Now that baseball is down to its league championship match ups and every team has some type of Cleveland connection, we are left to sift through the ashes of another lost season for the hometown Cleveland Indians.
This is the alternative to watching Cliff Lee pitch for the Rangers or seeing C.C. Sabathia in pinstripes in the ALCS or having Charlie Manuel trying to pilot the Phillies to their third straight World Series appearance by out pitching the Giants, led by ace Tim Lincecum, a former Tribe unsigned draftee (look it up, he was Cleveland’s 42nd round pick in the 2005 draft).
The Plain Dealer’s Paul Hoynes started looking through the rubble of the 2010 season on Sunday with a ranking of every player on the Tribe 40-man roster, including the guys currently on the 60-day disabled list, like Grady Sizemore and Carlos Santana.
The rankings seem accurate and show the problems this team has. For example, Shelly Duncan’s was ranked at #11. Duncan did a good job in his role on the team, but if he’s the 11th best player on your team, your team isn’t very good.
Some players were ranked a little low in my eyes, such as Matt LaPorta at #22, behind guys like Lou Marson (#16), Jayson Nix (#17), and Joe Smith (#20). LaPorta did have a disappointing year, hitting .221 with 12 HR, 41 RBI, and a 668 OPS, but he was an everyday player for the most part. He deserves some credit for that.
Others were ranked a litte too high, besides the aforementioned players; Hoynes seemed to like Jeanmar Gomez over Josh Tomlin, probably because Gomez throws harder. Tomlin had the better stats, giving up less hits than innings pitched and having a 2:1 strikeout to walk ratio. Gomez had a comparable ERA, but allowed 73 hits in 57-2/3 innings with a 34 to 22 whiff to walk rate.
The frightening part of the article was Hoynsie’s take on the opening day roster for 2011. Granted, this was put together without knowing if new GM Chris Antonetti will make any trades, but if that’s the lineup on April 1, 2011, good luck to the Indians on selling tickets.
First, having Nix opening at either 2B or 3B is a turn off. The organization has been sending a lot of signals about how excited they are that he will play the hot corner in winter ball, but they should be desperately looking to find someone else to start. Hopefully, this is just rhetoric from the management, but Nix is not a good player, and they are fooling themselves if they think he is.
Also, Hoynes’ construction of the bullpen is disturbing. No one will want to watch this team if they are bringing guys like Aaron Laffey, Justin Germano, and Jensen Lewis in relief. What is the difference between this and the beginning of this year when the ‘pen struggled. Also, Laffey and Lewis have problems throwing strikes, and that’s a recipe for a bad bullpen.
Let’s hope the Tribe front office isn’t kidding themselves with their evaluations of players. That’s why an outside voice is needed. Antonetti and his staff need to hear that a guy like Jayson Nix isn’t an answer, he’s a question. Things won’t change at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario until some different viewpoints are part of the process.
KM
Cleveland Sports Perspective 