Goodbye Sunshine

The Indians have officially "given up" on the season. A bit over a week ago they called the current road trip make or break. Three at Chi Sox, 3 at Twinkies, 3 at Tigers. On June 30th, they were 9.5 games back. A 9 game road trip would, if they swept all 3, put them a minimum of 6.5 games back (most likey 4.5 or less) and right back into the thick of things. Instead they were swept by the White Sox and lost 2 of 3 at the Twins. A make or break trip was turned into a fiasco and CC Sabathia was traded to the Brewers.

Say what you will about the trade (CC for 2 top shelf prospects and 2 mid tier guys) but even if the Tribe was only a game or two back, this is a trade I would have thought about making. CC is a great pitcher, I'm not arguing that, but if you look at the status of the Indians at this moment, they are moving into another rebuilding. Whether or not that rebuilding is more of a reloading remains to be seen but let's look at the facts:

1) The closer situation is just not good. Even before Borowski was DFA, 45 saves last year was the definition of anomaly. One time in my lifetime I want to see an Indians CLOSER. Mesa, Wickman, Borowski. Granted Mesa was good, but he died when the team needed him the most. The problem with closers is that they walk a delicate line. On one hand they want to go out and just blow people away with their stuff (see K-Rod, K-Wood, Rivera, Hoffman, Gagne) on the other hand, you can only blow people away with wicked stuff so long before your arm falls off (K-Wood, Gagne). The Tribe, in building for the future, does not want or need a pitcher who just plain dominates for an inning or two, yet. What they need is what they have had in the past, a regular old guy who goes out and guts it out every night. When winning is on the line, they need a psychopathic guy who is about one hic-up from Tommy John surgery. Hopefully they find him.

2) The "core" of the roster is actually VERY small (even smaller now). Grady, Victor...Grady... are the only ones who have been good consistently for a long time and are continuing to get better. The rest of the guys, as much as I love them, are average to slightly above average guys who have the ability to perform at a high level. The issue this year is that the guys around them have returned to their average ways (see 2001-06) and there is no one in AAA who is any better to call up (Asdrubal, Garko, Fausto last year) When you have a low payroll you have to fight it with depth. You can't afford to pay a full team of All-Stars but what you can do is have a few and then have depth at the other positions in AAA so that when one of them sucks, you just send him down and get his replacement. The Tribe needs to extend that core by finding the guys before they are All-Stars and then having more positions solidified so that they can have more than two guys at the same spot in the order and consistently producing.

The best case scenario for the Indians next year and beyond is to continue to build the core and surround it with flashes in the pan and a few journeymen. A core for me is this:
Catcher, 2IF, 2OF, one ace starter, one setup man, and a closer. That's 9 out of 25. The rest of the pieces are effectively inconsequential.

The rest of the starting pitchers will fall into line with a good pitching coach. Look at the Cardinals every single year: even if they were bad on other teams the Cards bring out the best in their pitchers. All you need is one ace. The Tribe has Fausto (and Clifford Lee) so CC was expendable. Good job guys. Hopefully they got another of the 9 needed parts.

The Cubs may just win the World Series this year with these parts:
C- Soto
OF - Soriano
OF - Edmonds
OF - Fukudome
IF - Ramirez
IF - Lee
SP - Zambrano
MR - Marmol
CL - Wood