The Indians began the first working week of the
New Year with a bang on Monday as they signed four players and moved to shore up
the late innings with a deal with the Montreal Expos. The update went out
yesterday and the details now follow.
Scott Stewart was acquired from the 'Spos for prospects Ryan Church and Maicer
Izturis and instantly becomes the Indians main left-hander out of the bullpen
although Mark Shapiro considers him more than just a LOOGY (lefty one out guy).
Originally drafted by the Rangers in 1994 (20th round), Stewart lasted only two
seasons with Texas before being released. He spent 1996 in the independent
Northern League and then signed on with the Mets where he spent the next four
seasons. A starter for most of his unspectacular minor league career, Stewart
converted to the bullpen during his final season in the Mets system in a move
that ultimately salvaged his career. He signed with the Expos that offseason as
a minor league free agent and debuted in the Expos bullpen, posting a 3-1 record
with a 3.78 ERA in 47.2 innings with 39 strikeouts. The following year found
Stewart pressed into the closers role and he responded admirably, saving 17
games, holding hitters to a .207 BAA and .593 OPS, and fanning 67 in 64 innings
(49 H, 22 BB) to go along with a 3.09 ERA. Offseason elbow surgery slowed
Stewart down somewhat to start 2003 and he also lost a month and a half due to
an emergency appendectomy but still managed to post a 3.98 ERA in 43 innings,
although his H/IP and K/IP ratios tailed off dramatically from 2002 (43 IP, 52
H, 13 BB, 29 K).
When healthy, Stewart has shown that he can be a strong force in the back end of
the bullpen, especially against left-handers whom he held to a .159 BAA and .398
OPS in 2002. His splits last year were much higher (.283 vs lefties and .318 vs
righties) but let's hope that can be attributed to the injuries. Eligible for
arbitration, Stewart should command a salary somewhere in the $1 million range
for 2003 and that's one reason why, along with the presence of Joey Eischen and
Randy Choate in the Montreal bullpen, he was available. He'll likely join David Riske as the primary setup men for Bob Wickman and should help solidify the 8th
and 9th inning for Eric Wedge.
I like Stewart and I think he can help the Indians this season. My concern (or
reservation) about this trade is why now? This seems like the kind of deal you
would make if you're a 90-win ballclub and the tough lefty out of the pen gets
you to 95 wins or shuts down Jason Giambi in the playoffs. The Indians are not
that kind of team (yet) and if Stewart improves you to 75 wins instead of 70 is
that really worth two decent prospects? Perhaps it is (especially if you think
Church and Izturis are less than decent prospects), but my other reservation is
whether or not Stewart will be anything more than a one year player for the
Indians. Keep in mind that he's arbitration eligible this year which will bump
his salary into the $1 million neighborhood. If he pitches as well as the
Indians expect (and you had better believe they expect him to pitch well
considering what they gave up) his salary could jump into the $2.0-$2.5 million
range for 2005 which may price him out of the Indians price range. Even if he
just has a solid, but not spectacular, season his salary will still take a big
hike next year and I would think there's a good chance the Indians could
non-tender him rather than pay that kind of money to an average reliever. Of
course, we won't know whether any of this will play out until the fall but I
think it's a concern worth noting.
As for what the Indians gave up, neither Ryan Church or Maicer Izturis would
have been high on the Indians prospect lists when they are released in the next
month or so but that doesn't mean that they don't have any value. Church, in
particular, has been recently compared to Jim Edmonds by Indians management and
even yesterday, Mark Shapiro was quoted in the paper as saying that "Church
has great athleticism and a good upside as a left-handed hitter". That good
upside part is what has me worried especially if Stewart turns out to be nothing
more than a one (or even two) year pitcher for the Tribe. He's still a year away
from the bigs (I'm talking about Church) and he's getting old for a prospect
(he'll play 2004 at the age of 25) but good upside is good upside. It's true
that the Indians have a logjam in the outfield and the odds of Church bypassing
Milton Bradley, Coco Crisp, Ryan Ludwick, Alex Escobar, Matt Lawton, Jody Gerut,
and Grady Sizemore were pretty slim so there's no debating the fact that he was
expendable but when you're working under tight financial restraints, maximizing
your resources is a key and I question whether or not the Indians did that in
this deal. I like adding Stewart, I don't mind dealing Church (or Izturis), but
I just wonder if we moved him in the right deal for the right return.
And, it bears mentioning that it didn't exactly work out well the last time the
Indians traded a young outfielder (Brian Giles) for a left-handed reliever
(Ricardo Rincon). Although, to be fair, Giles was already an established major
leaguer while Church has yet to face triple-A pitching but wasn't the
Giles-Rincon deal one of the first thoughts to pass through your mind when you
heard about this trade?
As for Izturis, he's another whose path was blocked by higher profile prospects
ahead of him, in this case Brandon Phillips at second and Jhonny Peralta at
short (not to mention Hector Luna, if he's returned from the Cardinals, and Ivan
Ochoa). When Mark Shapiro was quoted as saying that "we've got two guys
ahead of him that would have made it difficult for him to play at Buffalo this
year" I'll take that to mean Peralta will stay at short this year with
Phillips at second and third base is open in Buffalo (perhaps for the recently
signed Kevin Orie or Chris Clapinski). Izturis has some skills but lacks power
and since he really profiles best as a utility player his loss is not a major
one for the Indians system.
On a side note, this may be the first of several multi-prospect for one deals
the Indians make this season as they work to clear roster space for all the
players that need to be added to the 40-man roster next offseason as well as
remove logjams at various levels in the system.
For the record, Church hit .261/.325/.429/.754 last season in Akron with 13
homeruns and was bothered by a nagging hand injury that allowed him to play in
only 99 games. He also left the Arizona Fall League after five games with a sore
hamstring. Izturis hit .280/.351/.390/.741 with 14 steals in Akron and
.262/.317/.362/.679 with 14 steals for Buffalo last year with a combined 27
doubles, 9 triples, and 3 homeruns.
The Tribe next added a candidate for the rotation when they signed right-hander
Jeff D'Amico to a minor league contract that includes an invite to spring
training. The 28-year old D'Amico spent last season with the Pirates where he
went 9-16 with a 4.77 ERA in 175.1 innings (204 H, 42 BB, 100 K, 23 HR).
Opposing hitters reached him at a .291/.331/.469/.793 clip and his splits were
almost dead-even at .290 vs righties and .293 versus lefties. As a continuation
of a three-year trend, D'Amico pitched much better in the first half of the
season with a 3.77 pre-all-star game ERA as opposed to a 5.76 post-all-star game
break ERA (three-year trends, 4.38 pre-ASB ERA and 6.05 post-ASB ERA) and that
may be related to D'Amico's lengthy injury history which we'll get to in a
second.
Originally drafted by the Brewers in 1993 with the 23rd overall pick of the
first round, D'Amico underwent elbow surgery and missed the entire first season
of his pro career. He then rushed through the Brewers system in the next year
and a half and made his pro debut at the age of 20 in 1996, making 17 starts and
posting a 5.44 ERA with a 6-6 record. As befalls many young pitchers rushed to
the majors too soon, especially those recovering from injury, D'Amico broke down
again and required two separate shoulder surgeries that forced him to sit out
the next two seasons.
Healthy again in 2000, D'Amico fulfilled the potential the Brewers saw in him as
he turned in the third best ERA in the National League at 2.66, trailing only
Kevin Brown and Randy Johnson, and posting a 12-7 record in 162 innings (143 H,
46 BB, 101 K). That led to a nice $2.3 million contract for 2001 but a
compressed nerve between his shoulder and elbow required surgery to correct and
caused him to miss the last four months of the season after making only 13
starts. The Brewers finally gave up on D'Amico (or pleaded no mas to the
injuries) and dealt him to the Mets that offseason in the Jeromy Burnitz-Glendon
Rusch deal. Healthy again (didn't I just say that?), D'Amico got off to a hot
start for the Mets, posting a 2.94 ERA in April and a 3.12 ERA in May before
tailing off the final four months of the season to finish with a 4.94 ERA in 29
appearance (22 starts) and allowing 152 hits in 145.2 innings. As noted above,
D'Amico trended similarly last season with the Pirates, pitching well in the
early months before tiring and being hit hard in the second half. After four
surgeries in eight years, you have to wonder if he and his arm can hold up (or
pitch effectively) for a full season.
That said, he's a decent risk for a minor league contract. If he can come
anywhere close to his 2000 performance, the Indians will have a major bargain.
If he bombs, or his arm blows up, it's at minimal cost and the Indians can cut
bait relatively quick and inexpensively. He'll compete with Jake Westbrook,
Jason Stanford, Chad Durbin, and Jason Bere for one of the two vacant spots in
the Indians rotation.
It's also worth noting that the Indians apparantly pursued Cory Lidle and Jason Johnson but were outbid by the Reds and Tigers respectively. Lidle, especially,
I think would have been an interesting option if the Indians could have landed
him for a decent price (read: cheap). Oh well, I'll just have to bid $3 (the
perfect bid) for him in the CCARBL auction this year.
Luther Hackman is a 29-year old right-hander who spent last season working out
of the Padres bullpen, posting a 5.17 ERA with a .261 BAA and a 2-2 record in
76.2 innings (78 H, 36 BB, 48 K). Not that impressive, but if you remove five
outings in which he allowed 19 runs in four innings, his ERA drops to 3.10. Of
course, you could probably make similar claims for a slew of pitchers.
Originally drafted by the Rockies in 1994 (6th round), the 6-4, 195 lb. Hackman
made his major league debut in Colorado in 1999 before being traded to St.Louis
(along with Darryl Kile) in November of that year. He stuck in the big leagues
for good in 2001 when he went 1-2 with a 4.29 ERA in 35 innings for the Cards
and followed that up with his best season, a 5-4, 4.11 campaign in 81 innings in
2002. For his career, Hackman has a 9-10 record with one save and a 5.09 ERA.
Depsite his size, he's not a strikeout pitcher as his K/IP (128 K in 212 IP) and
K/BB (128 K vs 105 BB) are both poor.
Of some note are his righty/lefty splits although he's trending the opposite of
what you might expect. Over the past three years, right-handers have hit Hackman
to the tune of .172 (2001), .279 (2002), .277 (2003) while left-handers have
managed averages of .308 (2001), .298 (2002), and .238 (2003) marking him as a
candidate for a Daber "reserve righty" role in a strat-o-matic
bullpen. If he could ever combine his 2001 righty success with his 2003 lefty
success, that would be the makings of a pretty interesting back of the bullpen
horse. Until then, however, he's injury insurance at triple-A and should be
viewed as a longshot to break camp with the Indians this spring.
Matt Miller is a 32-year old right-hander who made his major league debut with
the Rockies last year, allowing a run in 4.1 innings and striking out five last
summer. Sandwiched around that performance in the show was a dominating season
in triple-A in which Miller struck out 83 in 63.1 innings while holding opposing
hitters to a .204 average and posting a 2.13 ERA. He permitted just 46 hits,
walked 15, and did not allow a homerun all season. Wow. And those numbers are
all the more impressive considering that he pitched in the Pacific Coast League
and at altitude in Colorado Springs. Wow (again). Miller continued his fine
season in winterball in Puerto Rico where he finished the just completed Puerto
Rican winter league regular season by not allowing a run in 19. innings (0.00
ERA) and striking out 21. Wow again (again). He did walk 14 in those 19 frames
so consider that a note of caution.
Despite all these gaudy numbers, however, Miller was nontendered by the Rockies
in December which rendered him a free-agent and led to his eventual signing with
the Tribe. Miller's baseball past is a difficult one to google but here's what I
turned up. He was an undrafted free-agent who attended Delta State and the
Indians will be the 5th organization for whom he has played. He spent 1998 with
Greenville of the independent Central League, 2002 pitching for the A's triple-A
affiliate in Sacramento (3-7, 4.31, 71 IP, 63 K), and the Sporting News says
that the Rockies returned him to triple-A this past summer because of concerns
on how he would fare against left-handers in the big leagues. Consider him more
triple-A insurance for the bullpen.
Kevin Orie was once considered the Cubs third basemen of the future but those
days have long since passed for the 31-year old journeymen. In fact, he sat out
all last season after undergoing two surgeries to repair a torn labrum and was
released by the Cubs last March after his second tour of duty with the
Northsiders. His most recent experience came in 2002 when he hit a healthy
.299/.358/.578/.936 with 20 homers in 299 at-bats for triple-A Iowa and also
went 9-for-32 (.281) with the Cubs. Those 20 longballs were a career high for
Orie and the first time he ever knocked out double-digit homeruns.
The Indians will be his 7th organization after he was originally drafted by the
Cubs in the 1st round of the 1993 draft and subsequently bounced around to the
Marlins, Dodgers, Royals, Yankees, Phillies, and then back again to the Cubs. If
healthy, Orie is another solid bat for the Bisons lineup and will serve as big
league insurance if anything happens to Casey Blake. At the same time, all bets
may be off if rule 5 pick Luis Gonzalez is returned by the Rockies.
Terry Mulholland will not return to the Indians next season after he and Mark
Shapiro could not agree to terms and I suspect the "terms" had more to
do with innings and opportunity than money. With Scott Stewart and Bobby Howry
joining incumbents Bob Wickman, David Riske, Jack Cressend, and Rafael Betancourt (and the Indians reportedly ready to add another bullpen arm this
week), the bullpen is suddenly a crowded piece of real estate and I doubt the
Indians were ready to guarantee Mulholland a spot on the opening day roster
especially when one of the starting candidates could start the season as the
long-man out of the pen. The Indians had until January 8 to sign Mulholland
since he refused their offer of arbitration last month.
Danys Baez passed his physical and officially signed a two-year contract with
the Devil Rays yesterday. The St.Petersburg Times reports that Baez will receive
a $500k signing bonus and a base salary of $1.5 million this year and $3.5
million in 2005. He'll also have the opportunity to earn $250k in incentives in
each of those seasons. The Rays can buy out his $4 million club option in 2006
for $1 million which brings the guaranteed value of his contract to $6.5
million. He'll face his former teammates for the first time on Friday, May 14 at
the Jake.
Roberto Alomar has agreed to terms on a one-year deal with the Arizona
Diamondbacks where he'll join former teammate Richie Sexson to form a new
right-side of the infield in the desert.
Eric Young officially signed with the Rangers and Damian Jackson did the same
with the Rockies. Jackson's is a minor league deal with a spring training
invite.
The Royals inked Juan Gonzalez to a one-year contract that will pay the former
Tribe slugger $4 million with the opportunity to earn an additional $2 million
in incentives that are tied to at-bats. The Royals hold a $7 million option for
2005 with a $500k buyout. Even with all the baggage Juan Gone brings, this is a
good signing for the Royals with potentially huge dividends. And if it doesn't
pan out, at least it's only for one year and not for all that many dollars.
Hopefully, the Indians will be in the market for such signings next offseason.
Dennis Eckersley and Paul Molitor were elected to the Hall of Fame yesterday. I
wonder if Eck will go in wearing a Tribe hat :-) Here's the results (380 votes
or 75% needed for election, Indians in bold): Paul Molitor 431 85.2%, Dennis
Eckersley 421 83.2%, Ryne Sandberg 309 61.1%, Bruce Sutter 301 59.5%, Jim
Rice 276 54.5%, Andre Dawson 253 50%, Goose Gossage 206 40.7%, Lee Smith 185
36.6%, Bert Blyleven 179 35.4%, Jack Morris 133 26.3%, Steve
Garvey 123 24.3%, Tommy John 111 21.9%, Alan Trammell 70 13.8%, Don
Mattingly 65 12.8%, Dave Concepcion 57 11.3%, Dave Parker 53 10.5%, Dale Murphy
43 8.5%, Keith Hernandez 22 4.3%, Joe Carter 19 3.8%, Fernando
Valenzuela 19 3.8%, Dennis Martinez 16 3.2%, Dave Stieb 7 1.4%, Jim
Eisenreich 3 0%, Jimmy Key 3 0%, Doug Drabek 2 0%, Kevin Mitchell 2 0%,
Juan Samuel 2 0%, Cecil Fielder 1 0%, Randy Myers 1 0%, Terry Pendleton 1
0%, Danny Darwin 0 0%, Bob Tewksbury 0 0%. Note that anyone who received less
than 5% of the vote will be removed from future ballots. I'm a little surprised
that Joe Carter and Dennis Martinez didn't receive more support.
So Pete Rose finally admitted that he bet on baseball and Reds games. What a
surprise. I just hope that Bud Selig has the cajones to say "you bet on
baseball so you're banned for life, end of discussion". That would be
awesome. I just wonder if it will take him an additional 14 years to admit that
he bet against the Reds.
Nina back on 24 is very cool. How long before they bring back President
Cerrano's wife? That would be sweet. Arrested Development is the best comedy on
TV (note: I don't have HBO so Curb Your Enthusiasm fans please curb your venom).
Celebrity Mole returns tonight. Yeah, it doesn't take much to get me excited.
Looks like I forgot about Ronnie Belliard. Oh well, that's old news by now so
there's no harm in saving that for the next report.