The Cleveland Indians under the Mark Shapiro regime are very good at evaluating pitchers, both amateur talent in the high school and college ranks and other teams’ minor leaguers. This differs greatly from the John Hart era, where the Tribe was loaded with hitting prospects. Which way is better? That is up for debate, however, if you have one without the other is spells a struggling ballclub, not a consistent winner.
For the most part, the Tribe’s sterling pitching staff is made up of a mixture of talent developed by the Cleveland farm system. C.C. Sabathia, Fausto Carmona, Aaron Laffey, Jeremy Sowers, Rafael Perez, and Jensen Lewis were signed originally by the team and are mainstays in the organization. Guys like Cliff Lee, Jake Westbrook, Rafael Betancourt, and Tom Mastny were acquired while they were in the minor leagues in another organization and developed by the Indians. Only Paul Byrd and Joe Borowski were established major leaguers, and Masa Kobayashi was signed out of Japan.
The Indians have unparalleled depth in pitching in the organization, but it does them no good if they cannot convert it into some offensive firepower. Even the Minnesota Twins traded a guy like Matt Garza to get an every day player in Delmon Young. At this point, Shapiro needs to explore the possibility of exchanging some of this pitching depth to get a bat. If you look at the hitting acquired during Shapiro’s tenure, you have to be discouraged.
We all know that Grady Sizemore was picked up in the famous Bartolo Colon trade. Ryan Garko and Ben Francisco were drafted out of college, while Jhonny Peralta and Victor Martinez were signed as free agents and grew up in the organization. Travis Hafner was acquired from Texas for Einar Diaz, and Franklin Gutierrez came in the Milton Bradley deal. You can see that under the current front office, the Indians have yet to draft a real impact hitter. Michael Aubrey was a first round pick, but injury problems cost him. Trevor Crowe might be a decent major league player some day, but he is more of a lead off hitter type. Last year’s top choice, Beau Mills, might have the best chance of being an impact bat.
A player like Akron 3B Wes Hodges might turn into a solid major leaguer some day, and Josh Rodriguez could be a player who provides a good on base percentage with some pop. At AAA, Shin-Soo Choo showed he could be a starter at the MLB level, but he is hardly a perennial all-star to be. There simply isn’t a big bat in the organization, nor have the Indians ever really drafted or signed one outside of Martinez. The best hope might be Kinston OF Nick Weglarz who combines power and a keen batting eye, but he’s in at least a year away.
The organizational philosophy of stockpiling pitchers is a sound one, but some of that depth has to be moved to get some hitting. With the pitching currently on the major league roster, the time to make a move is right now. This is not to say the Tribe should do what Detroit did and gut their farm system, but there is enough pitching to deal one or two hurlers and still maintain depth. Shapiro has done a great job as GM, but he seems reluctant to make moves like this since the Brandon Phillips fiasco. The time for a move is now, here’s hoping the Tribe has the guts to make one.
KM
Cleveland Sports Perspective 