Sunday, January 07, 2007

Sunday-In-A-Box

A little Lazy Sunday, as I have yet to figure out how to incorporate the latest SNL Digital Short into a regular installment:

The Official Site touches on extensions for Jake, C.C., and Pronk. The feasibility of such an idea was addressed here back in November (see post below after linking).

Paul Hoynes takes on a mailbag question regarding the Indians trading either Lee or Westbrook for Carl Crawford if the Mulder signing takes place.

What Hoynes fails to address in his answer is that there’s no conceivable reason for the Rays to trade 4 years of Crawford (signed through 2010) for 1 year of Westbrook or Lee, who’s coming off of a regressive season. The Devil Rays are looking for pitching help more along the lines of Jeremy Sowers; so, unless the Indians want to trade their young, contract-controlled pitching, a Crawford arrival to the North Coast remains unlikely.

Many Tribe fans don’t remember that it takes Two to Tango and, while we’d all like to see the Tribe acquire Ryan Howard for Guthrie, Davis, and Gutierrez, reality remains a factor in trade talks.

Terry Pluto takes another trip around the bullpen and examines observations made by SI’s Jon Heyman earlier in the week.

Also on SI.com, John Donovan lists Westbrook as one of the most highly sought after FA after the ’08 season.

I’m beginning to think that the courtship of Mark Mulder is more closely related to this fact than you might think. Mulder probably won’t be ready until June, after recovering from rotator cuff surgery, which would coincide with the Indians being able to shop Westbrook at the Trading Deadline to fill another hole (1B/RF?). If extension talks with Westbrook don’t go anywhere, the addition of Mulder would allow the Tribe to replace Westbrook with (a healthy) Mulder for 2008.

If Mulder is healthy, and can recapture the success he experienced from 2001 to 2005 (when he averaged a 18-8 record, 138 K’s, a 3.65 ERA, and a 1.25 WHIP a season over that 5-year stretch), that’s a pretty good exchange. Whether it’s worth the kind of money that the Indians are reportedly offering, particularly with the risk involved, is another argument for another day.

Of course, if the Indians sign Mulder AND extend Westbrook, the depth of starting pitching in the organization will go from great to phenomenal. The Indians wouldn’t be tied to picking up Paul Byrd’s option and could allow Adam Miller and Fausto Carmona to join the starting rotation with a more refined repertoire, as opposed to rushing them to MLB.

Next up, it’s time to go off the board as the DVR has been running in overdrive and it’s time to find out if you’ve been missing out on any recent TV offerings (particularly around 2AM) or, more importantly, if I have.

That is, of course, unless Mulder signs on the dotted line at Carnegie and Ontario in the next few days.

6 comments:

R.M. Jennings said...

The official site touches on the new staff for the minor league teams. Looks like they didn't have too much to say about the Gulf Coast team's new pitching coach.

Yes, that Steve Lyons. He's probably harmless anyway.

Baltimoran said...

obviously, OSU gained to many Cleveland fans to win a championship...what a terrible game

t-bone said...

by no means am i a big OSU guy, so while i'm pretty shocked about tonight's events, i'm not losing sleep over it.

also, this also will stop the masses from crucifying p.savage for not drafting t.smith at 3(or 4) in april.

to joe thomas!

t-bone said...

sorry for saying "also" twice in three words.

Paul Cousineau said...

The Cleveland curse, apparently, extends down to AZ by way of Columbus.

For those from South of Euc, anybody see Trey Edwards just before halftime?

Cy Slapnicka said...

I thought that was him!!! I thought to myself "that looks an awful lot like Treyday....nah...I doubt he's there. The guy has three kids, his life is over!"

It amazes me, after all the things the media gets fired up about, they didn't make a bigger deal about Ginn getting injured celebrating.

Btw, anyone out there have XM? I'm signing up so I can hear Hammy call the game on my roof deck w/the tribe flag flying. Not sure what devices work best.