Since the Rockies had Ubaldo throw all those pitches Saturday night, I think the Indians should let Pomerantz go the distance every start until he is "named later."

O'Dowd said that there were still 3 teams in the running for Jimenez until after the beginning of the game. He said 2 of the clubs would have dropped out early if Jimenez had not taken the mound.

Doesn't make sense, but that's what the Rockies GM said on the Rockies radio network just after the deal was announced.

Yeah that's a BS story.

O'Dowd was playing hardball plain and simple.

Can't imagine any team wanting Jimenez to pitch if they thought they were close to acquiring him and O'Dowd would have ended up looking a complete idiot if Jimenez had injured himself.

Manager, Pitcher Go Through Entire Bottle Of Wine During Really Great Mound Visit
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MINNEAPOLIS—Cleveland Indians manager Manny Acta and pitcher Justin Masterson said they "shared a great baseball moment…a great human moment" while splitting a bottle of chilled white wine during an "exceptional" mound visit during Tuesday night's game against the Twins.

"Justin was doing great out there. It was a pleasure to watch him," Acta said of Masterson, who pitched 7.2 scoreless innings. "But he was looking pretty tired, so I thought I'd call time, talk things over, give him a breather. Then I remembered I had this nice little 2008 Seven Hills Winery Viognier that I'd put on ice at the start of the game, and I thought, why not? It's a lovely night."

In the fifth inning, Acta took a time-out, uncorked the Viognier, and brought the bottle and two glasses out to the mound, where Masterson appeared pleasantly surprised to see him.

"It was a little unusual for Manny to call time like that given how well I was doing," Masterson said. "But then I saw he had that nice bottle of white, which was just perfect, because red can be a little too heavy when you’re trying to win a game. Plus, I was like, ‘Oh, wow, I thought he was saving that for a special occasion.’”

"And Manny said, 'It's the middle of summer, this is a gorgeous ballpark, you're grounding everybody out—what's more special than this?'" Masterson added. "And you know, he was right. He was absolutely right."

Acta and Masterson confirmed that their discussion—conducted between long, leisurely sips—initially revolved around pitching, specifically the fact that Masterson had thrown nothing but fastballs all evening, but they said the talk eventually turned to politics, family, friends, and enjoying life’s simple pleasures. As the bottle slowly emptied, the conversation drifted far afield, encompassing subjects as prosaic as the unusually hot weather, as contemplative as baseball's place in the greater scheme of things, and as poignant and profound as the love of a beautiful woman.

"After a minute or so, I went out to see what was going on," said catcher Carlos Santana, who stopped by the dugout to pick up some Stanser Rotelli cheese after seeing the bottle of wine in Acta's hand. "It was pretty clear they were just enjoying a moment, so I slipped away as soon as I thought it was polite. I left the cheese, though. It’s a Swiss washed-rind reblochon-style cheese that goes perfect with the Viognier, and it would be a shame for it to go to waste.”

When they had finished roughly two-thirds of the wine, which they later described as "nice, not too dry, maybe a little floral" but "still more crisp than really sweet," Acta and Masterson lapsed into a companionable silence, content to gaze around the park and enjoy each other’s company.

After a period of time that Masterson later said "seemed like no time at all, as if the whole world were just Manny and me in a little summer snow globe," umpire Rob Drake came over to the mound to ask why their visit had lasted almost 40 minutes.

"I was a little upset, actually, because I'd been making hurry-up gestures at them for almost half an hour," Drake said. "But when I actually got out there, I was a little embarrassed. I was obviously intruding on something private. They were polite enough about it, but still, I felt bad, even though a mound visit should never take more than a couple minutes."

Upon realizing their moment had passed, Acta and Masterson finished what was left in their glasses, nodded to each other, and, according to those in attendance, seemed to assume their roles as manager and pitcher again, save for one brief exchange.

"Hey, skipper?" Masterson said as Acta turned to leave the mound. "Summer's almost over, isn't it? It's only July, but summer's almost over."

"It's never over, kid," responded Acta, reportedly looking back over his shoulder with the slightest glimmer in his eye. "Not where it matters. Summer's never really over."

Castrovince:

EXCRUCIATING TRADE DEADLINE MINUTIAE…

The Trade Deadline was at 4 p.m. ET. As of 3:30 p.m., the Indians, who talked about upwards of 75 players over the course of the dealing season, still had six active trade talks on the table, in addition to the finalization of the Jimenez physical. A hectic period, to be sure, though obviously none of those final six discussions bore fruit.

Regarding the finalization of that physical, Jimenez was pulled from his start against the Padres after one inning Saturday night and informed of the trade. He then jumped in a car and made the five-hour drive on I-8 to Arizona, where he had a physical exam in Goodyear that began at 7:30 a.m. The Indians didn’t get the final results until 3:30, hence the delay in the announcement that the deal was, indeed, done. Jimenez then headed back to Colorado to pack up his stuff, and he’ll have up to 72 hours to report to the Tribe in Boston. Between the physical stress of this travel schedule and the mental stress of the rumor mill, the Indians decided Jimenez won’t pitch for them until next weekend in Texas.

Why didn’t the Indians add an impact bat (with all apologies to Kosuke Fukudome and his family)? By all accounts, the Tribe was pretty far along with the Padres in talks for former farmhand Ryan Ludwick, but the Pirates scooped him up just before the Deadline with an offer of a player to be named or cash. We don’t yet know the value of the list of prospects the Padres will have to choose from, though it would certainly be interesting to see how the offers of the Tribe and the Buccos differed. Personally, I was never a fan of the idea of bringing in Ludwick, perhaps remembering too well what little value he brought to the Padres at the tail end of 2010, but after showing so much aggression in adding Jimenez, it was definitely surprising not to see the Indians bring in some sort of offensive presence, beyond Fukudome’s on-base ability. There is, however, always the chance of a waiver trade before the end of August.

So the attention on the rehab processes of Shin-Soo Choo and Grady Sizemore is amplified all the more in the wake of Sunday’s inaction. Choo will be on the road trip and could take batting practice by week’s end, so he’s certainly ahead of his initial timetable. Sizemore has not yet begun any form of baseball activity.

The 23-year-old Thomas Neal could be a nice pickup in the Orlando Cabrera trade with the Giants, given the strength of his arm and the potential power in his bat. He was on the disabled list with a hand injury suffered on a slide into second base, but he should be activated by Triple-A Columbus any day now.

But what of the cosmic Cabrera karma that has aided so many past playoff teams and seemed to be aiding the Indians? Gone. Cabrera was a hugely impactful presence in this clubhouse and this dugout, and he’ll be missed for those reasons. There is something to be said for experience, and the Indians are now awfully inexperienced at second base with Kipnis and Jason Donald. But Cabrera’s .217 average and .542 OPS since May 5 speak for themselves. I’m also not sure if comments like the ones he made to the Akron Beacon Journal’s Stephanie Storm the other day — “My logic is, if we’re in a pennant race, is it a good time to do this?” he said, talking about the Cord Phelps and Jason Kipnis callups — pair particularly well with the “role model” label. By and large, though, Cabrera was an excellent teammate.

All right, a little more about Ubaldo. We all know how much the Indians value the “high-character” component of a player’s makeup, and Jimenez fits the mold wonderfully. Acta knows him fairly well and called him a “Class A human being,” while Antonetti called him “very bright” and a “good, stable person.” When you’re making a trade of this magnitude, you certainly don’t want to inherit any headaches or head cases. If nothing else, the Indians don’t have to worry about that.

As you might expect, the Indians place a great deal of value on Jimenez’s home/road splits. Ubaldo was 3-5 with a 5.55 ERA, a .310 average against, an .885 OPS against, 51 strikeouts, 25 walks and nine homers allowed in 61 2/3 innings in Coors Field this season. Elsewhere, he was 3-4 with a 3.38 ERA, a .183 average against, a .561 OPS against, 67 strikeouts, 26 walks and just one homer allowed in 61 1/3 innings. Huge, huge difference, and the Indians think he’ll benefit from leaving the high altitude for the humidity.

The Indians also note that Jimenez’s overall numbers this year are tainted by his slow start, which they attribute to the hip flexor/groin issue he took into the season proper. Jimenez skipped winter ball over the offseason to instead take a trip to Europe — a decision he would later claim to regret — and that impacted his preparedness. He’s certainly been a different pitcher since June 1 (6-4 record, 3.03 ERA in the 11 starts that preceded Saturday’s short outing) than he was beforehand (6.75 ERA in April, 5.45 ERA in May).

As for Ubaldo’s drop in velocity (Fangraphs.com has his fastball averaging 93.4 mph after a 96.1 mark in 2009 and ’10), the Indians had him clocked up to 98 and hitting 93-94 consistently. They still he feel he has above-average velocity.

The move to the American League will undoubtedly affect Ubaldo, though to what degree is anybody’s guess. (How’s that for insight?) He’s only had 12 starts against AL clubs in his career, going 6-4 with a 4.08 ERA and .271 average against, if that matters to you at all… and it probably shouldn’t.

For what it’s worth, I asked an AL scout very familiar with the Indians’ system for his take on the Ubaldo trade: “They took on a lot of risk between decreased velocity, questionable delivery, and the two top level prospects they gave up,” he said. “However, Ubaldo has a quality makeup and a great contract, so it’s not hard to see why they took the chance… Probably the kind of deal that hurts a little to pull the trigger on, but in the long run works for both sides. Assuming, of course, that they can win some games now, because there’s a good chance Pomeranz and White are pitching for the Rox for a while.”

How long will Ubaldo be pitching with the Indians? Well, they have affordable contractual control through 2013. The 2014 proposition is cloudy. Ubaldo has the option of voiding the $8 million club option for that season. When I asked Antonetti what Jimenez’s deadline is for deciding (can he wait until 2013 to make the call?), Antonetti said the contract language is “ambiguous.” Obviously, if Jimenez has the ability to wait that long and performs anywhere near his capabilities, he’ll be worth way more than $8 million and wouldn’t dare give the Indians that option. Until this is all cleared up, bet on Jimenez remaining with the Tribe through 2013, unless they work out some longer extension along the way or they dangle him on the trade market at some later juncture.

I’m still shocked that the Rockies allowed Jimenez to make that start Saturday night. Antonetti said there was a “high level of anxiety” watching him, which likely translates to, “I was not pleased.” The Indians scratched Drew Pomeranz and Alex White well in advance of the final particulars of the deal getting nailed down. It was up to the Rockies to decide what to do with Ubaldo.

Hopefully you read my initial take on the trade. I suppose it’s a credit to the strong PR work the Indians have done in promoting their prospects that so many fans (not all, by any means, but definitely more than a few) have moaned about this deal. It really is a hard trade to love, simply because the Indians had so much of their future invested in Alex White and Drew Pomeranz. Yes, I’m quite familiar with the TINSTAPP (There Is No Such Thing As A Pitching Prospect) proposition and am obviously quite familiar with the past examples of Jaret Wright and Adam Miller (guys the Indians refused to dangle and later wished they had). But I also know that There Is Such A Thing As CC Sabathia. Sometimes these guys you groom come as advertised.

Trading your two most prominent pitching prospects, unproven as they are, for a proven ace? Not a bad notion, in theory. But just how proven is Ubaldo Jimenez? He’s shown he can dominate at this level, but not over a truly sustained stretch. In the final analysis, if I were an Indians fan, I’d be encouraged by the home/road splits, the contractual control and the fact that Jimenez will be placed in Tim Belcher’s capable hands. And I’d be awfully intrigued by this window of opportunity the Indians have expanded for themselves through 2013 and awfully hopeful that they got this one right. It’s high-risk, high-reward at its height.
~AC

LOL!

I take it that's a story from a publication like "The Onion?"

I like the idea though.

Rain pounded on the windshield Monday as Drew Pomeranz made his way from Akron, Ohio, to his hometown of Memphis, Tenn.

"Hold on. I can't see anything right now," Pomeranz told The Denver Post.


His full name is Thomas Andrew Pomeranz. He currently answers to Player To Be Named Later. The Rockies can't discuss him by name because he's not allowed to join their organization until the one-year anniversary of his draft signing. He accepted a $2.65 million signing bonus as the fifth pick overall on Aug. 17, 2010. So he won't officially be a Rockie until Aug. 18.

The Rockies cleared him to take his car back home. He will fly to Phoenix on Wednesday and begin throwing closely monitored bullpen sessions at the Indians' spring training facility in Goodyear, Ariz.


If I were running an MLB club and had just made that kind of investment in a guy like Pomeranz, I would have picked up the likely less than $1,000 tab to have the car shipped or driven back to Memphis for him. I shipped my Dad's car from South Carolina to California three years ago and the cost was $800....though I know it's gone up at least 50% now with fuel transportation cost increases.

Aug 3, 1:06 AM EDT

Huff gives Indians a nifty start in loss to Bosox

BOSTON (AP) -- The Cleveland Indians hit two home runs off Josh Beckett. They got a neat start from David Huff. They hung tough with the team that owns the AL's best record.

Aside from the final score, Indians manager Manny Acta really didn't have much to complain about in Tuesday night's 3-2 loss to the Boston Red Sox.

"I liked the way we battled today against this ballclub, and especially against the pitcher we went against," Acta said.

"A lot of credit goes to David Huff, who pitched a tremendous ballgame, despite warming up twice because of the rain situation," he said. "He really made some good pitches when we didn't play good defense behind him and made him throw a ton of extra pitches. He really buckled up and made some great pitches. I can't say enough about him - he gave us a tremendous outing."

Pinch-runner Jarrod Saltalamacchia dived across home plate to score the winning run on Jacoby Ellsbury's single in the ninth inning.

Jason Varitek singled with one out in the ninth against Vinnie Pestano (1-1) and Saltalamacchia ran for him. Josh Reddick followed with a single that sent Saltalamacchia to second.

Ellsbury then singled, setting up the play at the plate. Center fielder Eziquiel Cabrera made a wide throw home and Carlos Santana caught the ball, but Saltalamacchia won the race to the plate.

The start of the game was delayed by rain for one hour, 35 minutes.

Huff, making his third start since being recalled from Triple-A Columbus, lowered his ERA to 0.51 with five innings. The only run that scored against him came after an error by second baseman Jason Kipnis.

The run actually scored on a wild pitch by Huff on strike three to Jason Varitek, the first of three straight Ks by Huff to get him out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam with only one run scoring.

Huff left with a 2-1 lead. The left-hander's chance for a win quickly disappeared when reliever Rafael Perez gave up a homer to Kevin Youkilis, the first batter he faced in the sixth.

"At the end, they came back and beat our bullpen, which has been our strength so we have to give them credit," Acta said. "They pieced three hits together at the end there, one on a broken bat, there's not much you can do. I just like the way we're fighting right now."

Jonathan Papelbon (3-0) got the win after shutting down the Indians on just 10 pitches in the ninth. Boston posted its six walk-off win of the season.

Jason Kipnis and Lonnie Chisenhall hit solo homers for Cleveland's runs. Chisenhall homered into the right-field corner in the fourth.

Youkilis tied it at 2 with a towering solo shot that hit one of the signs above the Green Monster.

Youkilis was ejected after his next at-bat, when he struck out on a checked swing and argued on his way back to the dugout.

Kipnis, who homered in his last at-bat Monday, drove the first pitch he saw from Beckett into the Boston bullpen in the first to put the Indians up 1-0.

Beckett was pulled after six innings, allowing six hits and striking out seven.

NOTES: Indians RHP Carlos Carrasco said he planned to drop his appeal of a six-game suspension after he starts against the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday night. Carrasco was suspended and fined $2,500 for throwing at the head of Kansas City's Billy Butler last week. Newly acquired Ubaldo Jimenez will start Friday night at Texas and the Indians are off Monday, giving them some flexibility with their rotation. ... Red Sox SS Marco Scutaro, who left Monday night's game with dizziness, was sent for tests Tuesday that cleared him to play, but he was held out of the starting lineup by manager Terry Francona. Scutaro entered the game in the ninth inning after Youkilis' ejection. Mike Aviles, who started at short, moved over to third. ... Injured Boston SS Jed Lowrie is playing rehab games at Triple-A Pawtucket, where he went 1 for 3 Tuesday and could return soon.

Could This Be The End of STO?



The Cleveland Indians started their own TV network, Sportstime Ohio, back in 2006 in hopes of adding an additional revenue stream to their organization. By 2007 they were the home of the Cleveland Indians, showing close to 150 Tribe games a year, and trying to create other local sports programming that would compete with Fox Sports Ohio.

The money making venture was hoped to be a cash cow for the Dolan family ownership group, the way the old SportsChannel used to be here. Instead, STO has been mostly the place you go for Tribe games. They became the cable home of the Cleveland Browns, but do not carry any of their games.

Most of the other programming – like Bruce Drennan’s “All Bets are Off,” “Chuck’s Last Call,” and Tee It Up Ohio” have had some success, but the channel has not shown the growth the owners hoped it would and additional quality programming is still needed. The truth is once the baseball season ends, many people forget about STO entirely.

Which brings us to this. Sources tell WFNY that Sportstime Ohio could soon be sold to one of two companies – Fox Sports Ohio or Time Warner Cable.

edit: Back on July 6th, Kyle Swenson of Cleveland Scene posted this rumor. It now appears to have some real legs.

FSN, a national network with affiliates througout the country, already has a deal as the cable home of the Cleveland Cavaliers, and had the Indians before STO was created. It would be a seamless move if this were to happen.

The Time Warner group would be interesting. TWC just scored a major NBA coup by acquiring the cable rights to the Los Angeles Lakers on a 20-year contract starting in 2012 and are said to be targeting the Dodgers next when their deal expires with FSN in 2013. They are obviously trying to become a national power in sports broadcasting and locking up one of the biggest sports franchises in the country – the Lakers – is a giant first step.

Per the LA Times article:

The contract with the Lakers not only gives Time Warner Cable a grip on the most popular franchise in the region, but new clout to try to either lure subscribers away from competitors — including DirecTV, Verizon Fios and AT&T U-Verse — or get those competitors to pay big bucks to carry the still unnamed channels.

Meanwhile back in Cleveland, STO’s struggles seem to be real, even though ratings for Tribe games are up dramatically over this time last year, but that won’t be enough to sustain them as a network, according to our sources.

I’m betting you will hear more about this in the near future, but don’t be surprised to see a shakeup in the TV sports landscape in our fair city.

What if I told you we have a pitcher under club control for the next four seasons who is striking out more than 7.5 batters per nine innings, walking about 2.0, and hasn’t allowed a home run yet this season?

Now what if I told you that pitcher was David Huff, who just got optioned back to Columbus to make room on the Big League roster for the newly added Ubaldo Jimenez?

Now, what if I told you that Carlos Carrasco has been suspended for six games for doing something silly, opening up a spot in the rotation? On top of that, since the beginning of July, Carrasco has a 9.13 ERA. Woof. But he’s sticking on the roster for the time being, suspension and all, while David Huff dances down I-71 to ply his trade in the minors.

Finally, what if I told you only a stupid organization would have kept David Huff on the 25-man roster in light of all this?
Since Huff’s six-strikeout, five inning performance against the Red Sox on Tuesday night, his 2011 ERA sits at a ridiculous 0.51. Obviously, this is the product of a small sample size and some good luck: only three starts and 17.2 innings, to be precise. Even still, if you’re prone to believing in either redemption or the “hot-hand”, David Huff is the sort of pitcher you’d like to have in your rotation to make a stretch run.

Here’s the glitch, though. Had the club sent Carlos Carrasco down to Columbus and kept David Huff on the 25-man roster, we would have lost our final “option year” on Carrasco, meaning that next season, he’d have to be exposed to waivers to be sent to the minors. (This also wouldn’t be an option for avoiding his suspension; he’d still have to serve it eventually.)

If, on the other hand, we can make it to August 13th (the next day we’ll need a fifth starter), we can send Carrasco down to Columbus and call up Huff, and we won’t lose Carrasco’s option year. This gets a bit technical, but you only use an option year on a player if he spends more than 20 days in the minors in a given season. If the Indians can wait until the 13th to send down Carrasco and call up Huff, they can leave Carrasco in Columbus until September 1st (when MLB rosters can expand to 40 players) and save his last option year.

I know this seems like a small issue, but keep in mind that option years are particularly valuable on a team with as many viable starters as we’ll have for the next several years. If we exposed Carrasco to waivers next year, he’d almost certainly be snatched away by another club. By sending David Huff down for 10 days, the team can assure its choice of its five best pitchers for an entire year in 2012. And all it cost was one more start out of Carrasco.*

*All of this rosterbation probably could have been avoided if Colorado hadn’t started Ubaldo Jimenez on Saturday after they ALREADY HAD A TRADE IN PLACE. This was not remotely acceptable behavior in my opinion. In jest, I’ve suggested that the Indians call up Drew Pomeranz to the Majors to start his arbitration clock to pay the Rockies back for their malfeasance. He has not been, so far as I know, “named” yet, so he is still OUR player to do with as we like. Also, don’t mess with me. I’m devious.

So while I understand that David Huff isn’t happy about the decision, there’s no reason for us to lament it. The front office is doing the smart thing here to protect the club’s best interests going forward. In fact, to do otherwise would be a mistake

The above was from Indians site

An earlier article also referred to the fact that Ubaldo had had some attitude issues regarding not having his contract extended (a la tulo and carlos gonzalez) this year.

1. Did this affect his performance?

2. Was the "1 inning incident" a bit of payback/slap at him by the organization?

Well if it was, he paid them back with a four-spot.

Window Watching on A Lazy Sunday
Written by Paul Cousineau





Now a week removed from the earth-shaking Ubaldo Jimenez acquisition and with the Indians’ season being compared to amusement park rides left and right, the Indians find themselves with these Texas nights feeling like a microcosm of the season as the Indians head into tonight’s tilt with a chance to still take 2 of 3 from the AL West leaders. After a soul-crushing Friday night that had many accepting the “reality” that the magic that was so prevalent early in the season may have gone up in a “poof” in Arlington, the Indians (as they’ve done all season) re-appeared through some trap door and still find themselves center stage.

While the “poof” and disappearing act may ultimately come to pass, the Indians have gone 3-3 in games against two divisional leaders on the road and they’ve been IN every one of these games in Texas and Boston. Certainly some of them ended…um, badly, but the Indians (despite the national media attaching a toe tag to this team) continue to stick around in these games and, in turn, in their division. Though it looked like this recent part of their schedule could provide the torpedo that would sink the season, the Indians have the chance to come through two series against Boston and Texas with a winning record, perhaps providing some momentum for a stretch of games that could decide the season in the next few weeks.

If you’re tired of reading that, trust me when I tell you that I’m tired of writing it. But the 12 games for the Indians after tonight’s tilt against the Rangers involve 6 games against the Motor City Kitties, 3 against the Pale Hose, and 3 against the Twinkies. Thus, as cataclysmic as it may seem to use depressing losses to the the Red Sox and the Rangers as measuring sticks for the Indians and as a reason to proclaim that the 2011 season is circling the drain, the Indians stand at the precipice of a stretch of games that may ultimately determine if 2011 is remembered as a team that couldn’t quite hang in for long enough or a team that hung tough until the end.

Even if the Indians can play close to .500 baseball in those next 12 games, the teams that follow that trip around the AL Central are the Mariners, the Royals, the A’s, and the Royals once again…or 3 of the 4 teams with the worst record in all of the AL (the Orioles are the worst), meaning that the Indians still have an opportunity to tread water in a still-winnable division for a while, with a stretch of games coming at the end of the month and the beginning of September that they could use to catapult them into (or back into) control of the AL Central…where no team has a positive run differential into August.

Whether that seems likely or even plausible at this point is tough to say as a game like Friday night’s certainly lends some credence to the idea that the Indians are too young, too inexperienced, and too thin to overcome the obstacles in front of them to remain in the AL Central race, much less take control of it. But as last night showed, this Indians’ team has the resilience and talent of a team that either doesn’t know when they’re supposed to be out of a game or is good enough to stay in any game.

Regardless, if there is going to be an aspect of the team that keeps them in the race (and stop me if you’ve heard this before), it will be the starting pitching as, with the addition of Ubaldo (1st start considered), the Indians have a top of the rotation that cannot be matched in the AL Central, with rotational depth that the Tigers cannot approach and top-heavy rotational strength that is better than what the White Sox have to offer. While we’re not quite “Justin and Ubaldo and pray for…snow”, the Indians have set themselves up to feed off of those two arms at the top of the rotation, with the hope that Tomlin, Carmona, Carrasco, and Huff can fill in adequately behind them and that the “Bullpen Mafia” (© Nino Colla, 2011) can recapture their earlier success and support a still-young, still-depleted lineup.

But don’t take my word for it, as Tim Kurkjian stated as much in a piece evaluating the Indians as they stand as they project for the remainder of the season, in the context of the addition of Ubaldo:
It is clear that the only way the Indians are going to pass the Tigers and hold off the White Sox and Twins in the AL Central is to outpitch everyone. And Jimenez at least gives them a chance. Half the people you talk to believe Jimenez is still an ace despite his drop in velocity from 96 to 93 mph in the past year or so. The other half are suspicious about why the Rockies would trade an ace, believing that something must be wrong with him.

As has been said here, what Ubaldo actually “is” will come out in the wash, but what is often lost in this acquisition of an “ace” in Jimenez is the fact that the Indians really already have one in their hand with Justin Masterson and now have to hope that a pair of aces is enough to win the hand in the underwhelming AL Central. Lest you think I’m prematurely ordaining Masterson as an “ace”, if his standing in ERA and FIP (among others)aren’t enough to convince you, how about his last 2 months of starts:
Masterson’s last 11 starts
1.97 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 63 K, 16 BB in 77 2/3 IP with a .577 OPS against

Yeah, that’s over two months…
While Ubaldo’s 1st start as an Indian…um, underwhelmed, the idea that the Indians can throw these two pitchers out there in 40% of the games that remain have to provide some sort of confidence boost, regardless of what the offense may or may not look like coming down the stretch. While some continue to paint Ubaldo as a “paper ace”, there’s this little nugget from Jayson Stark regarding Boston’s pursuit of Jimenez as he wrote that, “the Red Sox made a bigger run at Ubaldo Jimenez than most people realized late last week…the Rockies preferred the sort of trade they made with Cleveland, fronted by high-ceiling pitching prospects.”

Having watched the Red Sox face the Indians this past week, with their otherworldly offense, does it strike anyone else that the Red Sox are focusing on pitching and more pitching, to the point that Ken Rosenthal even reported that “The Sox made a late push for Indians righty Fausto Carmona” as well?

Maybe that doesn’t make you feel any better about the Sawx’ pursuit of Ubaldo as the fact that they were pushing for Carmona could be interpreted to mean that they were looking for any useful arm, but it brings to light something about the way that most teams know that they need to build to compete, not just for divisional crowns…but for World Series trophies – with pitching. Certainly, the Red Sox pitching has been decimated by injury (Lester) and ineffectiveness (Lackey, etc.), but Boston was out there combing through the detritus (they got Bedard when it was all said and done) because they know that offense, as good as any offense may be, doesn’t carry a team in October – pitching does.

While it may have been true at one point that “Chicks Dig the Long Ball” (and how odd is it to look back at that ad campaign in light of what we know now), the truth is that “October Loves the Live Arm”. Just to bring this back to the AL Central for a moment, think about what the 2005 White Sox, the 2006 Tigers, and the 2007 Indians had that the Twins teams of the past four years did not have – elite starting pitching. What nearly carried the 2005 Tribe to the playoffs and what took out the “juggernaut Yankees” and pushed the eventual WS Champs to the brink in 2007 for the Indians?

Their starting pitching and some combination of CC, Jake, Fausto, Cliff, and Byrd allowed the Indians to make those playoff runs and, most importantly, make some noise in the playoffs instead of disappearing with a whimper the way that the “built-for-the-regular-season” Twins of the recent past have done. Now with Ubaldo and Masterson fronting the rotation (with some talented, if inconsistent, arms behind them), is it that hard to see that the Indians are making a play for the AL Central for the next couple of years, but also aligning themselves to actually gain some traction in the playoffs if they get there, on the strength of those two right arms?

Whether Ubaldo can carry on the success that he experienced in Colorado remains to be seen, but to go back to Kurkjian briefly, he points out that one of the reasons that the Rox parted with Ubaldo is because “they badly underachieved this season and, as a mid-market team, they can’t plan things year-to-year; they have to do so in three-year blocks.”

Call it what you want – “blocks” or “windows” or whatever, but the Indians had their fast start to this season, saw a group of young and talented players that could mature and congeal as a group for the remainder of the season and for the next couple of seasons and acted in an effort to stand on that “block” or jump through that “window”…whichever imagery you prefer. While some see this as the Indians acting preemptively (for a team that isn’t quite ready to truly compete), take a look at what Kurkjian calls these “blocks” for the Indians in the recent past:
2002: 74-88
2003: 68-94

2004: 80-82
2005: 93-69
2006: 78-84
2007: 96-66
2008: 81-81

2009: 65-97
2010: 69-93

Admittedly, I could group those years into “blocks” in a number of different ways, but the Indians essentially laid the groundwork in 2002 and 2003 for what SHOULD have been a 5-year run through the end of 2008 and spent 2009 and 2010 laying the groundwork for what the Indians seem to be at the precipice of, in terms of contention…if they aren’t already there.

Most Indians’ fans who have grown disgusted with this “tear-down/build-up” method of managing a roster recall the 1990s “Era of Champions” as a period of time in which the Indians always competed and didn’t have to worry about these “blocks” or “windows”. Others have scoffed at the aggressiveness of having to achieve their current top-of-the-rotation at the start of this “window” by painting the Ubaldo trade as a “win-now” move, but consider what Oakland GM Billy Beane had to say to SI’s Tom Verducci in a piece that addressed the evolution of the Trade Market:
What you’ll find is that the window for a small market team will grow smaller and eventually go away completely…We had seven years. Tampa Bay -- and they are very, very smart -- has made it to the playoffs two out of the past three years, and may not make it this year, and then what? To have any kind of window will take building a team organically, having to have something like 80 percent of your roster [homegrown]. That is extremely hard.

While the Indians are far from having 80% of their roster “homegrown”, they accelerated the process of “growth” on the farm by acquiring the very players that you see out there every night this season as they have now attempted to jump through that shrinking window for small-market teams that Beane bemoans as a possible memory in the near future. The Indians, as they cleared the decks of everything that wasn’t nailed down in 2008, 2009, and last year, assembled a group of similarly advanced, similarly aged talent that has carried them to the top portion of the AL Central with Ubaldo and his contract fitting into that timeframe.

Now, it is worth mentioning in this context that Beane has one of my favorite quotes ever on this new age of baseball when he had this to say to Sweet Pete Gammons (in a piece on the growing disparity in MLB revenue) on small-market teams, payroll, and records:
“The way the system is right now, there really is no difference between a $75 million and $40 million payroll,” said Oakland GM Billy Beane. “I think a lot of small-market clubs look at that and ask, ‘Why pay $75 million when $40 million will buy me as many wins?’”

The Indians’ payroll this year is $49M and they’re on pace for 81 wins while the Athletics’ payroll this year is $67M…they’re on pace for 71 wins.
So, yeah…

What Beane is referring to in the two wildly-related quotes is the fact that there is a growing disparity in MLB in which teams like the Yankees and Red Sox have now been joined by the Phillies (5th biggest city) and the Rangers (4th biggest city) as teams that have essentially figured out how to parlay their inherent financial advantages to take control of their respective divisions. While some point to the fact that neither LA team nor neither Chicago team can be counted among the “automatic” playoff berths that the Yankees, Red Sox, and Phillies have become, realize that if the Dodgers or the Cubs were to ever operate in a manner closer to the Red Sox or Rays or if the Angels or Mets ever realized that signing over-the-hill players to astronomical contracts (or acquiring those contracts), the “haves” will reside mainly in the larger cities in America, propped up by local TV revenue and supported by the 4-letter word in ESPN, whose “coverage” of large-market teams may mean big ratings, but also affect the perception of which teams really “matter” in MLB.

Stepping off of the soapbox and regardless of what the Indians and A’s have done in terms of wins per dollar, just to bring this back to the here and now with the AL Central for this year and beyond and how the Indians are now uniquely positioned in the division, take a look at the embarrassingly low payroll obligations for the Tribe going forward…go ahead, go look. Now, compare them to the payroll commitments for Tigers ($74M already committed for next year), the White Sox (who owe Alex Rios and Adam Dunn a total of $83.5M AFTER this year, and even the Twins (who owe Joe Mauer $18M per year through the 2018 season) and realize how well-positioned the Tribe is going forward, compared to their AL Central counterparts.

Could the Indians have been looking around the division, at those payroll commitments, and at the rosters around the rest of the AL Central and used that as a factor in determining whether they were going to bring Ubaldo Jimenez into the fold?

Obviously, those teams can and will outspend the Indians, but if the Indians have laid the groundwork of this team over the last few years, bringing together a group of talented, under-club-control players that figure to be on the North Coast for a while, it would make sense for them to sense that open window and attempt to squeeze through it. If (or is it when) the Indians are able to wriggle through that window, the only way for them (or a team like them) to compete with the “elite” of the AL and to defeat them in the playoffs is with strong pitching, and more specifically strong starting pitching. As we watch Justin Masterson mature into a top-of-the-rotation horse and as we welcome Ubaldo into the Reservation, a new “Plan” is certainly starting to come into focus.

With the scales of “competitive balance” in the AL as unbalanced as they are, the Indians are attempting to load up the front-end-of-the-rotation in an attempt to not only win the AL Central, but to compete with the likes of the Yankees, the Red Sox, and the Rangers in the playoffs, hoping to win on the strength of their now-assembled arms.

Of course, in that equation, winning the AL Central is the 1st order of business and as the Indians continue to hang around in the AL Central, with a(nother) crucial stretch of games staring them down, the Tribe is still looking at that open window in front of them, hoping that it doesn’t crash down in the coming weeks…


Posted by Paul Cousineau Aug 07, 2011 7:48 AM Last Updated: Aug 07, 2011

Like I said, we are competitive!