indians | The Baseball Zealot

McBride’s Bat is Red Hot in Arizona

I first saw Matt McBride when he clubbed an 8th inning two run home run in the Rising Stars AFL All Star Game, which proved to be the difference. The 24 year old catcher starred in the desert for the Peoria Saguaros, hitting .378, power numbers of 4, 2, 4, two stolen bases, 19 walks, and an out of this world OBP of .511.

You might think this 6’2″ 215 pound standout, drafted by the Indians in the 2nd round of the 2006 draft would have a clear path to the big leagues, especially after Cleveland traded their All Star catcher Victor Martinez to Boston, but the Tribe is loaded with young talent behind the plate. The former Lehigh University standout put up some mighty fine numbers in 2006, hitting .417, 19 doubles, 12 homers, 61 ribbies in 56 games, and even stole 22 bags. This past season in the minors Matt clouted 44 doubles & 18 long balls, splitting time between A+ Kinston & AA Akron.

Despite the trade of Martinez, the Indians still have Kelly Shoppach on their roster, along with standout minor leaguers Lou Marson (acquired from Philadelphia in the Cliff Lee deal) & Carlos Santana (acquired from Los Angeles in the Casey Blake trade). Both seem to be ahead of McBride on the depth chart. Marson was at AAA last season and even spent some time in the majors, while Santana made the Eastern League All Star team at AA Akron, batting .290, 30, 2, 23, while walking 90 times. The best path for McBride to make it to the big leagues might be the Rule V draft, the Indians have not rostered Matt, so he’ll be draft eligible. Hey, major league clubs, if your team is looking for a catcher, you might want to think about drafting Matt McBride.

Surprise! Belle rings in with some opinions

What happened to the Cleveland Indians this year??

Former Indian slugger Albert Belle has an opinion… or three.

"Tell Larry Dolan I won’t be interviewing for the manager’s job," said one of the most feared and ill-tempered hitters in Indians history. "How can you manage when you’ve got no players?"

Manager Eric Wedge and his coaching staff were fired Wednesday by General Manager Mark Shapiro.

"This season isn’t the manager’s fault," Belle said. "They traded away all his players. You can’t win when you trade two Cy Young winners in CC Sabathia and Cliff Lee.”

I was going to make a joke about Belle not being any worse a manager than Ozzie Guillen but I figured that was too easy.

He might be more entertaining (though.it would be close).

Indians Get 4 for 2 from Phils

donald Cliff Lee was involved in one of the best trades the Indians ever pulled off, when he was traded from the Expos, along with Grady Sizemore, & Brandon Phillips. Now Cleveland is hoping lightning strikes twice, swapping Lee & Ben Francisco to Philadelphia for four top notch prospects.

Jason Donald looked great when I saw him this past year in the Arizona Fall League. He’s pretty much hit .300 every year in the minors, except for 2009, the Indians are hoping he regains his stroke.

Lou Marson is a line drive hitting catcher. I’ve seen Marson in the AFL & spring training, his average has climbed as he’s matured, batting around .300 in AA & AAA ball.

Carlos Carrasco had a breakout season in 2006 in A ball, 12-6, 2.26 ERA, 103 hits in 159′ IP, with 159 K’s. While he’s maintained about one strikeout per inning, his ERA is currently 5.18 in Triple A.

At 6’5″ 225 Jason Knapp, a 19 year old righthander out of New Jersey, can really bring it, striking out well over one batter per inning in Rookie & A ball.

This trade just might turn out to be exactly what both teams need, the Phillies, trying to repeat, get a tough lefthanded starter in Lee and a solid righthanded hitting outfielder in Francisco, in exchange for four top prospects. Donald is a scrappy player, who might be at SS next year in Cleveland, with Marson flashing the signals to Carrasco, with Knapp warming in the bullpen, you never know.

Game Winning Bird

I was watching the highlights the other night on the MLB Network, especially close when the Indians were shown, as I have two Indians on my fantasy baseball team, Shin Soo Choo & Mark DeRosa. Well as luck would have it, both players were involved in a bizarre play, which resulted in a game winning hit, an RBI for Choo & a run scored for DeRosa. Choo lined a single to centerfield, with DeRosa on 2nd, but as the ball skipped toward the Royals centerfielder, who was lining up for a throw home, which would have resulted in a bang-bang play at the plate, the grounder hit a bird. The centerfielder throws his hands up, as if to signify interference, as the bird picks himself up, and flies off. The seagull must’ve been rooting him for the Indians, as well as my fantasy team. That’s taking one for the team. Would I be stretching it too far to say, he winged it, rather than a dying quail, this was a bird down. They are now using firecrackers between innings in Cleveland to keep the birds off the field.

Upon Further Review Joe Deserves HOF Nod

Hall of Fame Gordon Baseball A while back I wrote a controversial piece, saying the Veteran’s Committee got it wrong, and Joe Gordon didn’t deserve to be in the Hall of Fame. Well I’m not too big to admit it when I made a mistake, and boy, did I ever make one here! Here is why I changed my mind.

Nine of Gordon’s eleven years in the majors, he was an All Star. In 1942 he won the AL MVP Award over Triple Crown winner, Ted Williams. He was arguably the best secondbaseman of the forties. Known for his acrobatic defense, he led the AL in assists four times and in double plays three times. He was the first AL second baseman to hit 20 home runs in a season, doing so seven times, and holds the league mark for career HRs at second base (246), Joe held the single season mark until 2001. Gordon’s 25 home runs as a rookie set an AL record for second basemen which stood until 2006. All of these accomplishments were achieved with the heart of career yanked out, as he went off to fight a war for two years, when he was 29 & 30, in the prime of his career.

After the war Joe had his worst season with the Yankees before being shipped off to Cleveland, batting .210, with 11 HRs, & 47 RBIs, in only 112 games played. With the Indians Gordon rebounded to find his game, hitting 29 HRs & 93 RBIs in 1947. Then in 1948, teaming with DP partner Lou Boudreau, to make the Cleveland Indians World Series Champions, leading the team in HR’s (32) & RBIs (124).

One of the big reasons for my change of heart comes from the MLB Network. I got a chance to see some film of him playing the game, AMAZING! Congratulations to HOFer Joe Gordon, a deserving recognition that was long over due.

DeRosa Shipped to Tribe

mark-derosa The Chicago Cubs sent popular secondbaseman plus, Mark DeRosa to the Cleveland Indians in exchange for three minor league pitchers. DeRosa played 149 games each of the last two years on the Northside of Chicago, 90+ games at 2B, also filling in the OF & 3B, and hitting .293 & .285, with OBPs of .371 & .376, last year he hit 21 homers, and scored 103 times. While Mark was dealt to the Indians, Aaron Miles was signed to take his place at 2B. Six homers was Miles’ alltime high in Colorado in 2004 when he scored his career high of 75 in runs, his highest average was last year .317 with the Cardinals, but even then his OBP was only .355. It’s hard to believe little, 5’8″, Aaron Miles will help Cub fans forget Mark DeRosa.

So what did Chicago get for the versatile DeRosa? Jeff Stevens is a 6’2″ righthanded reliever out of Loyola Marymount, who struckout 111 batters in just under 60 innings pitched, and this 25 year old looks ready for the bigs. Chris Archer is a 6’2″ 20 year old righty out of North Carolina, who pitched in Class A, posting a 4.29 ERA, with 106 Ks in 115′ innings pitched. John Gaub is out of the University of Minnesota (2004-06), the 6’2″ (the Cubs must like 6’2″ pitchers) 23 year old lefty struckout 100 batters in 64 innings in Class A in 2008. Retooling the Cubbies bullpen may payoff big time down the line, maybe even next year with Stevens.

It’s interesting this deal doesn’t seem to be about money. What do you think about this trade? Did the Cubs get enough? Will Miles be a quality replacement for DeRosa?

Cliff Lee on his way to a record-breaking season

Teddy Ballgame pointed out to me over the phone the importance of Cliff Lee’s 2008 season. Here we are just entering September and the Tribe hurler has already hit the 20 win mark with only 2 losses. Teddy asked me if I knew who the last Cleveland pitcher to get 20 wins was. I admitted ignorance.

According to Tedd, it was the ol’ spitballer himself, Gaylord Perry. I looked it up and Tedd was right (he always is). The last Indian pitcher with 20+ wins before this year was Perry in 1974 when he had 21.

As of today, Lee has the highest Win % of all pitchers with 20+ wins. Here are the Top Five:

  1 Cliff Lee            .909   20-2 2008  CLE*  
  2 Ron Guidry           .893   25-3 1978  NYY            
  3 Lefty Grove          .886   31-4 1931  PHA            
  4 Preacher Roe         .880   22-3 1951  BRO            
  5 Joe Wood             .872   34-5 1912  BOS

*as of Sept 3, 2008

Tedd noted that Cleveland acquired Lee as a prospect which sent Bartolo Colon to the Expos. Oh, the Tribe got one other prospect in the deal. Who would that be?

Grady Sizemore.

As Tedd said, "The Indians did their homework".