Winter Meetings

For those of you who do not know, the baseball winter meetings are going on right now. Pretty much what that means is that teams who spend tons of money buy great players and teams that develop great players do nothing while their fans cry.

Today the Tigers traded 6 players for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis. Now, the Indians could have made a move like that, but they would have gotten rid of great prospects and I understand not putting all of your eggs in one basket. If Dontrelle tears a tendon in his middle finger playing Guitar Hero, there goes that great trade.

The flip side is that teams like the Tigers, Angels, Red Sox, Yankees, Mets, and Cubs continue to purchase the big ticket players while the Indians develop in house. Just once I would like to get a quality established big league player in a deal or via free agent signing. Granted most of the current roster came from trades where the Tribe shipped off guys like Bartolo Colon for a few prospects (Grady Sizemore, Clifford Lee, and some other guys) and I do NOT want to sacrifice the future for a current player. Gone are the rebuilding years.

What I would like to see is a high profile free agent signing. Alex Rodriguez is out of the question, not only do I not like him, but he's too expensive, not worth it, a tool, and a bad man. I would, however, love to see this:

Indians acquire FA Andruw Jones for $16 million/year. With bonuses, the salary could reach $18 million.

Here is my argument:
1) The Tribe needs a right handed power hitter with plate discipline.
2) The Tribe needs a mentor and a quality individual to teach the younger guys how to behave and deal with the major leagues (one of the many reasons A-Rod would not be a good pickup)
3) The Tribe needs an established right OR left fielder.
4) If he gets hurt, they have guys waiting in the wings.
5) He's getting older and would have just as many highlight reel catches in left or right without the grind of center.
6) He is playoff tested, consistent, deals very well with slumps, is intelligent, a family man, and a great guy.
7) This would free up a trade for a good 3B while shipping out some of the outfield depth. Possibly a deal with the Angels for Chone Figgins. As much as I love Casey Blake, he is a utility player not an every day third baseman and Chone would fit nicely into the mix of guys who are willing to do anything to win and who can play multiple positions. The Angels can either have Ben Francisco or Franklin Guttierez and a pitcher (Cliff Lee, Sowers, or Miller).

So here is my prospective depth chart:

1. Sizemore CF
2. Figgins 3B
3. Jones LF
4. Hafner DH
5. Martinez C
6. Garko 1B
7. Peralta SS
8. Cabrera 2B
9. Guttierez (or Francisco) RF

Then for subs you have Jones who can play CF and give Grady a day off putting Blake in LF, you can put Figgins in the OF and give Barfield a start at second and move Cabrera to SS and Peralta gets a day off. Or you can move Cabrera to 2B, Peralta to 3B, Barfield to 2B and give Chone the day off. Or you can just do a swap, Blake for Jones, Blake for Chone, Barfield for Cabrera, etc.

Now, the likelyhood that this will actually happen is almost 0%; however, this takes care of the Tribe's needs perfectly. If the Tribe doesn't deal anyone, I hope and pray that Andy Marte and Josh Barfield decide not to suck this year and that someone (Guttierez, Francisco, or Michaels) emerges as a right handed power hitter.

The problem that the Tribe has is that 1-9 they are just a hair above average. 1-25 they are amazing and 1-40 they are probably the best team in baseball. The problem is that in the playoffs, you only need the 1-9 guys to be amazing. The Yankees lost to the Indians because their pitching sucked. Against a team with a quality pitching staff (Red Sox) they just couldn't stack up 1-9 against the Sox. That's the bottom line and until they decide to upgrade one of their 1-9 guys, they will be amazing 1-25 and above average in the playoffs.