"Everybody knows what they're playing for, hopefully," he said. "There's probably only a handful of guys who should feel comfortable in this room with where they stand going into next year.

I think Perez and I are on the same page here.

Quote to note

"It's still very important, and it's important for the integrity. We're playing teams that are in the race still -- the White Sox and Tigers. That's how baseball should be. You should give your best effort every time, and the best team should win. You shouldn't roll over."

-- Chris Perez, on the final three weeks of the season

I think Perez and I are on the same page once again.

Game notes

Tigers manager Jim Leyland can't return to Progressive Field without thinking about when he managed Florida in the 1997 World Series, when snow fell before Game 3. "I'll never forget it," he said. "I was hitting fungoes during batting practice and they were playing `Jingle Bells." ...


http://scores.espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=320914105

Indians rally to beat Jose Valverde, Tigers in 9th


Associated Press


CLEVELAND -- The Detroit Tigers lost their manager, catcher and a crucial game in the AL Central race.

Now, the Tigers are hoping to quickly rebound from their sour Sunday after twice blowing leads to the Cleveland Indians.

Lonnie Chisenhall singled in the winning run with one out in the ninth inning to give Cleveland a 7-6 win -- the Indians' first at home when trailing after eight innings in more than a year.

Tigers manager Jim Leyland was ejected and catcher Alex Avila hurt in a collision with Prince Fielder as Detroit dropped two games back in the AL Central. The Tigers go to Chicago to face the first-place White Sox on Monday.

"It was a good comeback," Leyland said. "There wasn't anything cheap about it. It was a heck of a ballgame. Give them credit. That's the way it goes. Turn the page and move on."

Before the game, Leyland said the makeup of Thursday's rainout with the White Sox would be huge since it is the last meeting between the rivals.

It is even bigger for the Tigers after Cleveland's comeback.

Jason Kipnis doubled off Jose Valverde (3-3) and scored the tying run on a one-out triple by Carlos Santana. Right fielder Don Kelly nearly made a leaping catch, but the ball dropped as he crashed into the wall.

Valverde then intentionally walked both Michael Brantley and Ezequiel Carrera to face Chisenhall, who lined the first pitch to right-center.

"You've got to get the ball to the outfield there," Chisenhall said. "They weren't walking guys to get to me, I'd like to think. They were trying to get the bases loaded and have the force out.

"It's definitely exciting. You like to win games like that."

Esmil Rogers (2-1) pitched one inning for Cleveland, an AL-worst 17-45 since the All-Star break, and just 11-37 since July 26.

Miguel Cabrera, with visiting Detroit fans chanting "MVP! MVP!" hit a three-run homer in the seventh to put the Tigers ahead 6-5. Cabrera connected off Joe Smith for a 402-foot drive.

But Valverde got his fifth blown save in 36 chances as he worked for the third day in a row.

"We were asking a lot of Valverde," Leyland said. "He had better velocity than he had the last couple of nights. We talked to him before the game and he said he was good to go."

Valverde credited the Indians.

"I made good pitches, but they hit them," he said. "I want to be perfect, but I am not. Now, let's go to Chicago and win."

Cleveland scored two unearned runs in the fifth for a 4-3 lead after trailing 3-0. Leyland got tossed for arguing the play that put the Indians ahead.

With the score tied at 3, first-base umpire Brian Knight ruled shortstop Jhonny Peralta's throw trying for an inning-ending double play was too late as Brantley scored from third base.

First baseman Prince Fielder hopped off the bag and yelled and Leyland came out to disagree. Cabrera was restrained by other umps from going across the diamond from his third base position to join in.

Earlier in the inning, Leyland disputed a call by Knight that also kept Detroit from turning a double play.

"They were unbelievable bang-bang plays," Leyland said. "At this time of year with the importance, you get a little more excited. Obviously, I thought they were out. The umpire saw it differently."

Avila left in the sixth after colliding with Fielder. Avila was about to catch Santana's foul pop along the warning track in front of Detroit's dugout when Fielder, listed at 275 pounds, ran into him. The ball dropped and so did Avila.

"It looked like a knockout punch," Leyland said. "The elbow got him in the jaw."

Leyland said trainers told him Avila has a sprained jaw, no concussion, and could possibly play Monday. Leyland said he likely was going to rest Avila anyway against White Sox lefty Jose Quintana.

Given new life, Santana got an RBI single on another questionable call by Knight. With Asdrubal Cabrera on second, Santana hit a grounder between third and short that Miguel Cabrera snared with a dive. His high throw from his knees pulled Fielder off the bag, but the first baseman tagged Santana. Knight ruled safe as Asdrubal Cabrera kept running and scored.

Fielder and acting manager Lloyd McClendon both protested.

"It was a weird game," Tigers starter Rick Porcello said. "Whether we get those calls or not is tough to say. It was frustrating, but you have to deal with it and push on."

Detroit took a 2-0 lead in the first off Ubaldo Jimenez. Both runs scored as Brennan Boesch was safe with a bases-loaded infield single when Jimenez fielded his slow tapper, but threw low and late to first for an error.

Cleveland loaded the bases on three walks in the first, but Porcello got Russ Canzler to hit the ball back to him and made the play for the third out.

Delmon Young, hitting .167 (5 of 30) in the Tigers' previous eight games, hit an RBI single to make it 3-0 in the third.

Porcello gave up three hits in the fourth as Cleveland got within 3-2. Shin-Soo Choo's two-run bloop single to left drove in Canzler, who had singled and came after a two-out double by Jack Hannahan.

Game notes

Cleveland won the season series, 10-8. ... Tigers CF Austin Jackson was a late scratch because of a sore left knee. He got hurt trying to make a catch Saturday when he ran into the center field fence. "I definitely anticipate playing (Monday)," Jackson said. "We'll see. It hurt too much today." ... Peralta played his 73rd straight game without an error, longest streak by a Tigers shortstop since at least 1957. Eddie Brinkman had a 72-game streak in 1972. ... Miguel Cabrera has hit .369 (7 of 19) with 2 homers and 7 RBIs off Smith. ... Jimenez, 1-9 in 13 starts since the All-Star break, still has a 9-16 record and avoided becoming the first Indians pitcher to lose 17 games since Tom Candiotti went 7-18 in 1987. ... Indians 1B Matt LaPorta was twice shaken up after crashing into a railing while trying to catch foul popups in the same at-bat by Tigers 2B Omar Infante in the ninth. He stayed in the game.

Cleveland needs a new Indians owner
Published: Saturday, September 15, 2012, 12:15 PM Updated: Saturday, September 15, 2012, 2:12 PM
By Brent Larkin, The Plain Dealer
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When it comes to the Indians, the baby boomers are on the clock.

And given what we've seen from the present ownership, there's growing reason to believe time may run out for a lot of us without living to see a championship.

Not a single baby boomer remembers the last time the Indians won a World Series.

The vast majority of the nation's 70 million or so boomers weren't even alive on Oct. 11, 1948, when the Indians beat the Boston Braves, 4-3, to win the series in six games. Those of us who were are way too young to remember.

Baby boomers are defined as those born between 1946 and 1964. In Cuya hoga and its six contiguous counties, the 2010 census pegged that population at 798,652.

Boomers and those born before 1946 constitute the heart of the Indians fan base -- especially given the increasing popularity of football and soccer.

The Indians are on the brink of losing that fan base. It probably hasn't happened yet, but it's precariously close.

And if they lose that base, they lose the town. And if they lose the town, all of Greater Cleveland suffers -- especially downtown.

The Dolan family, owners of the Indians, are good people. But their pockets just aren't deep enough.

Now, after nearly 13 years, it's time for them to seek a buyer for Cleveland's most precious and important sports asset.

When lifelong fans like this one stop paying attention, a full-blown crisis can't be far behind.

The Indians probably will draw fewer fans this season than any team in the major leagues. In the last 13 seasons, they have won more games than they've lost four times. And two of those four were 2000 and 2001, when they won with Dick Jacobs' players.

That record falls a wee bit short of what Larry Dolan promised in November 1999 when he bought the team from Jacobs for $320 million.

"We're not going to put a team on the field that might win one year and slip back into mediocrity," promised Dolan. "I don't want one World Series for the city of Cleveland. I want a string of them."

It's nice to dream big, but most fans would settle for just the one.

Year in, year out, Browns fans regularly fill the seats at an awful stadium without an ounce of charm to watch a team with barely an ounce of talent. But Indians fans, spoiled by the successes of the 1990s, have grown fickle -- and very distrustful of the Dolans.

Ken Silliman is Mayor Frank Jackson's chief of staff, a diehard Indians fan, and very knowledgeable about baseball.

And he's worried.

Silliman believes the coming off-season is "crucial" -- for the Indians. He thinks it's essential that the Indians be "absolutely clear" with fans about their strategy -- short-term and long. And he warns they "should not blame their low attendance on the regional economy, particularly when fans still remember that World Series game [2009] when C.C. Sabathia was matched up against Cliff Lee."

Indians CEO Paul Dolan, Larry's son, is personable and candid. Speaking with him, one gets the sense he knows that the relationship between the team and the community may be the shakiest it's been in at least 30 years.

"There's no question there are big challenges ahead for us," said Dolan. "Our responsibility is to pick up the pieces and prepare for next year. And we know we'll be reaching out to a very disappointed and frustrated fan base."

Dolan said the team is not for sale. And he seems to understand the Indians can't turn back the clock to a time when winning and exciting teams filled a new stadium for 455 straight games -- a period when the Browns weren't around to compete for entertainment dollars.

"It's more of a challenge now. We get that."

My guess is they have a year -- at most -- to meet that challenge.

On the night of Oct. 26, 1997, my wife, son and I trudged out of a stadium built for football somewhere between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Inside, thousands of jubilant fans celebrated a World Series championship they neither expected nor deserved.

"Only Clevelanders can comprehend the depth of this disappointment," I wrote, somewhat selfishly, a few days later.

"The fact is, if you aren't from here [Cleveland], you don't count. Your sadness over all of this is genuine, no doubt. But it doesn't mean squat. In order to count, you have to have lived through all the jokes. You have to have felt the sting of default. You have to remember what it was like when a city experienced the municipal version of a nervous breakdown. And you have to remember firsthand the endless heartbreaks this town's sports teams have visited upon us.

"Some have already taken that heartbreak to their graves."

Those cemeteries are getting awfully crowded.

That's a super article.

Really, it is.


Immediate reality however is that the Ownership can change out the front office with greater ease and quickness than they can sell the franchise.


Our slogan at this point for 2013: "If we fire them, they might come."

Flush the toilet, or go for broke and roll ALL the dice on the final chance of Yahtzee.

If our front office of today remains as it is for Spring Training 2013, this Northeastern Ohio Baby Boomer is no longer going to follow The Cleveland Indians.

That said.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgvZjtwWQOI



I'm just a skinny little boy from Cleveland, Ohio.

After the game I noticed Cabrera of the Tigers was jawing at our Chris Perez. It probably had to do with the hand in front of the face wawing that they both do.

It looked like Cabrera was saying meet me outside after the game.

Terry Pluto

About the Tribe ...



1. You can tell the Indians have zero clout with Major League Baseball, at least when it comes to making the schedule. The home opener is against the ... Yankees? New York is here April 8-11, its only trip to Cleveland. That's a Monday-Thursday. Boston's only trip is April 16-18, also in the middle of the week.

2. Tribe President Mark Shapiro carefully picked his words as he said, "The schedule is not optimal ... but it's not something we can control." Given the sad state of this season, which will make it extremely hard to sell tickets for 2013, the schedule makes it even worse.

3. If it seems Shin-Soo Choo's defense has declined in right field, it's because it has, according to the stats from Fangraphs.com. Fielding metrics are always somewhat subjective. Fangraphs rates Choo the second-worst defensive right fielder in the American League. I didn't think he was that bad, but he has really declined.

4. Choo entered the weekend hitting .280 (.818 OPS) with 15 homers. Since the All-Star break, it's .252 with five homers. He's been hopeless against lefties, batting .172 with only six RBI in 180 plate appearances. This is not about dumping on Choo -- batting .330 against righties and .313 as a leadoff hitter -- but the 30-year-old is not playing like he did in 2009-10, when he averaged .300 with 21 homers and 88 RBI and was far better in the field.

5. Fangraphs ranks Michael Brantley at No. 5 among defensive center fielders in the AL. In the winter, some with the Tribe wondered if Brantley would be solid in center -- and he's exactly that. Among AL center fielders, he ranks first in doubles (36), sixth in average (.284), sixth in on-base percentage (.339) and seventh in RBI (58). The only area where he is below average is with his six homers.

6. Who would have guessed that heading into the end of the season, Brantley would have more RBI and a higher batting average than Choo?

7. I can't understand why the Indians kept having Brent Lillibridge play shortstop when Asdrubal Cabrera is out. In 14 games, he has five errors. Lillibridge is hitting .207 with four walks and 28 strikeouts in 94 plate appearances here. He is playing in front of Jason Donald, who is hitting a dismal .195 with five walks in 113 plate appearances. Donald has only one error in nine games at short, and I'd rather look at him in terms of planning for next season. Then again, Donald started Friday night and left the game after being hit by a Justin Verlander pitch.

8. The Indians are encouraged by Hector Rondon, making a comeback from his second elbow surgery. He was a top prospect in 2009, when he was 7-5 with a 2.75 ERA at Class AA Akron. Then came the injuries. The Indians have moved him to the bullpen and think he could contend for a spot at some point in 2013.

9. The Tribe is expected to draw about 1.6 million fans this season, down from 1.84 million in 2011. It will be the second-worst attendance since the team moved into Progressive Field in 1994, only 2010 (1.39 million) was lower.

I have never thought of Choo as being even an avg right fielder. Only plus with him is his arm.

But still, one of our better players. Which says a lot.

Pluto is greasing the skids for Choo's exit.

We all know Choo won't re-sign with the Indians so Pluto points out how he's on the downside and he really wasn't that good.

Choo is an adventure on every fly ball and has been since day one. Great arm though.

The Diatribe

Paul Cousineau


Certainly, the accepted line of thinking is that they’ll trade both Choo and Perez at the very least, but it’s worth asking what either of those guys brings in return. To that end, with the Tribe facing the Rangers, Nino Colla of TCF noticed the presence of one Mike Olt (since sidelined, probably for the year with plantar fasciitis) on the Rangers’ roster and had a pretty compelling thought regarding the 23-year-old Olt, particularly because Olt is a 3B and...as Nino notes, Texas already has a 3B in Beltre, meaning that Olt may be made available by the Rangers in the off-season. Regardless, here are Colla’s thoughts on him being a desirable target for the Tribe this off-season:

Olt is a stud power hitter who’s blasted 28 bombs this year for Double-A Frisco. Sure he’s a third baseman, but he could play first, giving the Indians that right-handed power stick at the corner the so desperately need. I’m not sure what the Rangers plans are for Mitch Mooreland, if he’s a stopgap to Olt, or if he's someone they’d like to invest in, but if the later is the case, my first play in the offseason is trying to pry Olt away from the Rangers, and using Shin-Soo Choo to do so.

It is here that I note that LaPorta was a “stud power hitter” once upon a time, who hit 22 HR in AA as a 23-year-old, while pointing out that Olt hit those 28 HR as a RH 23-year-old in AA, but you get the direction here – Choo is not long for Cleveland and the Indians need to find a suitor that is willing to give them a young player that is near or already in MLB in exchange for Choo and take the best offer on the table. If that’s the Rangers…great and going further, Nino goes on to say that “Choo is a much easier sign long-term than Josh Hamilton and (Texas) can hold onto a middle of the order bat” as the Rangers would have a full year to negotiate with Choo…I mean, Boras.

Maybe the Rangers make a big play for Choo for the reasons that Nino mentions, and in terms of teams that might be looking to add Choo because of a player like Hamilton potentially departing or because of their own deficiencies in RF, the Yankees may be a possible destination, depending upon what they do with soon-to-be FA Nick Swisher. Past the Rangers and Yankees, the Giants (sans Melky) and Mariners (SECOND-HALF surprise and surge…well, until you consider their manager) would certainly be among those interested in upgrading in RF and willing to pay for 1 year of Choo with a right to negotiate with him and his agent on a long-term deal before Choo hits FA after 2013.

Allegedly the Pirates had an interest in adding Choo at the Trading Deadline and it will be interesting to see how their absolute COLLAPSE in the past few weeks (what was that about the Pirates being a small-market team showing everyone how it contention is possible) affects their off-season plans in terms of aggressiveness. Because he would certainly be a “rental” for them and there really wouldn’t be any question that he would be a Pirate for one season…or maybe shorter. With that in mind, they certainly wouldn’t part with top prospects Gerrit Cole (1st overall pick in the Draft in 2011, already in AAA) or Jameson Taillon (2nd overall pick the previous year, now a 20-year-old who has ascended to AA) for 1 year…and maybe ½ season…of Choo, depending upon how the first couple of months of 2013 go for the Pirates.


And that’s really the rub with projecting any kind of return for Choo, in that as much as I’d like to say that the Mariners are a great match, flush with pitching prospects that get the salivation glands going, there’s little doubt that Boras will have him ready to hit FA after 2013, with a call to Mike Ilitch probably already planned out for Choo to “solve” the Tigers’ RF issues after next season. As much as I’d like to think that Choo would net the Indians a cadre of impact prospects, all ready to contribute in 2013 and beyond, we already looked at the returns for Hunter Pence – who has now been traded a couple of times in the last few years – which should temper expectations a little and realize that the Indians may unfortunately have to target some further-away-from-MLB prospects for what is likely one year of Choo.

Past Choo, the assumed off-season trade chip would seem to be Chris Perez (much to the delight of the aforementioned Chris Perez) and while the ideal would be to simply net a Josh Reddick (as he is known now…not as a rather-lightly-regarded Red Sox player) for Chris Perez, it’s worth looking at what kind of market would exist for Perez if (ahem…when) the Indians offered him on the open market. That is to say, what teams would be interested in Perez’s services, with club control over him lasting through the 2013 and 2014 seasons, even if the arbitration numbers tied to those years are going to be…um, on the high side.

In terms of “Blown Saves” (and as much as I hate Save as a “stat”, the “Blown Save” doesn’t bother me nearly as much), teams that would figure to contend in 2013 that “blew” a lot of saves would be the Brewers (assuming the Grienke trade wasn’t some sort of signal of a break-up of the team), the Angels, the Red Sox (though they’re waiting for a healthy Andrew Bailey), the Cardinals, the Marlins, the…well, just look at the list here. The Save Percentage list is pretty similar and the Angels and Red Sox are still the two teams that stand out there as I’m not sure that the Cardinals would be all that interested in re-acquiring the services of Pure Rage and the Marlins are still “committed” (at least financially) to Heath Bell. While I’d LOVE to see Ozzie and C. Perez in the same locker room (assuming it’s in South Beach…a LONG way away from me), the point is that it’s only going to take two teams to be interested in him to generate some interest that benefits the Tribe.

To that end, among teams whose closers are scheduled to become FA at year’s end, Valverde is scheduled to become a FA, though I can’t envision the Indians moving Perez to Detroit, where he can spout his vitriol about the Indians every time he visits the corner of Carnegie and Ontario. Past Valverde, the Yankees have Mo Rivera still working his way back and Rafael Soriano has a player option worth $14M that he might decline to see if he could parlay his closing role in the Bronx into a longer deal. Speaking of coming back from injury, the Giants may have an interest in him, depending upon the progress being made by Brian Wilson.

Going further on closers that could be FA, the Rays hold an option on Fernando Rodney (for $2.5M) that they’ll surely pick up and the D-Backs hold a $6.5M option on JJ Putz that they’re likely to pick up. So, really the FA market is pretty bare when it comes to closers, once you get past Jose Valverde, with the list full of guys coming back from injuries (Ryan Madsen, Joakim Soria) or who are largely underwhelming (Brandon League, Jon Broxton, Brett Myers, Mike Adams, JP Howell, K-Rod, etc.) looking like the FA options…so maybe an “on-the-market” Perez would generate some interest, regardless of how foolish teams are when they spend on a “closer”.

As I said, it only takes one (or two, to begin a bidding war) interested party and the invocation of the D-Backs brings me around to the third player that I think will be on the Trading Block this off-season – Asdrubal Cabrera. Realizing that this is a topic that I’ve already broached in this space, Cabrera’s second-half slide (again) have to force the Indians into thinking that he’s their most valuable trade asset, in terms of his offensive ability and his affordability over the next two years.


About a month ago, I alluded to the possibility that Cabrera to AZ could make sense, largely based on this report that the Diamondbacks are in the market for a SS this off-season, but the reasoning for that remains solid, particularly given the Diamondbacks’ wealth of talent with young arms. In case you don’t remember, here’s what was written:
Now, this is brought up because if the Indians are open to trading Choo for the right package, you’d have to think that they’d at least listen to offers for Cabrera, who is only under club control for one year longer than Choo, with an extension already in his pocket meaning he’s unlikely to sign another one to remain an Indian. Even more than that, this Diamondbacks’ report is relevant because Arizona is FLUSH with young arms like Trevor Bauer, Archie Bradley, Tyler Skaggs, and Patrick Corbin, among others, with Bauer (21 years old), Skaggs (20 years old and LH), and Corbin (22 years old and also LH) making their MLB debuts this year. Now, it is true that Bauer was #11on B-Pro’s preseason top prospect list , “graduating” from that list by making it to MLB, and that Bradley was #18 and Skaggs was #19 on Kevin Goldstein’s mid-season top 50 list a couple of weeks ago , so wishing for any of that trio for two years of Asdrubal may represent pie-in-the-sky wishing.

But given that the Snakes have Wade Miley (their #10 prospect going into the season and currently sitting on a 2.80 ERA in his first full year) and Trevor Cahill topping their rotation with Ian Kennedy still on board for a while, Arizona might be willing to part with some of their pitching depth to acquire an elite offensive SS if they’re serious about making a push in the next couple of years. If they are, the Indians might be wise to explore such a deal in an effort to add an arm/multiple arms at the upper levels that might be able to contribute/begin maturing immediately for the parent club with an eye towards some place past 2013 or maybe even 2014.
--snip--
Maybe the Indians have something in Juan Diaz (he has 13 HR and 24 2B in 104 games on the year as a 23-year-old SS in the upper levels) or maybe they don’t (he is averaging a K per game in MiLB), but if 2013 doesn’t look like a year where contention is likely, much less plausible, he might be a somewhat-suitable replacement, particularly if the Indians can turn 2 years of Asdrubal into players that would be able to step in and contribute with their years of control aligning more closely with Kipnis, Santana, Brantley, and Pestano than those of Choo, Perez, and Masterson.

Perhaps you want to figure who would be interested in Masterson (and that would be most teams as SP is in such demand around MLB), but…yes, this is what we’re left to do – to wonder what other teams that figure to contend in 2013 could use a strong-armed, middle-of-the-order RF, or a lock-down closer, or a offensively elite SS under club control through the 2014 season. Because those exact players aren’t helping this team win games in the present tense and their greatest contributions to this team winning any time in the near future has more to do with what they might bring in a trade instead of what they might contribute on the field as a member of the Indians.

Maybe that depresses you to no end (because it does for me), but what this organization needs to do is turn these most valuable assets into the best starting pitching (prospects) that they possibly can. Though others in the...um, mainstream media have caught on to this idea that Oakland and Tampa are winning this year because of pitching, it’s old news here and the Indians need to identify and acquire as many young arms as they can and they need to use their most desirable assets (Choo, Perez, Cabrera, maybe Santana) to acquire them.

Perhaps that sounds like a chorus you’ve heard before as once upon a time, the term “Waves of Arms” was used to describe what was going to arrive in Cleveland and when the trades from 2009 and 2010 continued in earnest, the stockpiling of pitchers led to the dubbing of the “Layers of Arms” in this space. Now, Carrasco is still the guy I’m most excited about in terms of players added from 2008 to 2010 with McAllister climbing that list and I’m interested to see what Kluber can do with a longer leash, but to see Dave Huff (um…kind of) succeed this September serves as a reminder that those purported
“waves” were just ripples and those “layers” crumbled pretty quickly as the Indians’ current rotation and bullpen is full of players added during the 2009 to 2011 trades…and we’ve seen how that’s gone.

Moving forward (because that’s all we can try to do), the realization comes into clearer focus with each passing day that for the Indians to compete in the MLB landscape, they need pitching – young pitching – and lots of it. Perhaps they can turn Choo, Perez, and maybe even Asdrubal…and maybe even more into some bona-fide pitching prospects because at this point, that seems to be the best course of action for an organization in need of some bold action.

6. Who would have guessed that heading into the end of the season, Brantley would have more RBI and a higher batting average than Choo?

Yo! Pluto! Which one of those two spent more time batting fourth or fifth, and which one spent more time batting right after the black hole that has typically been our spots 6-9 in the batting order?