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A Reason To Cheer?
July 23, 2010 By Erik Krevh
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The Cleveland Indians are relevant again! Who knew? Well, not relevant as in a team that is threatening to make the playoffs this year, but interesting enough to have me lift my boycott from watching the team since they foolishly traded away Cliff Lee and Victor Martinez. Those moves infuriated me to the point that after those moves were made, I did not watch or listen to a single Tribe game for the remainder of the year. This year I only casually watched highlights of games on the news until about a month ago.
When C.C. was traded two years ago, the move made sense. Getting something in return for him was important due to his impending free agency the following year. After all, it's not as if he was a home town born and raised kid who was living out a fantasy of bringing a championship to his home town. No one would ever leave given that sort of opportunity, would they?...Oh wait... someone might....
Trading away the second Cy Young award winner whom the Indians had locked up for another year and a half, and then following that up by trading away Martinez, who genuinely wanted to play with this team, was just short of criminal.
In the off season, getting rid of Eric Wedge was a positive move Signing an aging Russell Braynan, not so much. Hiring Manny Acta seems like a correct hire, but time will tell. To start the year, he needed to go through a talent evaluation phase and now seems to be putting the right pieces in place giving the Indians a somewhat competitive club. It didn't help when arguably the three best position players on the team all went down with injuries. That is exactly what happened with Grady Sizemore, Asdrubal Cabrera and Shin-Soo Choo.
There are some promising players moving up from the farm system. Matt LaPorta, the centerpiece from the C.C. Sabathia trade, looks like he should be solid for years to come. Where he spends most of his time in the field is still in question, although his hitting is sound. Carlos Santana is probably the most promising young player on the team. Remember which trade he was acquired in? If you guessed it was for Lee, C.C. or Martinez, you would be wrong. He was part of the Casey Blake deal from the Dodgers. History waits to be written, but Mark Shapiro's best trade might end up being one that seemed insignificant when it was made. Jason Donald, part of the Cliff Trade, is playing some nice ball as well.
In case you haven't noticed, the Indians are 6-1 since the All Star break. Cabrera is back already and Choo is on his way back as well. With Fausto Carmona appearing to find his form from three years ago, and Westbrook pitching well, the second half of the Indians season might finally give this town something to cheer about during the dog days of August. A foundation and plan, is not only being put into place, but solidifying before our very eyes. Unless of course, Indians upper management decides to hold another fire sale.
