Mound Talk

The Cleveland Indians finished off the 2007 season with a loss to the Boston Red Sox in the AL Championship. They appeared to match up well with the Red Sox with their two Cy Young candidates (CC Sabathia & Fausto Carmona) at the top of the rotation. Sabathia had a disappointing performance and the Red Sox prevailed to go on to the World Series. Cleveland looks to bounce back and make another run to the playoffs with the current makeup of their team.

The Indians went into the 2007 with a $61.6 million payroll and they have ability to increase that number as much as they need. Many people have forgotten that Cleveland used to field some of the higher payrolls in baseball and the current state of baseball allows them to increase as they see fit, which should help them continue to keep their home grown players and make the key free agent acquisitions as they need. Because of this payroll flexibility you do not hear people discussing the possibility of Sabathia being traded, even though he will be a free agent at the end of 2008. Cleveland will likely try to lock him up to a long term contract like they did with Travis Hafner last season.

Potential players leaving

Kenny Lofton (OF) – $6 million (paid prorated salary after July acquisition)
Trot Nixon (OF) - $3 million

The Indians have $6 million coming off their books and after current acquisitions and raises they will be increasing their payroll by $14.2 million. Cleveland will not be losing much by way of free agency and they have already addressed some needs through trade and free agency with the signing of Japanese reliever Masahide Kobayashi and their trade with Colorado that brought in Jamey Carroll. They may bring back Trot Nixon or they may look for a lower cost free agent outfielder like Lew Ford, Darin Erstad or Bobby Kielty. There has been some rumors lately that they may go after Dan Haren, and they have the young pitchers that Oakland would require in a trade. This would give them arguably the best rotation going into the 2008 season and also backup incase they are unable to retain CC after the 2008 season.

Strengths

Starting Staff – The top two starters for Cleveland are arguably the best tandem in baseball. What really makes this staff strong is in the back end with Jake Westbrook, Paul Byrd and a combination of Cliff Lee, Aaron Laffey & Jeremy Sowers. Westbrook is the key to the success of this staff as a whole, from 2004-2006 he average 15 wins, 210+ innings & a 4.01 ERA, he is possibly the strongest number 3 in baseball and could be the number 2 on many teams.

Weaknesses

Outfield Offense – Grady Sizemore is outstanding in centerfield both with his bat and with his glove. The corner outfield spots, usually the stronger offensive positions for most teams, are lacking on production. Franklin Gutierrez, in rightfield, has shown he could be good but it shouldn’t be expected for him to much better than he has shown. Leftfield is a spot that if Cleveland upgraded they could have a very scary lineup, one that could stack up very well against Detroit, New York & Boston.

Off-season Priorities

Cleveland has already upgraded their bullpen after picking up Kobayashi but they could like to upgrade their closer. Joe Borowski gives them a capable closer but he has to make his manager and definitely the fans nervous when he comes in a close game. They are not likely to do so but could move one of their current bullpen arms into that spot if Joe struggles.

There has been some speculation that the Indians are targeting a trade for Dan Haren or Joe Blanton. While Haren would make this the best staff in baseball, Blanton would come at a cheaper trade price and would still be an upgrade to the staff. They have the prospects and major league ready pitchers that would be attractive to Oakland (Laffey and Sowers). The first priority would have to be Haren for a variety of reasons, none bigger than to give them an amazing staff to quite the big bats now in Detroit.

If they do decide to make an upgrade in leftfield it would not be surprising to see them reopen trade talk with Pittsburgh for Jason Bay with Cliff Lee as the centerpiece of the Cleveland side.