Other wise known as Winter Ball North year round !

I actually think the Indians have quite a few interesting trade pieces this winter. Let's see what we do in the next couple of weeks. Dec 2nd is a soft deadline if we want to move or non-tender our arbitration eligible players (ie Stubbs)....

The Angels and Joe Smith have agreed on a three-year contract for around $15 million, CBS Sports' Jon Heyman reports.
Smith immediately bolsters the Angels' pen, as he compiled a 2.29 ERA with 25 holds in 63 innings last season. The Angels have already named Ernesto Frieri as their closer next season but Smith may immediately take over the setup role. The 29-year-old did save three games last year for the Indians should Frieri falter.


Source: Jon Heyman on Twitter Nov 23 - 9:49 PM

Carlos Santana has been taking grounders at third base and could see some time at the hot corner in winter ball, according to Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Lonnie Chisenhall isn't really the answer at third for the Indians, so it makes sense that they'd be open to some different options. Still, Santana hasn't played more than a handful of games at third base since he was a minor leaguer in the Dodgers organization in 2006, so a position change is not likely in the 27-year-old's future. The catcher/first baseman hit .268/.377/.455 in 154 games last year.


Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer Nov 23 - 6:35 PM

Pluto About David Murphy ...

1. Last season was the worst of Murphy's eight-year career. He batted .220 (.656 OPS) with 13 homers and 45 RBI. He had 476 plate appearances, so he played -- a lot. Texas kept waiting for him to return to the form of 2012, when he was a .304 hitter (.859 OPS) with 15 homers and 61 RBI.

2. The Tribe signed him to a deal that breaks down this way: $5.5 million (2013), $6 million (2014), $7 million (only $500,000 guaranteed) in 2015. So they have guaranteed $12 million to a guy who batted .220. Why? The answer is BABIP, one of the new stats.

3. BABIP stands for Batting Average Ball In Play. In other words, what is a player's batting average when he hits a fair ball? In 2012, Murphy's BABIP was .333 (He batted .304). In 2011 it was .299 (he batted .275). In 2010 it was .324 (He batted .291).

4. What's the point? The BABIP is supposed to measure luck. If a guy had a BABIP of .330 and his average is .318 -- he had a lot of balls drop in for hits.

5. The Tribe believes part of Murphy's problems in 2013 was rotten luck. His BABIP was .227 (He batted .220). His .227 BABIP ranked 167th out of 170 regular players in the American League.

6. The average range for BABIP is .290-.310, according to fangraphs.com. On the Tribe, the top BABIP's: Jason Kipnis (.345), Yan Gomes (.342), Michael Bourn (.338), Drew Stubbs (.319). Players with speed (such as Bourn and Stubbs) tend to have higher BABIPs because they have more infield hits.

7. Your head may feel like it needs 15 aspirin to deal with BABIPs. They even checked something called "Line Drive Rate," meaning how often does a player hit a line drive? In 2012 (When Murphy batted .304), it was 21 percent. Last season (a .220 hitter), it was 19 percent of his hits were line drives. So it was not a huge decline.

8. Murphy told the Tribe that early in the season he added more of an uppercut to his swing -- attempting to hit more homers after Josh Hamilton left the Rangers for the Angels. The Indians had video tape of every at-bat by Murphy in 2012 and 2013, and they saw a slight uppercut, but not a huge difference.

9. The Tribe wants to develop a platoon in right field with Ryan Raburn (against lefties) and Murphy (against righties). Rayburn batted .308 (1.020 OPS) vs. lefties. He was .243 (.805 OPS) vs. righties.

10. From 2010-12, Murphy batted .296, .296 and .298 vs. righties. Last season, it was .219.

11. There has been some speculation that signing Murphy means the Indians may release Stubbs. Not likely. They are looking to trade him. Stubbs is respectable against lefties (.266), but Raburn has grabbed that job from him. Stubbs hit .216 vs. righties. He will receive a contract of at least $3.5 million for this season in baseball's inflated age.

12. If Stubbs is traded, the Tribe will need a fifth outfielder. Matt Carson would come to training camp as the favorite to win that job.

13. Murphy is an above average right fielder. He is considered a strong clubhouse guy. The Tribe's Terry Francona managed Murphy briefly in 2006 and 2007 when both were with the Red Sox. Francona really wanted Murphy.

Indians designated RHP Tyler Cloyd for assignment.

The move cleared a roster spot for new outfielder David Murphy, who was officially signed to a two-year, $12 million free agent contract on Monday. Cloyd, 26, posted a 6.56 ERA in 60 1/3 innings with the Phillies in 2013. He was claimed off waivers by the Tribe in October.


Nov 25 - 11:59 AM

Offseason Rundown: Gettin' the Platoon Back Together; Smith Signs with Angels
Written by Nino Colla

Nino Colla

dmurphyFollowing the 2005 season when the Indians made an incredible, yet unexpected push towards the playoffs, there was some clamoring for them to do something to take that next step. An outfielder, a pitcher, some bullpen help, whatever. There were positives, but there were still holes and a reason the Tribe missed out following a 93-win season.

If you remember from the Kazmir piece, the Indians signed Paul Byrd that offseason, they also added Todd Hollandsworth (spell it again), and traded for Jason Michaels. That was the extent of their offseason, because do we really need to mention Coco Crisp was traded to Boston for Andy Marte? During the spring, they traded Brandon Phillips (oh no) and eventually the season spiral led them to trading Bob Wickman, Ben Broussard, and Eduardo Perez.

That of course netted them the duo of Shin-Soo Choo and Asdrubal Cabrera for that most successful platoon, which would come into play later, but it also set the stage for a new platoon.

With 2006 a failure and pieces still in place, there was a little more urgency to do something for the 2007 season. Shapiro went crazy, signing three relievers (four if you count retired Keith Foulke) for the bullpen, trading for Josh Barfield, and signing veterans Trot Nixon and David Dellucci. Michaels and Dellucci would combine to make for a platoon in the outfield, with Dellucci serving as the right-handed hitting side and Michaels the left.

I recap all of this to bring you up to speed. It seems as if the Indians are in a similar position to that of where they were in 2005, with the only difference being the lack of playoffs in 2005. Of course there are more differences, but it is almost eerie how the situations are mirroring each other.

And the talking of Michaels and Dellucci? Well, I only say this because it looks as if the Indians are venturing into the realm of platoons in the outfield once again.

[FROM SPITTOON TO PLATOON]

I've always liked David Murphy, quietly serving as a nice piece to Texas' puzzle the past few seasons. Attention is and always has been on Josh Hamilton, Nelson Cruiz, Elvis Andrus, Adrian Beltre, and Ian Kinsler (uh about that!?), but Murphy has always been in the fold as a key piece to the bigger picture.

The fact of the matter is, you need players like David Murphy on a team. You need your role players to fill out rosters because as Manny Acta would so eloquently say many times...You can't have a lineup of 9 Albert Pujolses and a rotation of 5 Roy Halladays. Of course now a days if you had a roster of those two players, you wouldn't really have a roster, now would you?

Cleveland made their first real big move of the offseason in signing David Murphy to a two-year deal with a club option for a third in 2016. Murphy is 32 and used to play for Terry Francona in 2006 and 2007 (heyyy....) in Boston. It wasn't until he was sent to Texas in the Kason Gabbard deal (you may remember it as the Eric Gagne deal, I choose to remember it as the Kason Gabbard deal) that he broke through in 2008.

Before I make this incredibly long-winded (like you know I do) and mention Kason Gabbard's name four times (just three so far) we should just focus on the things that matter here, as well as tie in this whole Dellichaels (Dellucci + Michaels, check the graveyard) thing.

Not counting 2009 (because he didn't really play), Dellucci hit .239 in two seasons against right-handed hitters. Michaels in the two seasons Dellucci was there, hit .247 against left-handers. So there ya go. Of course there's more than that, Michael actually played a good amount against right-handers in 2007 and actually had a nice seasons as one of those role players we talked about.

Which scarily, makes the parallels between the Michaels acquisition and the Murphy signing all-too-similar. A lot of people shouted "David Dellucci 2.0!" when the Indians signed Murphy, but really, Michaels is more like the caliber of player the Indians are getting, not Dellucci, even though they share a first name.

Murphy is career .280 hitter against right-handers, compared to the .264 average Dellucci had. Michaels hit .278 against lefties, the guys he primarily was good against. Murphy can play all three outfield spots, much like Michaels could, Dellucci was hamstrung (no-pun intended) to a corner spot and generally wasn't that good in it..

The one thing they seem similar in is the pop, with Dellucci and Murphy mirroring each other in homers. The scary part of all this is that Murphy is the same age that Dellucci was when the Indians signed him, and the Indians are going to pay Murphy double what they paid Delluci. Of course times have changed, but six million per for Murphy?

To me, I like it more than I like the idea of signing David Dellucci, but that's with hindsight and all sorts of venom built up for that man.

Here's where the platoon comes in. Ryan Raburn is obviously the other part of this puzzle. Murphy is going to play more, he plays against the right-handed pitchers which make up more of the starting pitchers in baseball than the left-handers. Of course the Indians are getting a bargain in Raburn at less than $3 million per year, which brings the total price paid for an outfielder at around $9 million.

MLBTradeRumors has Drew Stubbs projected to earn somewhere around $3.8 million next season either through arbitration or through the Indians signing him, and they have Michael Brantley right around that price as well. And of course, we know Michael Bourn will earn $13.5 million next year.

So obviously you have $30 million tied up in the outfield as of now, but with all those names, someone has to go and everyone automatically is pointing to Drew Stubbs, as they should. Stubbs is the right-handed version of David Murphy. The Indians saw a guy in Raburn that is cheaper, much much better, and more versatile, so that's who've they kept. It became pretty clear that point that Stubbs would be the odd man out and the Indians would find a way to reorganize. Murphy is the way they've done that. Swisher can go back to first full time and split DH duties with Carlos Santana, things look to be lined up.

I think the Indians will end up trading Drew Stubbs. It makes sense to do and the Indians could get some value for him. Even if you wanted to keep Raburn "on the goon squad" in that capacity, Stubbs is the odd man out. If you were to break it down, as good as Stubbs was against lefties last year (and is in his career) at .266/.361/.357 with two homers and 15 RBI, Raburn was just so much better at .308/.403/.617 with seven homers and 21 RBI. Buster Olney reported that teams have approached the Indians about Stubbs, and perhaps that picks up now that the Indians have Murphy officially in the fold.

Now, Jacob Rosen brought up an interesting idea on WFNY and one that did cross my mind, especially when you look at the $13 million price tag this year and the way he ended up playing last year. How about Michael Bourn? As in, how about trading him?

He would obviously net you more value than Stubbs, and also provide much more salary relief, but then you'd have to get another guy to start in center with Stubbs, or trade Stubbs too and just find a way to sign Carlos Beltran.

Jacob's point is well put though, because exploring a deal for Bourn could be something the Indians entertain down the road if the price doesn't match the production. I'd hate to give up on Bourn after one year though, because I think we all know he's capable of so much more than what he contributed in 2013 and he can be that game-changer at the top when he's healthy and stealing bases.

Back to Murphy to wrap this all up... Mark Simon of ESPN's SweetSpot had a post on Murphy and if he could rebound. He uses that BABIP luck stat to show Murphy ran into a bit of bad luck. Then he went to the video to see why his groundball hit rate was down. Simon ended up concluding that there are some things to fix with Murphy, but there is a middle ground from his really good 2012 and his really bad 2013.

Strangely, this was first reported by a newsman in Texas through Twitter, who caught wind from someone who heard his daughter talking about it at daycare. That's a first and hopefully it doesn't lead to reporters going to the schools and daycare places of kids of ballplayers.

And before we move on, if you know me, you know I can't continue without pointing out that David Murphy shares a last name with one of the great animated characters of this generation, Captain Murphy, who gave us one of the great lines ever and perhaps the name I will be calling David moving forward. EGGERS!

[BYE BYE SMITTY]


And with that, Joe Smith is gone. That is a lot of risk with a reliever. If Joe Smith ends up pitching in 70 innings the next three seasons and is effective, more power to the Angels, but rarely does that ever happen. Most teams who sign relievers to these deals are doing it for the first year or two.

Smitty served the Indians well and they got a lot of value out of him, but the writing was the wall. He was set to earn way too much money in this process. He was one of the most coveted non-closer relievers out there because of his versatility, durability, and talent.

The Indians need to move on at this point and they'll look to in different creative ways. But they just paid David Murphy $6 million to play the outfield. Maybe Smith is worth $5 million next year, but as we've seen year-after-year with relievers, it is the long-term that is sketchy.

Last Friday the Indians added another option to their growing bullpen refrigerator magnet throw (toss a bunch, see which stick) this spring by signing Mike Zagurski to a minor league deal with a spring invite. Zagurski is a hunking left-hander who kind of looks like Bobby Jenks but probably doesn't pitch like him. He spent the majority of last season with the Pirates but also spent time in the Yankee organization. Point is, he has a 7.05 career ERA in the majors, so set your minor league stats aside, he's never really done anything his opportunities at the major leagues.

There will be more of these moving forward, but I would be shocked it the Indians made any sort of guaranteed deal, like Joe Smith received from the Angels.

[RANDOM RUNDOWN]

Speaking of the Angels, there was some rumor floated out that the Indians and Angels were going to exchange Corey Kluber and Mark Trumbo. First off, yuk.

Second off, there was confirmation from the Angels side that the report was, at least to them, shocking.

It would shock me as well because this team just lost two of its starting pitchers, at least, will lose two of their starting pitchers when (not so much if) Kaz and Ubaldo sign their new contracts in new places. To lose another one, especially a young one under team control for a few more years and at a cheap price?

That's not the Indians MO, and it sounds like a fan-dreamed up scenario by either the Angels sides or someone who doesn't realize how good Kluber is on the Indians side. Some fans, pfft.

Speaking of Kaz and Ubaldo, if you wanna see how the market is shaping up, look no further than the four-year $32 million deal the Kansas City Royals gave to Jason Vargas. Hey, decent left-handed starting pitcher these days. But for eight million a year? No thanks. If Vargas gets that, what is Ubaldo going to get? This even helps Scott Kazmir because even though it was one year, someone will want Kazmir because he's left-handed.

This all but sealed the fate of Kazmir with the Indians if you ask me.

I think we've also seen the fate sealed of what the Indians themselves will do with Asdrubal Cabrera. While it didn't seem like it at first, I think the Indians not only will hold onto Asdrubal, they WANT to hold onto Asdrubal. He seems very much in their plans moving forward for 2014 and seeing what the St. Louis Cardinals just did, I think there is two lines of thinking.

With Kinsler off to Detroit for Prince, that effects the Indians in two ways. First, it makes this head-to-head interesting between Detroit and Cleveland. It also removes Elvis Andrus from the trade market, which is a direct competitor to the Indians in trading Asdrubal. Perhaps causing what the Cardinals did.

Secondly, it sets a good market for what Asdrubal Cabrera, who is a free agent after 2014, could get on the open market. Despite the frustrations, there is the ability for Asdrubal to be a top shortstop in this game. It also removes a huge suitor for Cabrera because now, there aren't many teams that are interested in trading for a shortstop.

What happened exactly? Well it appears as if the St. Louis Cardinals are signing Jhonny Peralta to a four year contract. Yes, 31-year-old Jhonny Peralta, a four-year contract and it is presumably to play shortstop, seeing as that is a big need for them. It's also worth $53 million. Yikes. Have fun with that St. Louis!

Seeing how they're going to get a pick for Ubaldo Jimenez, the Indians could take the same line with Asdrubal. Contract year, hope he plays big and gets them to the playoffs, perhaps further, and get a draft pick. If things go south, they could trade him then, because surely a team will want him if he's playing well.

You could also argue his value is probably down from what it was a few years ago.

So I think not only with the Indians hold onto him, they want to hold onto him. They seem very much committed to Cabrera based off what Antonetti and Francona have said and they want him to be their guy. It keeps their "goon squad" as a strength too with Aviles not being in that full-time starting role.

The Indians probably won't be getting an extension off the ground for Cabrera, but they're going to look into a Masterson deal and Justin Masterson would listen, according to Paul Hoynes. His agent says that there are a lot of other things the Indians are worried about right now before they bring up Justin's contract and Justin's side is willing to wait. This is a conversation that gets revisited leading up to spring because right now, the Indians need to see how their 2014 payroll will shake out prior to signing Masterson to a new deal.

The Indians made some moves in regards to their 40-man roster with the Rule 5 Draft looming. They cut Cord Phelps for now to make enough room for five guys to be added prior to the deadline. Those five guys are Carlos Moncrief, Austin Adams, Bryan Price, Jesus Aguilar, and Erik Gonzalez. Aguilar, Moncrief, and Adams are pretty much no-brainers as they near the major league level and have high value. Price is a little bit of a surprise but as close as he is, the Indians obviously feel like he's one of those guys in the mix, and the biggest shocker of them all is Gonzalez, who's spent years in the rookie ball level until this past season.

The team likes Gonzalez though, almost in a Jose Ramirez sort of way I guess. He's young and has some versatility, so, there may be something there, but there isn't a whole heck of a lot known about him.

They still need to clear a spot for David Murphy though, which could happen any day now when the deal is officially finalized and Murphy is added to the roster.

The Indians did add to their coaching staff though, hiring Matt Quatraro to their major league staff as the assistant hitting coach. This now adds a second guy to work with hitters along with Ty Van Burkleo and the result of the Indians taking advantage of the ability to add another person to their major league staff. This is essentially the game evolving with staffs having two pitching guys, it only makes sense that a staff can have two hitting guys and now the Indians have their second. Quatraro beat out Luis Ortiz and has spent the past few yeas in the Rays system s a hitting instructor, coordinator and manager.

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Read more from Nino on The Tribe Daily, his own Indians blog. Don't miss all the fun, photoshopped Indians players, and LOLTribe ridiciulousness.

Arbitration Breakdown: Bailey and Masterson
By Matt Swartz [November 26, 2013 at 8:30am CST]

Over the next few months, I will be discussing some of the higher profile upcoming arbitration cases. I will rely partly on my arbitration model developed exclusively for MLB Trade Rumors, but will also break out some interesting comparables and determine where the model might be wrong.

Both Justin Masterson (pictured) and Homer Bailey enter their third year of arbitration with relatively similar credentials this year, and both are projected to get very similar raises around $4MM. Masterson-JustinSince both players are not first-time eligible players, the rules of arbitration generally dictate that pre-platform year performances are not very importance. Rather, the current salaries on top of which they will receive raises suffice as summaries of their pre-platform year performance.

Masterson and Bailey had pretty similar pre-platform salaries too: $5.35MM for Bailey and $5.6875MM for Masterson. In 2013, Masterson went 14-10 with a 3.45 ERA in 193 innings with 195 strikeouts, while Bailey went 11-12 with a 3.49 ERA in 209 innings with 199 strikeouts. Obviously the ERA and strikeout numbers are almost identical, and the model seems to think that Masteron’s three extra wins only help him a tiny bit more than Bailey’s 16 extra innings. Playing time is extremely important in arbitration hearings, so it is not too surprising that they are still seen as similar by the model. At the same time, Masterson will definitely get some benefit from his wins. We project him to get a $4.0125MM raise as compared with Bailey’s $3.95MM raise, leaving them with $9.7MM and $9.3MM projected salaries respectively.

The comparable starting pitchers in the last few years seem to reinforce these raise approximations. In the last seven years, I looked for third-time arbitration eligible starting pitchers with ERAs in the 3.00-4.00 range, between 10-20 wins, and within 175-225 innings, and found nine guys who met those criteria. They received raises ranging from $2.5-5.9MM, which is obviously a pretty big window, but other than Zambrano’s $5.9MM raise in 2007 (which is largely viewed as an anomaly), the raises fall in the $2.5MM-$4.075MM range. Of course, the lowest raise in there was Wandy Rodriguez’s $2.5MM, but that came as part of a multi-year deal in which he was initially offered $3MM, so maybe the real range is from Kevin Correia’s $2.85MM in 2010 to Oliver Perez’s $4.075MM in 2008. In general, these seven guys are all pretty similar to Masterson and Bailey but I suspect that both inflation and slightly better performances will push them both to the high end of this spectrum.

The limitation on Bailey’s performance is definitely his win total. With just 11 wins in 2013, his team’s poor run support will cost him. A few pitchers in the aforementioned group seem to meet these criteria pretty well. One is Matt Garza, who in 2012 was coming off a 10-10 record to go with a 3.32 ERA in 198 innings. He also had 197 strikeouts, very similar to Bailey’s 199. Of course Bailey had a slightly worse ERA at 3.45, but he also had eleven extra innings pitched. Given the similarity of their numbers but with the extra win and eleven innings, it seems likely that Bailey could argue that Garza’s $3.55MM raise could be a floor for his 2014 raise.

Another possibility that Bailey could use to justify a raise closer to $4MM is the $4.3MM raise that Anibal Sanchez won in a hearing in 2012. He had even fewer wins than Bailey that year, amassing only an 8-9 record, and his 3.67 ERA was worse than Bailey’s too. He did have 202 strikeouts, but had under 200 innings (196 1/3, to be exact) which could give Bailey a leg up on him. Arbitration cases that go to hearings are often tough to use in newer hearings because obviously $4.3MM was seen by the Marlins at the time as too high and chances are a settlement would have come in below $4.3MM (the Marlins offered Sanchez a $3.2MM raise). But nonetheless, both Sanchez and Garza could help Bailey argue for the $3.95MM raise that I’m projecting for him.

This is not very different from the $4.0125MM that I have down for Masterson, even though Masterson had 14 wins. To try to find a good set of comparables for Masterson, I honed the win range to 13-15 wins, and looked for guys with ERAs in the 3.00-4.00 range who also had 175-225 innings. Perez got a $4.075MM raise from the Mets in 2008 when he won his arbitration hearing. Like Sanchez’s raise, Perez’s raise needs to be taken with a grain of salt because it was the result of a hearing, not a settlement, but the fact that Perez’s 15-10 record and 3.56 ERA looks so similar to Masterson’s 14-10 ERA with his 3.45 ERA, that it does warrant a comparison. Perez also only had 177 innings, compared with Masterson’s 193.

Another good, more recent comparable for Masterson is Jason Vargas' raise last year. Vargas got a $3.65MM raise after going 14-11 with a 3.85 ERA in 217 1/3 innings. Of course, Vargas only had 141 strikeouts which puts him well below Masterson’s 195. The extra innings and equal number of wins are a good starting point for the Indians to try to argue that Masterson shouldn’t top the $3.65MM number. Masterson would be better off trying to argue similarity to Sanchez and Perez, whose raises exceeded $4MM after winning cases, but it remains to be seen how much weight those will carry.

Overall, it’s not hard to see that both pitchers will fall reasonably close to a $4MM raise. Some of this is going to come down to how inflation is treated this year, and that is always a bit of a wild card. I suspect that if I’m off in my projections, I’m probably more like to be a few hundred thousand low for both pitchers than high, but if either one of these pitchers settles first and beats $4MM, I suspect the second player to settle to use the first as justification for a larger raise himself.

Pipe dream. This would be soooo ideal. After all, Miggy played 3B! Oh, wait, he sucked there.



By Paul Hoynes, Northeast Ohio Media Group
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on November 25, 2013 at 6:30 AM, updated November 25, 2013 at 12:42 PM
Cleveland Indians 2013


CLEVELAND, Ohio – The last time Carlos Santana played third base with any regularity he was in the low minors with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Things did not go well.

The Indians, however, have talked to Santana about playing third this winter in the Dominican Republic. He’s already been taking ground balls there as part of his off-season workout program.

Manager Terry Francona, when asked about Santana playing third and what it means in regard to next season, said, “You’re getting way ahead of us.”

Santana has been the Indians primary catcher since making his big league debut in 2010. Last season he lost his job to Yan Gomes in August and spent the rest of the year mostly at first base and DH.

How Santana performs at third this winter will probably determine the Indians next step. Presently, third base is being manned by the platoon of Lonnie Chisenhall and Mike Aviles. The Indians have been waiting for Chisenhall to take the job for two years, but injuries and inconsistent play have stopped him.

With Gomes taking over at catcher, and Nick Swisher a regular at first, the switch-hitting Santana could become the full-time DH, but at 27 that’s not going to do much to help his value.

If Santana shows he can play third base on a regular basis, the Indians could add another hitter at DH and improve the offense. Santana has been a consistent run producer for the Indians, averaging 22 homers and 76 RBI over the last three seasons, while never having an OPS lower than .785.

Last season, Santana hit .268 (145-for-541) with 39 doubles, 20 homers, 74 RBI and a .832 OPS. He finished second in the AL with 93 walks.

Francona moved Santana into the cleanup spot in August and the Indians went 33-15 with him hitting fourth. In 48 starts in the cleanup spot, Santana posted a .910 OPS (slugging percentage + on base percentage) to rank ninth in the big leagues for No.4 hitters with at least 200 plate appearances.

Santana started 81 games at catcher, 47 at DH and 24 at first. How he’ll play the hot corner is unknown.

He has not seen regular playing time there since 2006 when he was at Class A Vero Beach and Class A Ogden for the Dodgers. In 38 games at third, Santana made 12 errors for a .860 fielding percentage.

He has not played a game at third since 2008. By that time, the Dodgers had already moved him to catcher. The Indians acquired Santana and pitcher Jon Meloan from the Dodgers for Casey Blake and cash on July 26, 2008.

In my opinion, third base has been an area of concern ever since Buddy Bell exited the Cleveland scene. Third base has been an eye sore for years.

If Santana can perform as well as Miguel Cabrera had this past year, I'll be a happy camper. Cabrera might lack range (range factor 1.8) but he made the routine plays. He's the Jhonny Peralta of third basemen. In 145 games, Cabrera only committed 12 errors. I can live with that. What runs Santana might surrender at third base, he'll more than make up for it at the plate. Besides, If Santana can perform adequately at third base, this would open up other avenues for us on offense.

Our platoon at third base this year (Chisenhall, Reynolds, & Aviles) accumulated 26 errors. The average range factor was (2.8). Not real good. All Santana has to do is equal or better those marks.

We really have nothing to lose and everything to gain. We can always fall back on Aviles and Chisenhall if we had to.

What a BS article by Hoynes.

You know the Tribe is going to try to trade Santana and everybody knows he's a lousy catcher and if you can't play anywhere else, you play firstbase. The thirdbase winterball /spring training experiment is just a showcase for other teams. I'm sure there's a sucker GM out there somewhere.

Peralta got 52 million for 4 years. A GM does not have to be a sucker to trade for Santana.

Nothing wrong with the Tribe showing that they do not have to trade him.

Not sayin' they have to trade him.

A Richardson like offer would be snapped up in a second.

I doubt anybody that need a catcher would make an offer and firstbasemen are a dime a dozen.

Somebody that needs a bat would make an offer and a good defensive showing at 3b in winterball/springtraining just sweetens the pot.

Which all makes sense.

So, gotta ask. Why is it a BS story then ?

I got the impression Hoynse thinks the 3rd base experiment is the Tribe's best option to keep him in the lineup.

I think the Tribe's plan is to showcase him and trade him.