Why Asdrubal Should Stay

With the major league trading deadline coming in less than three weeks, the rumor mill has been very active, especially regarding the Cleveland Indians.

Most of the supposed deals have the Tribe getting pitching, since they rank 12th in the American League in ERA, and recently their bullpen has provided more ups and downs than the roller coasters at Cedar Point.

However, one that hit this week really shocked us. ESPN’s Buster Olney reported that Cleveland is talking to the St. Louis Cardinals about SS Asdrubal Cabrera, who is having a down year to this point in the season.

While the Cardinals have a lot of young pitching in their organization, this seems to be the kind of move that would be made if a team was out of the pennant race or in the off-season, not 2-1/2 games out as we approach the All-Star break.

This is true for several reasons. First, Cabrera isn’t hitting as well as he has in the past, meaning his market value is down. Here are the shortstop’s OPS over the last few years–

2009     799
2010     673
2011     792
2012     762
2013     722

His lifetime OPS is 752, so right now he is 30 points below his average season, and around 70 points behind his best seasons of ’09 and ’11. At 27 years old, he figures to still be capable of getting back to the 800 level.

Many people feel the Tribe can afford to deal the two-time all-star because of the availability of Mike Aviles, but that is poorly thought out for two reasons. Aviles is a much better hitter as a part-time player, hitting just .250 in his lone year as a regular in Boston last season. His career batting average is .275.

Also, who would replace Aviles on the bench? The Indians’ success this season has come in part because their bench is very strong, getting big production out of players like Aviles, Ryan Raburn, Jason Giambi, and Yan Gomes.

Who would take over Aviles’ role as the utility infielder? That’s a big question that GM Chris Antonetti has to think about.

A trade would make sense if the Tribe would be getting back a proven major league starting pitcher in return, but it doesn’t appear that would be the case. Most of the names involved are Shelby Miller, Trevor Rosenthal, Michael Wacha, and Carlos Martinez, all top 10 prospects for the Cardinals.

However, out of the four of them, Miller has the most experience, a total of 19 big league starts. As good as Miller is reported to be, there is no evidence that he will be a successful starter for a team in a race for the playoffs. Plus, his highest inning total in the minors is 151, meaning the Cleveland front office would want to limit his to around 175 for the season.

He has already thrown 104 on the season.

This trade would make a lot more sense in the winter. By then, prime prospect SS Francisco Lindor will have half a year at the AA level, meaning he could be promoted to the bigs sometime during the 2014 season.

The Indians could get away with a half-year of Aviles starting as short with Lindor taking over in the middle of the year. Don’t forget the Tribe has a plethora of middle infield players on the horizon, with SS Ronny Rodriguez playing at Akron now and maybe moving to Columbus soon.

Dealing a player like Cabrera for pitching help would make sense since the Tribe would be dealing from strength. Just not now with the team in contention.

That just doesn’t make sense.

Tribe Bullpen Not Saving

Last night, the Cleveland Indians’ bullpen had another bad game, bringing the problem to the forefront once again.

Leading 6-5 with two outs in the eighth inning, Joe Smith served up a homer to Chad Tracy, now hitting .145 on the season, on an 0-2 pitch. The next inning, Vinnie Pestano gave up a game winning gopher ball to Anthony Rendon, his first big league circuit shot.

Rendon is a top prospect, but his blast followed miscommunication between Nick Swisher and Jason Kipnis, which resulted in his foul pop up dropping harmlessly to the ground. However, that doesn’t excuse Pestano serving up a meatball to the rookie.

The Tribe bullpen, considered a strength coming into the season, is leaking oil. Outside of Scott Barnes’ three inning save against the Red Sox in a 12-3 blowout on May 23rd, the last time an Indians’ reliever picked up a save was over a month ago, on May 12th vs. Detroit, when Cody Allen came in and recorded the last out in an extra inning win.

That was Mother’s Day. Today is Father’s Day. The only save recorded between the two days honoring our parents was a “rule” one, because Barnes’ went three innings.

Now, losing 16 of 20 contests drastically lowers your chances of getting saves. They don’t award them in losing efforts. But, there were several games in the losing skein that the bullpen could have changed the outcome.

Most famously, there were the two games in Boston where Terry Francona’s squad were winning late.

On May 25th, Cleveland was leading 4-3 in the eighth inning, when Pestano allowed four runs to the Boston, the last two on a another pop up that dropped in with Asdrubal Cabrera trying to catch it.

The very next day, Chris Perez blew a great start by Corey Kluber in the ninth, turning what looked to be a 5-2 win into a 6-5 defeat.

On Memorial Day, which was the day after Perez’ struggles, Nick Hagadone came into a 2-2 games and promptly allowed a two run shot by Joey Votto to give Cincinnati a lead it never relinquished.

Hagadone was victimized again early this week against Texas, when he allowed another tie breaking HR, this one to Lance Berkman.

Perhaps we should have seen this coming. The last game before the Indians entered the losing period, the relief corps allowed game tying home runs in three consecutive innings against Seattle in a game the Tribe would up winning 10-8. The culprits were Pestano, Perez, and Smith, who earned the win when Yan Gomes belted a three run dinger in the 10th inning.

All in all, Cleveland relievers are last in the league in saves, with just nine on the season. To show that saves aren’t the be all, end all for a team, the next two lowest bullpens are Boston (13) and Detroit (14), both of whom reside in first place in their respective divisions.

However, the Tigers have the second best ERA in the American League, which a great starting rotation, and the Red Sox are seventh. The Indians are 13th in that category.

The problem has arisen in two areas: The left-handers (primarily Hagadone and Rich Hill) have been terrible, and the late inning guys, most notably Pestano and Perez have allowed a lot of long balls (a combined eight in 34-2/3 innings).

Smith has a 1.48 ERA, allowing just four runs for the season, but two of them were game tying home runs.

The middle relievers (Matt Albers, Bryan Shaw, Allen, and even rookie Matt Langwell) have been solid.

Perhaps it is time to use them in later game situations.

The Indians have not had a lot of save chances so far in 2013, the problem is, when they have had them, they haven’t done the job. This has to make Francona wonder why he wanted to manage again.

If Tribe Makes Move, It Should Be Dealing from Strength

With the Cleveland Indians playing well and actually getting into a tie for first place after Sunday’s win over the Tigers, Tribe fans are thinking about what GM Chris Antonetti can do to put his team over the top.

Most everyone feels Terry Francona needs one more quality starting pitcher if his team is going stay in the race into and throughout September.

That leads to speculation as to what the Indians would have to give up to land someone who would upgrade the starting rotation.

Keep in mind that weakening your squad in one area to help in another doesn’t usually work out unless you have someone as good to take the place of the player you are dealing.

That would mean not trading one of the players who consistently comes up in this discussion, SS Asdrubal Cabrera.

Mike Aviles is a nice player, and has done a solid job with the Tribe, but he’s not an everyday player, let alone an everyday SS. Check his numbers, he is much more productive getting 350 to 400 at bats in a season, not 600 in a year.

That’s the argument for some so-called “experts”, you can trade Cabrera because Aviles can step in and play short.

If Antonetti was to deal Cabrera, a two-time all-star, he would have to get a top of the rotation type starter, and who is going to deal one of those? We don’t see teams willing to make that kind of trade.

If you are going to get a middle of the road starter, aren’t you better off just going with Trevor Bauer or Carlos Carrasco, either of whom might be better than someone a bad team is trying to unload?

The other player usually mentioned in trade talk is SS Francisco Lindor, Cleveland’s best prospect now playing at Class A Carolina and hitting .330 at age 19.

Certainly, Lindor would be desirable to any organization. Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan said that Lindor might just be the minor league’s top prospect period by the end of the season.

Many teams, particularly those out of the race and looking to shed salary, would be happy to trade you a good to very good starter for Lindor. However, Lindor may be the Cleveland version of Derek Jeter, a franchise SS who can play 10-15 years with the Indians.

That’s not to denigrate Cabrera, who is a very good player, arguably the best shortstop in the American League.

But Lindor is showing signs that he is special, and the Indians cannot take the chance of trading him and having him develop into a perennial all-star type player.

As said before, you have to make these types of deals from a position of strength. And where does the Indians’ organization have a lot of talent? The bullpen.

That’s why a possible trade for closer Chris Perez could make sense. The Indians have a few options they could look at to close games, such as Vinnie Pestano, Cody Allen, and perhaps Bryan Shaw.

The farm system is also filled with bullpen candidates like Trey Haley, Preston Guilmet, Scott Barnes, Bryce Stowell, and Austin Adams.

Understand that the concern there would be switching to an unproven closer in the middle of a successful season, but with the depth in this area, it’s a well calculated gamble.

If the Indians stay in contention going into July, there is little doubt they will do something. But weakening one part of the team to help somewhere else makes no sense. That’s something to watch as the season unfolds.

Stubbs’ Struggles are Worrisome

Before the season started, most baseball experts felt the biggest weakness for the Cleveland Indians would be starting pitching.

It has been, with only Justin Masterson and Zack McAllister showing any consistency thus far. The other three spots in the rotation seem to be wish, hope, and pray to this point in the season.

However, the offense has struggled as well, despite last night’s 19-6 beat down in Houston, and we don’t expect that to continue for much longer. Two time all-star SS Asdrubal Cabrera is hitting just .150 with only four extra base hits. As skipper Terry Francona said the other day, Cabrera’s next 50 at bats could be as hot as he is cold right now.

And 2B Jason Kipnis will start to hit too, as will young 3B Lonnie Chisenhall, who is hitting just .224 with only one walk compared to 15 strikeouts to this point.

Also, CF Michael Bourn will return in another week, and he was off to a great start, hitting .333 through the first ten games.

There is one guy to be concerned about however, and that would be OF Drew Stubbs, because his start seems to be a continuation of the downward spiral his career has been taking.

The eighth overall pick in 2006, the outfielder burst on the scene in 2009, hitting .267 with eight home runs in 42 games that season. That promise showed through even more in 2010, when the big right-handed hitter batted .255 with 22 dingers in his first year as a regular.

It’s been downhill from there as Stubbs’ production has waned while his strikeouts have started to pile up. His power numbers dropped in ’11 to 15 home runs and 14 last year, while striking out 205 times in 2011 and 166 times (in 140 fewer plate appearances) last year.

This season, Stubbs has fanned 19 times in 57 times at the plate, while having just three extra base hits, all doubles. He leads the Indians in whiffing, amazing since the Tribe has notorious swing and miss Mark Reynolds on the roster.

Reynolds, though, has been productive when making contact, leading Cleveland with 6 HR and 17 RBI. Stubbs hasn’t hit one out yet this season, and he hadn’t scored a run this season until last night. While that is not totally his fault, it is a telling stat.

With his 3 for 4 evening yesterday, Stubbs is hitting .255 on the season with a 647 OPS. That’s the nature of early season statistics, they can fluctuate greatly with one good game. His batting average was .213 before last night.

To be sure, GM Chris Antonetti and Francona were hoping Stubbs would regain his pop with a different approach and that may still be the case. As we said, it is very early. However, his early difficulties continue the trend from the past three seasons.

It is much like saying it’s only two starts for Ubaldo Jimenez in 2013. You have to remember that this is a continuation of the right-handers struggles since he came to Cleveland in July 2011.

It’s a trend, and when things are going on a downhill plane, the player needs to show improvement right away.

Stubbs needs to produce soon, because when Bourn is back, he may lose playing time by moving Nick Swisher to RF, Reynolds to 1B, and using a combination of Jason Giambi, Mike Aviles, and Carlos Santana at DH.

The Tribe brass was hoping Drew Stubbs could regain the production of his early career when they dealt for him this winter. Right now, they have to be a little concerned that he won’t.

Tribe Strengths, Weaknesses Show in First Week

Week one of the new baseball season has come and gone, and it is always funny to hear fans go crazy about one week of a 26 week season.

If the same results happened in late June, no one would think anything of it. This would apply to being shutout on back-to-back nights, which happened to the Cleveland Indians this week.

Because of the extremely small sample size, results in the first week are greatly magnified. No one really thinks (at least we hope not) that Jason Kipnis and Asdrubal Cabrera will hit .100 for the season, yet there they are, struggling at the onset of the new campaign.

On the other hand, let us get supporters ready for the reality that Justin Masterson will not win every one of his starts in 2013.

Still, one thing that could be a trend for the Tribe is the streaky nature of their offense, mostly because of the contact issues of many of the hitters in their everyday lineup. It wouldn’t be a surprise if the hitting had a few instances where they have problems scoring, just like they did in the first two games of the Tampa Bay series.

And the reason for that is they have a lot of all or nothing hitters. The trade-off to this is they will have streaks where they probably bludgeon their opponents as well, just like they did on Sunday afternoon in a 13-0 win.

It’s still better than last year, when the Indians had one of the worst offenses in baseball and had several hitters in their lineup where the opposing pitcher could relax during a game.

The other weakness that raised its ugly head was the starting pitching, which provided three or four (depending on how you feel about Zack McAllister’s outing on Friday night) good starts and three bad ones, most notably Brett Myers start in game three and Ubaldo Jimenez’ start in yesterday’s home opener.

That the worrisome thing about this year’s Indians, can the starters give them a chance to win on a night in, night out basis. That didn’t happen in Myers start, and it didn’t happen against New York.

Many fans and media members are concerned about Myers, who didn’t have a good spring and then pitched home run derby, Canadian style. But Myers has been better than Jimenez in the time period that has occurred since the latter was traded here in 2011.

Jimenez looked very good in his first start, but that’s exactly the thing that ticks people off most. In his second start, he was back to the Ubaldo we saw last season: unable to throw strikes consistently, his velocity down, and a lack of concentration that resulted in a stolen base by Chris Stewart, the Yankee catcher who had such a big jump he went in standing.

McAllister gave manager Terry Francona a good start, but he again gave up runs after his defense let him down, allowing two insurance runs in what was a 2-0 game after an error by 3B Mike Aviles. Francona said the big right-hander tries too hard to pick up his defense when miscues happen and that could be the cause of his problems allowing unearned runs.

Trevor Bauer had trouble locating his fastball in his start, walking seven in five innings, but he showed his stuff was good, allowing just three runs. If he can throw strikes with the heater, he could help before the year is out.

No overreactions here, just observations. However, nothing that happened in the first week should change any preconceived notions about the Cleveland Indians.

Only a Few Roster Battles Remain for Tribe

Opening Day is a little over two weeks away, and you can see the roster for the Cleveland Indians beginning to take shape.

In the last week, Zack McAllister was told he will be the fourth starter in the rotation and Cody Allen was informed he will be in the bullpen in Toronto on April 2nd when the Tribe opens the season.

Both youngsters deserved it based on how they performed last season.

That doesn’t leave many spots left on the 25 man roster.

Figuring that Terry Francona will keep 13 position players and 12 pitchers, there figures to be perhaps one spot left on the bench, the fifth spot in the starting rotation, and a battle for the what figures to be two spots for southpaws in the bullpen and one spot for a right-hander.

The starting lineup figures to be something like this–

Michael Bourn CF
Asdrubal Cabrera SS
Jason Kipnis 2B
Nick Swisher 1B
Carlos Santana C
Michael Brantley LF
Mark Reynolds DH
Lonnie Chisenhall 3B
Drew Stubbs RF

For sure, Mike Aviles, who is performing very well at the World Baseball Classic, will have one bench spot and figures to be in the lineup three or four times per week. Ryan Raburn looks like his versatility will earn him another spot, as he can play 2B, 3B, LF, and RF. And Jason Giambi will claim the third spot, getting at bats at DH and/or 1B.

That leaves the backup catcher with Lou Marson and Yan Gomes vying for that spot. Marson’s problem is his hitting and he can’t play another position. He’s hitting .214 (3 for 14) in spring training, although he has walked eight times. He’s a .220 lifetime hitter with a .301 slugging percentage for his career.

Gomes has hit well thus far (1o for 26 with a home run), and can play 1B, 3B, and LF as well. He’s not as accomplished defensively as Marson, not by a long shot. But when Marson plays, many times Santana will not get a full day off because Francona would hit for Marson in a key situation.

The guess here is the Tribe wants Gomes to catch on an everyday basis to develop his craft, so Marson makes the squad.

The fifth starter looks like it is between veteran left-hander Scott Kazmir, Carlos Carrasco, and Trevor Bauer. As of right now, Kazmir is the leading candidate. Francona and GM Chris Antonetti probably want Carrasco to be eased back in after coming back from elbow surgery and Bauer to get more AAA experience.

Which brings us to the bullpen. Chris Perez, Vinnie Pestano, Joe Smith, and now Allen are locks, although there is a chance that Perez opens the season on the disabled list.

It appears Francona will carry two lefties and with Rich Hill being added to the 40 man roster a week ago, it’s a good bet he will make the team. That leaves Nick Hagadone, Scott Barnes, and maybe David Huff for one spot. Hagadone has had the better spring and has power stuff. He’s allowed just two hits and struck out seven in five innings. He would appear to be the leader in the clubhouse.

The last spot in the ‘pen figures to be between three pitchers who weren’t with the Tribe in 2012: Matt Albers, Bryan Shaw, and Matt Capps. Capps has had the most big league success with 138 big league saves, but Shaw has pitched the best so far allowing one run in five innings with seven strikeouts.

This battle figures to go all the way to the end of camp, but keep in mind that Capps isn’t on the 40 man roster.

If the roster goes this way, it means the Indians will have to put some players with major league experience on waivers, guys like Ezequiel Carrera, Huff, Capps, and/or Albers. That’s something different for this organization after the last few years.

If you want to compete in baseball today, you must have some depth. These Indians finally have some.

Tribe Gives Fans an Early Gift in Swisher

The Indians front office must have anticipated a Browns’ beatdown in Denver, so they brightened the season for all Cleveland sports fans by announcing they inked free agent OF/1B Nick Swisher to a four-year contract.

The Tribe offense is now better than it was last season with the addition of perhaps the second best hitter on the free agent market.

Swisher isn’t a superstar, but he is a productive, consistent, durable switch-hitter who fits nicely into the 2013 Indians’ batting order.

Since becoming a regular in 2005 with the Oakland A’s, the former Ohio State player has hit at least 21 HR and knocked in 69 runs in every season since. He does strike out a lot, but he also walks, drawing at least 77 free passes in six of the last seven years, and he has a lifetime on-base percentage of .361.

In fact, the best place for Swisher in the Indians’ batting order might just be the #2 spot, where he can draw walks and drive the ball to get rallies going.

As mentioned, he’s a switch-hitter and along with the acquisitions of Mark Reynolds and Drew Stubbs, the Indians have ended their experiment to have an all left-handed batting order.

The offense should be better next season because GM Chris Antonetti has improved three positions in the lineup. Although we have reservations about Reynolds and his strikeouts and ability to hit outside of Arizona, he is an upgrade over Casey Kotchman with the bat. Also, Lonnie Chisenhall should improve upon Jack Hannahan’s batting numbers at third base.

And Stubbs, even though he had a terrible season at the plate for the Reds in 2012, is better than the mishmash the Tribe played in LF last year. And he adds speed and improved defense.

Swisher at the least will make up for Shin-Soo Choo’s numbers in RF, and he will be better than Choo against left-handed pitchers. Here’s the lineup as we see it:

LF Michael Brantley
RF Nick Swisher
2B Jason Kipnis
C Carlos Santana
SS Asdrubal Cabrera
DH
1B Mark Reynolds
3B Lonnie Chisenhall
CF Drew Stubbs

Because of the amount of strikeouts for Reynolds and Stubbs, they would be best served hitting in the bottom third of the order. And we have always thought Cabrera would be better suited for the fifth spot in the order. Also, the guess here is new skipper Terry Francona will have a wonderful effect on the shortstop’s career.

And don’t forget, the GM added a solid bat for the bench in utility man Mike Aviles, who can be very productive in a limited role, say around 350-400 at bats per season.

Now, Antonetti needs to work on the pitching staff, which was the worst in the AL last season. He added a potential top of the rotation guy in Trevor Bauer and Carlos Carrasco will also return following Tommy John surgery. Still, no team wants to depend on a bounce back season by Justin Masterson, a rookie, and a guy coming back from an injury to anchor the starting rotation.

That means another reliable starter is needed, and perhaps closer Chris Perez will be the bait.

Getting another arm would move Ubaldo Jimenez into the fifth spot in the rotation, and don’t forget about Zack McAllister, who might have been the Indians’ most reliable arm at the end of the season.

In fact, Jimenez might even be moved so Cleveland can get out from under the almost $6 million owed to him next season.

After a couple of years of relative inactivity, you have to give props to Antonetti for finally going out and improving this baseball team. While there is some work to do, getting Swisher and Bauer give Tribe fans a good foundation for hope when spring training starts in about six weeks.

Tribe Takes a Good Risk in Choo Trade

When the rumors of Shin-Soo Choo being traded to Cincinnati for OF Drew Stubbs and minor league SS Didi Gregorius started yesterday, our immediate reaction was a sickening feeling.

Trading one of the team’s best hitters, even though he would be a free agent at the end of the year, for a minor leaguer (when your farm system is loaded with prospects at that position) and another strikeout machine with a low batting average, isn’t very attractive.

However, dealing Choo for a potential big time starting pitcher is a good move.

Getting Trevor Bauer, Arizona’s top pitching prospect, a guy who is among the top ten prospects in all of baseball, for a player who wasn’t going to be with the Indians after 2013 has to be considered a win for GM Chris Antonetti.

In order to get back to the top of the AL Central, the Tribe needs to improve their starting pitching, and getting one of the best prospects in the game has to be viewed favorably.

And it was done without trading SS Asdrubal Cabrera, which had been rumored over the last month.

Bauer will be 22 next season and last year went 12-2 between AA and AAA with a 2.42 ERA and 157 strikeouts in 130 innings. He did make four big league starts, going 1-2 with a 6.06 ERA.

That’s what you call a small sample though.

Antonetti also received a couple of hard throwing bullpen guys in Mitch Albers and Bryan Shaw to increase depth in the relief corps. Perhaps one of those two or a guy like Joe Smith can be used in another trade.

The other players the Tribe gave up were superfluous. Jason Donald never looked to be more than a platoon player and his best defensive position was 2B. He was stuck behind newcomer Mike Aviles anyway.

Tony Sipp was a key part of the Indians bullpen the past few years, but with Nick Hagadone and Scott Barnes on the roster, he was a candidate to be moved.

And Lars Anderson was a throw in.

Do the Indians still have work to do? Of course. The loss of Choo leaves a huge void in an offense that already struggled to score runs last season. Stubbs and his low batting average (he hit .214 last year) and ton of strikeouts, doesn’t come near to replacing him.

They also still could use a proven starting pitcher to go along with Justin Masterson. That would put Carlos Carrasco, Ubaldo Jimenez and Bauer in the mix to be the fourth and fifth guys in the rotation to start the year.

Meaning Jimenez could be expendable.

As for Cabrera, the trade rumors that swirled around him at the winter meetings may have been the Indians sending him a message.

The past two seasons, he has either came to spring training heavy or gained weight during the season. The organization may have been telling him to get his act together, and Terry Francona may be saying it is time to realize his talent.

It is doubtful the Tribe will deal him now, because that would mean having to find two good offensive players to replace him and Choo.

Forget about Stubbs, if can figure out how to make contact, he will be an asset. He is an excellent defensive outfielder and can steal a base if he can get to first.

His lack of contact, as well as that of Mark Reynolds, who figures to be the Indians’ first baseman will not help the offense. Although the Tribe did need a guy who can score a run with one swing of the bat.

If Reynolds can hit 30 HRs, he will help. But make no mistake, he’s an all or nothing hitter. If he’s hitting in the 7-8-9 spot, that’s okay.

The reason to be excited about this deal is getting a potential ace like Bauer. The Indians haven’t been able to draft a top of the rotation pitcher since C.C. Sabathia.

They may have got one yesterday for a player who was going to leave after next season.

No Moves Mean No Tickets Sold

The Cleveland Indians’ front office has been so inert in recent years; they are starting to get credit for doing anything.

So, the fact they are talking about trades and/or signing free agents at the winter meeting is making some fans happy.

That’s setting the bar very, very low.

First of all, they should be making moves to help the team win, that is their job. However, that’s not good enough either. They should be making good moves to improve the ballclub. Making the wrong move is worse than no move at all.

You hear this from some fans and even some in the media about the Ubaldo Jimenez trade. They say you have to give the front office credit for taking a risk.

We didn’t like the trade at the time because GM Chris Antonetti gave up his top two pitching prospects (and three in the top ten organizationally) and didn’t get a true ace in return. You have to get a #1 starter if you are doing that, and to this point, Jimenez has been a bust.

Here’s hoping new pitching coach Mickey Calloway can straighten him out because he doesn’t have sound mechanics.

We read similar comments about the Indians’ offer to free agent OF Shane Victorino, which was reportedly four years totaling $44 million.

This would have been a bad contract, so why give the front office credit? Victorino is 32 years old coming off a poor season, and over the past two years has been a poor hitter against right-handed pitchers.

Unless of course, the front office was saving face because they knew there was no way the outfielder was going to take their offer.

Since the Indians claim they can’t spend a lot on payroll, a contract like the one they offered to Victorino would come back to bite them.

There was excitement regarding a possible megadeal involved Cleveland, Arizona, Texas and one other team in which the Indians would be dealing SS Asdrubal Cabrera and received three or four (depending on the report) major league ready prospects.

That deal or a form of it may occur down the line, but at this point Cabrera is still an Indians.

Cleveland is also believed to be in on free agent OF Nick Swisher, but so are other teams.

So basically, the Indians haven’t done anything thus far to improve their team. And then they wonder why they have a problem selling tickets and generating interest.

Any buzz created around a professional franchise has to be created in the off-season, and right now, less than three weeks before Christmas; the Indians have done nothing except hiring Terry Francona as manager to make anyone think anything has changed.

And managers do not sell tickets.

Again, this is not to say that Antonetti should make a move just to say he did something. That’s not enough. But he hasn’t done a darn thing to show fans, which buy the tickets, that this is a team to come down and watch.

Is it too much to ask the Indians’ management to make moves that will help the franchise in 2013 and not hamstring it for the future?

No. That’s their job. They are supposed to be experts in evaluating talent and deciding what fair market value is.

Now there is still time to make some moves to improve the 2013 edition of the Cleveland Indians. It’s just a little disappointing that nothing has happened as of yet. If the team wants some ticket buying momentum in the gift giving season, they need to do something sooner rather than later.

Dreaming of Stanton in Tribe Uniform

As baseball enters their annual winter meetings this week, the Cleveland Indians are said to be shopping most of their best players.

Shin-Soo Choo is on the market because he will be a free agent at the end of the 2013 season and his agent is Scott Boras, who almost always takes his clients to the free market.

Chris Perez is on the block because he’s due a big raise in arbitration, and is arguably the team’s biggest trading chip. If there is any strength in the organization it is in the relief pitching department, and the front office may just feel they can fill a few holes by dealing Perez, and they have options to replace him.

And Asdrubal Cabrera is said to be likely to be moved because he plays a premium position and there is a shortage of shortstop available. GM Chris Antonetti may want to maximize Cabrera’s value right now.

All of these players have one thing in common, they are due to make a lot of cash.

Even though the Dolan family is reportedly set to sell SportsTime Ohio to Fox for a reported $200 million, it doesn’t look like any of that money is going into the baseball operation.

If the Indians want to add payroll, they certainly have plenty of options. The free agent market has spiraled out of control once again with players like B. J. Upton getting $15 million per year and .211 hitting Russell Martin getting $8.5 million a season.

So the smart play would be to take on some cash in a trade or wait for the initial wave of free agency to pass and see what kind of value is out there.

If they want to make a big splash, there is one player out there that the Indians should make a bona-fide offer on, and that is Marlins’ OF Giancarlo Stanton.

At last year’s trading deadline, there was some discussion in the media about dealing the Tribe’s top prospect SS Francisco Lindor. We were against this because if you are going to deal a talent like him, you have to get a player who is still on the way up and has plenty of time under Cleveland’s control.

Stanton is that guy. For one, he just turned 23 years old last month, meaning he will play the entire ’13 campaign at that age.

He also will not be a free agent until after the 2017 season, meaning the Indians would control him for five more seasons. Add to both of those bits of information the fact that he is an out-and-out stud, with already 93 big league home runs.

He led the National League in slugging percentage last season at .608. He’s not a product of his ball park either. His home and road splits are virtually the same.

As good as Lindor can be, if he has to be the centerpiece of a deal to get Giancarlo Stanton, then so be it.

Following the 2007 season, the Marlins were shopping a young right-handed hitter named Miguel Cabrera. We thought he was the closest thing to Manny Ramirez that would come around in a long time, and said the Tribe should go out and get him. They didn’t and look how it has worked out for the Tigers.

He has won two home run titles, two RBI crowns, and two batting titles since going to the Motor City. And Detroit has been to the playoffs two straight years.

Because it’s the Indians, it is likely a dream, but if the front office wanted to get people excited about baseball in this city once again, they would start a conversation with Miami. It may be a long time until another hitter like Giancarlo Stanton could be available.