lil something for him. and like iv said before you cannot build a team around him,he has to be a part of a puzzle not a superstar player.But i know thats just me and how iv always perceived Grady for the most part. and the whole Kotchman thing i hope is NOT true.LaPorta is 26 and needs to play everyday to show what he can actually do by ,you guessed it playing everyday! which what he should be no matter what he is doing because he was the center piece in the a CC trade and the Tribe needs to somehow justify that trade or atleast including LaPorta in it.They need someone to atleast be a somewhat solid player out of that trade considering that the Tribe got Raped (for lack of a better term) in the Lee trade
@NJ, but what about Grady’s Ladies? They’ll be so sad in their baby-doll pink Indians shirts.
I’m always excited at the start of baseball season because I like to keep hope alive for the Indians, but man it’s a lot tougher this season. There aren’t many reasons to think Cleveland will finish higher than 4th in the AL Central. The only real hope for the playoffs would be a perfect storm where the light turns on for Carrasco, Masterson, LaPorta, and some of the other younger guys while Sizemore and Hafner both have comeback years. The window is slim, but it’s there.
@3 – Disagree on the Lee trade. It can’t be fairly evaluated until until we see what Carasco and Knapp become.
In my book:
Carasco, Knapp = Lee trade
Marson, Donald = Francisco trade
@Pat – They’d need to fawn over a new Indian.
I tried to find a current player whose first name could be used to make a snappy, rhyming club name, but the only ones I found were kind of insulting to women.
I’d rather have a good pitching prospect over Grady Sizemore right now.
Also, pink shirts suck.
Good way at looking at the Lee trade NJ. However, seeing that Lee is now one of the Top 5 starters in MLB, it would have been nice if Shapiro could have managed to grab John Mayberry or J.A. Happ from the Phils instead of Marson and/or Donald. Happ would be a starter and Mayberry brings better OF depth than Crowe. I would throw Dominic Brown in there too, but my suspicions are that Philly would not have budged on including him.
I’m all for maximing the efficiency of every at bat with platoons or whatever else, but platooning young guys is somewhat of a pet peeve for me. I think it becomes a little of a self-fulfilling prophecy by not allowing guys to develop against same side pitchers and therefore needing platoons the rest of their careers. I think platoons should only be used for vets that essentially “are who we think they are”, or younger guys that wouldn’t otherwise get a shot at the MLB level.
By combining Duncan and Hafner at DH this year, we could get some underrated value out of Duncan and perhaps some of the power that people expect out of the DH role, while “letting Hafner off the hook” by giving him the rest he needs against pitchers that he most likely wouldn’t succeed against anyways.
Considering the hopes we still have for LaPorta though, he fits neither of these roles, and even if he really does flop, I think Jordan Brown/Santana could fill in adequately at first until a guy like Weglarz could potentially look to fill the spot more long-term.
Also, as much as I don’t want the CC trade to be a bust, if there is one position where we could afford it, its got to be first. If the rest of the team develops into a playoff contender without Matt, we could fill that spot just fine through the FA market even with limited money resources.
@8 – I won’t deny that I think we should’ve/could’ve gotten more for Lee. But I won’t call the deal a bust until I see how the pitching prospects do over the years.
@9 – Agree about first base being an easier position to fill. That’s what struck me funny about Laporta being the centerpiece of the Sabathia trade. Should’ve focused on getting pitching prospects imo.
Good God, I am in such a baseball mood. Spring can’t get here fast enough.
Hold on to Sizemore for the time being. He still has potential to very good things for this team and his leadership will be needed. If the Indians want to make a move they need to get rid of Travis Hafner. He hasn’t hit over .280 batting avg since he received his contract extension in 2007 and hasn’t broken 30 HR’s since 2006. He is killing the team and is almost good for an out every time he steps to the plate. If we could get a rock for Hafner it would be just as productive. Please get rid of him and start to build this team around Carlos Santana and Mitch Talbot.
Why can’t we be a normal club that spends money on free agents instead of hot dog mascots and toboggan runs!!!???
I would love to add guys to our team like Chad Billingsley, Jeff Francoeuro or Xavier Nady, and maybe add a guy like Johnathan Broxton to give us another set up guy for Perez and give us more depth in the Bull-Pen even though ours is playing very well. We are top 10 pretty much all categories and I do believe if it is not broken don’t fix it, but tweaking small areas could allow us to run away with the division.