Encouraging things

Chris.

The Cavs are depressing and I don't know enough about the Browns.

So how about these random things....

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Choo and Cabrera are progressing nicely from their injuries, and Acta expects them back sooner than later.

"(Choo)'s progressing a lot faster than we anticipated. He's feeling good," Acta said. "If everything works out the way it's going right now, he could be back sooner than a lot of us were anticipating."
Aside from Grady Sizemore, out with a knee injury, Acta said he hopes to see the Tribe get back to a more regular lineup that will hopefully also include shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, who is set to begin a rehab assignment with Class A Short-Season Mahoning Valley on Monday.

"Sizemore's gone, but yeah, there's a good chance we will have those guys probably by the end of July," Acta said. "We might be able to have most of our full lineup."

As Paul noted over at the DiaTribe, Jason Donald has been better than you might think, offensively at least. His .754 OPS is higher than that of Derek Jeter, Elvis Andrus, Erick Aybar, Marco Scutaro, Alexei Ramirez, Orlando Hudson, Howie Kendrick, Chone Figgins, Aaron Hill, Gordon Beckham....and almost every qualifying AL middle infielder besides Cano, Pedroia and Kinsler.

It'll be interesting to see how the second base situation works out when Cabrera returns to play short.

The men at Let's Go Tribe are doing some good work on a Mid-Season report of our big prospects. Today was the hitters, and another second baseman is making things interesting.

Jason Kipnis: Drafted the round before Joseph Gardner in the 2009 draft, Kipnis can share the breakout prospect of the year award with his draft partner. In addition to converting to 2B, Kipnis is putting up a bigger batting line than his diminutive size would suggest (.300/.385/.479), How good do the first 3 rounds of that 2009 draft look right now with Alex White, Jason Kipnis and Joe Gardner all having fantastic full-season debuts? (Austin Adams was the 5th round pick, Jordan Henry 7th, Cory Burns 8th, Preston Guilmet 9th and Brett Brach 10th...check out that groups numbers this season)

Summary
The Indians suddenly appear quite loaded with positional prospects, particularly infielders. There is still a lack of power in the system and not a lot of outfielders, but relative to the start of the season, the picture has improved. A huge part of that improvement is right at the major league level. Should Santana and LaPorta continue as they have played over the past month, it will be a major step forward for the organization. There is a surprising lack of interesting guys in the bottom half of the system, but that partly reflects the more aggressive approach taken of late in promoting prospects and the concentration of guys in Akron and Columbus. It also could change considerably next year when the signings from the 2010 draft are finalized. Guys like LeVon Washington, Tony Wolters, Nick Bartolone (already signed and playing), Alex Lavinsky and Tyler Holt would presumably replace some of the filler currently found in Lake County.

http://www.letsgotribe.com/2010/7/11/15635...-report-hitting

And just so you don't have to look up the guys mentioned in the Kipnis blurb...here you go.

- Alex White - through 10 starts at Akron, he's sitting on a 1.53 ERA, 0.97 WHIP. (2.10 ERA, 1.05 WHIP through 18 starts between Kinston and Akron)

- Joe Gardner - through 18 starts between low- and high-A, has a 2.97 ERA and 1.05 WHIP with 10.1 K's per 9 innings.

- Austin Adams - through 11 starts and 5 relief apps, has a 3.14 ERA and 1.14 WHIP, with 10.8 K's per 9.

- Jordan Henry - center fielder currently in Akron with 19 steals in 21 attempts, and a .297 avg (.396 OBP).

and so on. Not a bad draft indeed.

Since it's trade season, might as well look at some of the guys we traded for recently.

Rob Bryson - reliever acquired in the Sabathia deal. Between low- and high-A this year, has a 3.16 ERA, 0.93 WHIP and is striking out 15.8 per 9 innings.

Matt LaPorta - Not surprising to people who have been watching the Tribe, but yeah, he's batting .371 with a 1.207 OPS since his latest call-up.

Jess Todd - reliever acquired in the DeRosa deal. Has a 2.97 ERA and a 10.4 K/9, in what's looking like a very hitter-friendly park in Columbus.

Scott Barnes - acquired in the Garko deal. Plagued by inconsistency, but is still striking guys out (8.9 per 9 innings) and is sporting a 1.74 ERA in his last 3 starts.

Michael Brantley - is not a slap hitter. http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=9783923

And that's all for now. Enjoy your Monday.

Chris.

The team's 3-0 since the break, and another kid is coming up, for a day at least.

Jeanmar Gomez, who threw a perfect game for Akron last year, is getting the spot start today after a mis-tweet from Dave Huff.

cdl15

@chris. said:
The team's 3-0 since the break, and another kid is coming up, for a day at least.
Jeanmar Gomez, who threw a perfect game for Akron last year, is getting the spot start today after a mis-tweet from Dave Huff.

oh and he looks like the real deal too. looking for 4 game sweep of one the best teams in all of the majors. All haters can do just that hAte but this team will win at one part

Chris.

Indeed. Fantastic start for Gomez and a great series overall. The starters battled, the offense was clutch and the bullpen put up a lot of zeroes. Unfortunately most of our winning streaks are followed up by even longer losing streaks, we'll see how that goes.

Next up: Jess Todd. Which I guess makes the bullpen: Perez-Perez-Sipp-Herrmann-Smith-Lewis-Ambriz-Todd. And the farm is still loaded with good relievers.

And Choo and Asdrubal could be back Friday.

Go Tribe.

cdl15

@chris. said:
Indeed. Fantastic start for Gomez and a great series overall. The starters battled, the offense was clutch and the bullpen put up a lot of zeroes. Unfortunately most of our winning streaks are followed up by even longer losing streaks, we'll see how that goes.
Next up: Jess Todd. Which I guess makes the bullpen: Perez-Perez-Sipp-Herrmann-Smith-Lewis-Ambriz-Todd. And the farm is still loaded with good relievers.

And Choo and Asdrubal could be back Friday.

Go Tribe.

i sure hope that they don't come back too soon, lot of baseball left in the cellar. Would rather see them 100% before returning, just so nothing stupid happens these to will be the keys to building a championship team.

Is anyone else impressed with Trevor Crowe and Jason Nix?

Chris.

@cdl15 said:
Is anyone else impressed with Trevor Crowe and Jason Nix?

Probably. I like Crowe a lot, but not as a starter. Definitely worthy of the 4th OF spot though, seems like a good guy, he can play all 3 outfield spots, and he can run. Can't ask for much more from a bench/injury fill-in guy...but he's not a starter and definitely not a leadoff hitter.

Can't say I care about Nix. He had a monster series in Arlington but hasn't done much of anything outside of that. I think Acta makes the right decision and lets Donald get the bulk of ABs at second once Cabrera comes back.

cdl15

@chris. said:
Probably. I like Crowe a lot, but not as a starter. Definitely worthy of the 4th OF spot though, seems like a good guy, he can play all 3 outfield spots, and he can run. Can't ask for much more from a bench/injury fill-in guy...but he's not a starter and definitely not a leadoff hitter.

Maybe but I think a first round pick only in his 2nd year, first with real day to day playing time, is going to only be a fill in guy. Having a very modest sophmore year but I've been waiting for almost 3 yrs for grady sizemore to at least do this. I think its time to move on from the grady experiment, cause he's not even really capible of putting asses in the stands. Sizemore would have a 100 strikeouts by now. To me thats the refreshing thing is that we acually have a 1 or 9 hitter that doesn't avg 150 Ks a year and that may be generous.

Also i kinda like Nix as that fillin xtra ccause Brantly is horrible offensively limited to pinch running and maybe a defensive replacement

FearTheRoo

I almost can't believe what I am watching. Cleveland is beating the TWINS, 10-3 in the bottom of the 9th and have an amazing 20 hits. Every guy in out lineup has at least two hits except Jhonny P! This is without Austin Kearns, Choo, Cabrera, and Sizemore our top 4 hitters. What has happened to this Indians team? Don't get to attached Cleveland and don't get too ahead of ourselves. We only wish this team would show up every night...

CLEVELandMILIDH

How bout that 4th inning 5 runs all on 2 out singles, its fun watching all these young guys and Choo and Cabrera could be back friday.....its gonna be an exciting 2nd half even if were not in contention. Alot to look forward in the future, pretty excited about it. 5-0 since the All Star break, lets keep it rollin

cdl15

nmills said:
How bout that 4th inning 5 runs all on 2 out singles, its fun watching all these young guys and Choo and Cabrera could be back friday.....its gonna be an exciting 2nd half even if were not in contention. Alot to look forward in the future, pretty excited about it. 5-0 since the All Star break, lets keep it rollin

During that 2 out single streak rick manning summed it up best, these young guys make every AB count. Not giving them away. Like some of the other mid market teams the guys just getting a paycheck.

Chris.

@feartheroo said:
Don't get to attached Cleveland and don't get too ahead of ourselves.

Boooo.

Jason Donald - .326 avg, .404 OBP in July... (.754 OPS overall still one of the best among AL middle infielders)

Matt LaPorta - .333 avg, .951 OPS in July... (1.041 OPS in June)

Carlos Santana - still with a .989 OPS, but it would be nice to see some of his walks turn into base hits.

And they all have the minor league track record to back it up. Add Choo and Cabrera (and eventually Sizemore) and that's a serious lineup.

FearTheRoo

@chris. said:
Boooo.
Jason Donald - .326 avg, .404 OBP in July... (.754 OPS overall still one of the best among AL middle infielders)

Matt LaPorta - .333 avg, .951 OPS in July... (1.041 OPS in June)

Carlos Santana - still with a .989 OPS, but it would be nice to see some of his walks turn into base hits.

And they all have the minor league track record to back it up. Add Choo and Cabrera (and eventually Sizemore) and that's a serious lineup.

You know Shapiro is seeing those same stats and thinking to himself...that's good trade value. He likes to watch prospects come up through the system, then once they hit a high point he trades them for more prospects. It's a never ending cycle and is the reason why we have to rebuild every 3 years, and every player we grow to love in Cleveland gets traded away.

Chris.

@feartheroo said:
You know Shapiro is seeing those same stats and thinking to himself...that's good trade value. He likes to watch prospects come up through the system, then once they hit a high point he trades them for more prospects. It's a never ending cycle and is the reason why we have to rebuild every 3 years, and every player we grow to love in Cleveland gets traded away.

There will be none of that in this thread about encouraging things. You can keep those thoughts for the comments section on Hoysie's articles.

I will say (and probably regret doing so) that from 2005 til now, our most meaningful players have been Grady, Victor, Hafner, CC, Fausto, Lee, Westbrook and Betancourt (not counting Choo and Cabrera yet).

Of those, Grady, Hafner, Fausto, and Westbrook were extended.

CC was traded a few months before he would sign the highest contract ever given to a pitcher (and landed at least one impact player in return).

Lee was traded for the first of three times, including once because the PHILLIES knew they couldn't meet his contract demands.

Victor was traded for a slew of pitchers when we needed to add pitchers to the organization. And he was showing signs of age. And we had "the organization's best bat since Manny" ready to go at his position.

I guess I don't have a justification for Betancourt other than he's old...and a middle reliever.

And there's more circumstances I don't feel like getting into (see: last place, no hope at contending at the trade deadline)

Basically there's no sense complaining about losing the guys we have now. Certainly not in a thread about encouraging things.

CLEVELandMILIDH

More good news, Cabrera's in the starting lineup tonight

By Anthony Castrovince / MLB.com

07/20/10 7:44 PM ET

MINNEAPOLIS -- Shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera wasn't expecting to rejoin the Tribe until Friday. But the Tribe called Cabrera on Tuesday morning and told him to hop on a flight to the Twin Cities.

Cabrera, who worked his way back from right forearm surgery, was activated off the disabled list in advance of Tuesday's game with the Twins and immediately slotted back into the leadoff spot of manager Manny Acta's order. To make room for Cabrera, reliever Jensen Lewis was designated for assignment and is expected to be officially optioned to Triple-A Columbus later in the week.

Acta said the Indians had to speed up the timetable on Cabrera a few days because of what transpired Monday night, when Austin Kearns left early because of right knee soreness and Michael Brantley injured his right shoulder on a dive in the outfield grass.

With both Kearns and Brantley listed as day-to-day, the Indians needed another position player. It was suggested to Acta that perhaps Cabrera "sent a message" that he was ready when he homered in Double-A Akron's win over Altoona on Monday night.

"Those guys getting banged up sent a message," Acta said. "Or else he'd still be there til Friday."

Cabrera fractured his forearm May 17 against Tampa Bay, when he collided with teammate Jhonny Peralta near second base. He showed no signs of rust during the rehab. In six games at Akron and Class A Mahoning Valley, Cabrera went 7-for-20 (.350) with three doubles, a homer and three RBIs. He is deemed ready to resume his everyday duties at shortstop.

"I hit pretty good down there," he said.

With Cabrera back, the Indians have a new second baseman in rookie Jason Donald, who had been filling in at short. Jayson Nix, who had taken over at second base in recent weeks, will move to a utility role. It began Tuesday, when he was penciled into left field for the first time with the Tribe and just the second time this year.

Donald is batting .276 with two homers and 17 RBIs in 49 games. The Indians view him as a potential core player going forward, so they wanted him to remain in the big leagues and remain in the lineup.

"He's shown a lot of progress," Acta said. "I think he's settled down since the first couple weeks. He's really made a lot of progress in his overall game. He has played himself into this situation."

Acta said he will use Nix "as I see fit," meaning he is not promising Nix a certain number of starts per week or a set position. Claimed off waivers from the White Sox last month, Nix has been a nice find, batting .265 with six homers and 12 RBIs.

As for Cabrera, he might slot into the No. 2 spot of the lineup later in the week, when Shin-Soo Choo returns. Choo, who is expected to be activated Friday, would bat third and Carlos Santana would bat cleanup.

Cabrera, who was batting .287 with one homer and seven RBIs before going on the DL, indicated that he was expecting to bat second.

"It's fine," he said. "It's the position I'm supposed to do all the time. I feel comfortable there."

FearTheRoo

@chris. said:
There will be none of that in this thread about encouraging things. You can keep those thoughts for the comments section on Hoysie's articles.
I will say (and probably regret doing so) that from 2005 til now, our most meaningful players have been Grady, Victor, Hafner, CC, Fausto, Lee, Westbrook and Betancourt (not counting Choo and Cabrera yet).

Of those, Grady, Hafner, Fausto, and Westbrook were extended.

CC was traded a few months before he would sign the highest contract ever given to a pitcher (and landed at least one impact player in return).

Lee was traded for the first of three times, including once because the PHILLIES knew they couldn't meet his contract demands.

Victor was traded for a slew of pitchers when we needed to add pitchers to the organization. And he was showing signs of age. And we had "the organization's best bat since Manny" ready to go at his position.

I guess I don't have a justification for Betancourt other than he's old...and a middle reliever.

And there's more circumstances I don't feel like getting into (see: last place, no hope at contending at the trade deadline)

Basically there's no sense complaining about losing the guys we have now. Certainly not in a thread about encouraging things.

It could be encouraging for people who like bad news?

Chris.

@feartheroo said:
It could be encouraging for people who like bad news?

Touche.

For the people who like good news, though, how about Masterson tonight? The Twins are sans-Morneau but still a tough lineup with a lot of good lefties and Masterson's making pretty short work out of them. Like I've said, when he's on top of his game, Masterson can be our best pitcher. Just has to get the consistency down.

And for people who don't like Jason Donald, Jason Kipnis hit two more home runs today for the Aeros, should be plenty of options at second in the near future. (And for people who like Donald, he roped a two-out RBI double, which is good too.)

CLEVELandMILIDH

I hope Perez closes the rest of the season, absolutely dominant out there. Only thing I would like to see change is send Brantley back to the minors, theres gotta be somebody that can play the outfield and hit better than atleast .200. Hell if Duncan can play outfield why not stick Marzon out there, what options are there in Columbus as far as outfielders

cdl15

nmills said:
I hope Perez closes the rest of the season, absolutely dominant out there. Only thing I would like to see change is send Brantley back to the minors, theres gotta be somebody that can play the outfield and hit better than atleast .200. Hell if Duncan can play outfield why not stick Marzon out there, what options are there in Columbus as far as outfielders

I like kearns Crowe and Choo in the outfield

Santana catching

Laporta at 1st

Donald at 2nd

Cabrera at SS

If we could just find a tru 3rd baseman we would be pretty solid.

Chris.

nmills said:
I hope Perez closes the rest of the season, absolutely dominant out there. Only thing I would like to see change is send Brantley back to the minors, theres gotta be somebody that can play the outfield and hit better than atleast .200. Hell if Duncan can play outfield why not stick Marzon out there, what options are there in Columbus as far as outfielders

I think Acta knows what he's doing with Brantley, who doesn't really have much more to prove in the minors - where he's a career .300 hitter with more walks than strikeouts. He obviously hasn't been much of a leadoff guy for the Tribe, but this year is 100% about player development, and he's our best center field prospect. No sense giving him the Wedge treatment, bouncing around and in and out of the lineup. We've seen what consistent ABs meant for LaPorta.

If we could just find a tru 3rd baseman we would be pretty solid.

Could be Nix and/or Jared Goedert before long.

Chris.

Choo's back. Woohoo.

(Laffey to the DL - from Castro's twitter - "Justin Masterson takes Laffey's originally scheduled Sunday start on standard rest. Indians will need a starter Tuesday vs. Yankees.")