Happy Holiday, Seasons Greetings and all that to all of you.

Happy to see them make a real signing up against real competition. It's a crazy amount of money, but it's not mine! and it's considered a reasonable price in this market. The offense still doesn't strike fear and we'll have a new joy in K's, but this winter they are actually building a real team, with RH hitters, LH hitters. small ball hitters, long ball hitters.

Still no DH. Who'd it be today? Santana with Marson and Gomez catching? Carrera? The Rule 5 1st baseman?

And pitching still is nowhere near competitive level but at least we can put some honest hopes on Bauer, Carrasco and Masterson. Ubalbo I am afraid is our new Fausto, a pitcher we will wait for years and years to repeat one big season early in his career. Would like to add a LH to the rotation. Is there someone on the FA market of a middle quality we could make a big play for?

Swisher, or Choo, either one is a sweet chew when happy with 20/75/.269

Largely interchangeable parts between them, though I do believe Swisher is more consistent game to game at putting the ball in play and getting smoothly to the ball in the outfield.....albeit before throwing it back in as well as Choo.

Shapiro/Antonetti swung as hard and freely at my distant cousin Nick Swisher as most of their team "at the moment" will do at the plate in 2013.

I'm still not optimistic about this Cleveland Indians 2013 team, or the future of the franchise.

Nor about The City of Cleveland.

I have The Pope's Midnight Mass from Rome and St. Peter's Basilica on at the moment.

My late night Christmas Eve inspiration might be to take Notre Dame and the points two weeks from now.

Merry Christmas.

Everyone.

Peace be with You.

I watched Major League for the umpteenth time last night. That was my Indian "fix" for the year.

I thought it was a lot of money also Lou. Four years! $15 million per through ages 33,34,35,36. We have to hope Swisher stays healthy AND productive. At least there is movement.

we'll have a new joy in K's

No doubt! We could break a new Indian record.

If there are any outs I hate in baseball, its the strikeout. They are worse than double plays in my opinion. Nothing like making outs when you can't put the ball in play. I haven't done any research on how many outs this team records via the double play vs the strikeout, but when I have sufficient time on my hands, I may. I think that a strikeout is the most unproductive out in baseball. I prefer putting the ball in play and taking the chance that "anything can happen". How about the o'le "strike'm out, throw'em out" ???

Well! That was easy! Surprisingly, only the twins and the royals struckout fewer times than the Indians. The royals had the fewest at 1032. The twins had the second fewest at 1069. The Indians struckout a total of 1087 times. That "was" a very nice number considering that there are 30 teams out there.

1087 unproductive outs! The Indians wrapped into a total of 141 double plays good for the fourth most in baseball. Only the tigers, orioles, and twins hit into more.

1087 strikeouts! 141 dp's x 2 = 282 outs. A 2 fer 1 if you will. That's 805 more outs via the strikeout vs the dp.

Give me the double play ball anytime over the strikeout. I gladly accept them. Nothing worse than an unproductive strikeout. Well! Maybe one! How about that o'le "strike'm out, throw'm out"!!!! That's a good one.

Oh! I forgot to add Stubbs into the mix. That's a lot of unproductive outs to make up for. Stubbs fanned 166 times. That was the 10th most in the league. We added 3 of the top 30 strikeout artists in the league. Stubbs at 10, Reynolds at 12, and Swisher at 27. Oh my! Sabermatics gone wild!

Seems to me, an average season there are 4,374 outs per team. Seems to me that 1,087 equals less than 25% of all the available outs. I would rather see a strikeout vs a double play when our guys have the bases loaded.

How about comparing Stubbs, Reynolds, and Swishers strikeout totals to the guys that actually played their positions last year ? You are acting like the players that they are replacing did not strikeout. Choo stuck out 150 times.

How about apples to apples ?

Took this from another message board (hope it's right) some interesting info on the top 10 teams with the highest amounts of whiffs at the plate:

Top 10 highest strikeout teams: 1 - Athletics, won AL West, 2 - Astros, 6th in NL Central; 3 - Pirates, 4th NL Central; 4- Nationals, won NL EAST; 5 - Rays, 3rd AL East; 6 - Orioles, 2nd AL EAST WC; 7 - Braves, 2nd NL East WC, 8 - Diamondbacks, 3rd NL West, 9 - Red, WON NL Central, 10 - Mariners, 4th - AL West

So, out of the 10 teams that struck out the most last year, 5 of them made the playoffs. 10 teams make the playoffs, so 50% of them made it.Yes, Tigers and Rangers were 5th and 6th best at it, but still, it's not what mattered.

I am no fan of K's but much prefer them to DPs. And I am incredibly frustrated by the weak ground out, which Kotchman was a specialist at.

Joez, please explain to me the situation--inning, score, # of outs, which bases are occupied--in which you would say "I hope our batter starts a double play instead of striking out." Keep in mind that there are more kinds of double plays than the force-at-second, retired-at-first varity.

Craziest thing to me two of the positions most would think are the easiest to fill with a quality player (1st and DH), the Tribe is having difficulty filling. In the steroid era, there were a lot of godo FAs that could fill thosed spots.

I guess from my end, I wish Sizemore and Hafner would do minor league contracts. The two conmbined would make a nice DH.

jayjay7 wrote: I guess from my end, I wish Sizemore and Hafner would do minor league contracts. The two conmbined would make a nice DH.

If you combine what they did in 2012, you get 1/2 season of Hafner and nothing from Sizemore. I guess your wish is that each would be healthy for a different portion of the 162 games and one would be off the DL each game.

Personally I would rather go with the very unininsping duo of Phelps (RH) and Fedroff (LH) assuming we don't sign anyone else.

Is there no chance of getting a real catcher?

What is your definition of "real catcher"? One who is a defensive whiz or one who is a offensive juggernaut? Both usually become dh's or 1st baseman.