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.