jphat007

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Jan 12, 2006 -> 08:17 AM) If Politte, Cotts, and Hermanson regress a bit our bullpen will be in trouble. And they are all good candidates to regress since they all pretty much had career years last season. And if Buerhle, Vazquez, Garcia, Garland and JC regress our starting pitching will be in trouble. If CC, Cliff Lee, Hafner, Martinez, etc. regress the Indians are in trouble. Anybody can regress at anytime for any reason and be in trouble. There is nothing KW can do to change that.

The bullpen is fine. Politte, Cotts, Jenks and McCarthy are a great 4 even if Hermanson is hurt. Those four would be in the majority of close/late games. The second lefty would occassionally have to face a left handed batter in the 6th or 7th inning, and a guy like Baj would just be a mop up guy in blowouts. I don't see any real problem. Guys like Politte and Cotts could regress, but that's true of any player in the majors. Can't concern yourself with that. I wouldn't count on anybody decent being added through FA unless a vet is willing to take a minor league deal.

Skins are the playoffs and conference play is underway. That's good enough until ST starts.

QUOTE(YASNY @ Jan 8, 2006 -> 12:36 PM) I don't consider those 2 homers as an indication of anything. Basically, you had a AAA hitter tattoo a AAA pitcher. A triple A pitcher that dominated the league in his 84 IP. He's pretty much going to be a Johan Santana results wise. He is gonna be incredible.

QUOTE(JimH @ Jan 5, 2006 -> 11:35 AM) For what it's worth, the guy at mlbtraderumors.com, commenting about Van Dyck's article, said it was "interesting". Also said he had more info on the dialogue between the White Sox and Orioles, was in the process of confirming the info, and would likely post something later today (Thursday). Again, for what it is worth. in other words, he has to scour the message boards for more rumors and "info"

mlbtraderumors.com right

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Jan 3, 2006 -> 03:34 PM) So because Jose Hernandez sucked, Eduardo Perez will suck? No. Eduardo Perez will suck because Eduardo Perez sucks. Though Jose's nubmers weren't "suck," against lefties, just not very good. He will now have to hit off a bunch of very good lefties in the Central, which has much, much, much better pitching than the east. That on top of moving from tampa to jacobs will mean his numbers likely won't nearly as good as they were last year. THey certainly could be, but I doubt it. Bottom line is the Indians would have been better to go with Garko. THey need a lot more help, like the Twins, anyway you look at it. It's a decent signing, but I would've gone with the kid.

Jose Hernandez supposedly mashed against lefties too, then he came to Jacob's field last year. I imagine Perez will put up similar numbers to Jose last year.

Is there still time for me to pad my post count? Sweet..... I mean....uh......we better not trade contreras!!!

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Dec 29, 2005 -> 09:02 AM) 11 mil a year

Give the man 3 years, 11 mil.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Dec 28, 2005 -> 01:10 PM) Actually their salary is almost identical for the next couple of years because we are getting money from Arizona. Considering that Contreras is listed at 34 (probably even older), I don't know how much longer we can depend on him anyways. It is conceivable that his improved control in the second half was not a permanent improvement. It's also possible that now that El Duque is gone he's not going to feel quite as comfortable without a good friend of his. His confidence could also be shaken if he has a rough outing early in the year. Jose is the biggest question mark on our staff. It doesn't seem to take much to get him out of rythm. When he's on he can be very good, but that hasn't happened too often in his career. I can live with letting the oldest of our starters with the least amount of time left on his contract go. Well you have to take that chance. Jose was one of the best starters in the AL in the second half and playoffs. You just don't pitch that aside because you get contract assurances from mediocre pitchers. I mean, I understand what KW did, but if it means getting rid of an Ace just for rotation security, I don't like it. If JC is here for all of 06, I won't complain as much because that gives us a chance for another world series. But if you go into the season with: Buerhle Garcia? Garland Vazquez McCarthy You are just asking for a crushed expectations. Gotta have JC in that equation. Buerhle Contreras Garland Garcia McCarthy is a truly awesome rotation. The Vazquez trade just looks confusing in my eyes now.

QUOTE(maggsmaggs @ Dec 28, 2005 -> 12:58 PM) Contreras is old and we don't know what the 2nd half last year was: his true potential or a flash of something. We need the insurance since our team is built on starting pitching. We already knew he had the stuff. All he needed was confidence. How could he be any less confident than he was in the second half? He's gotta be filled with the stuff. I don't agree with choosing JG over JC for the next three years if thats what we did. I will REALLY be pissed if we choose JV over JC for the next three years, especially considering how much JV makes. JC is our number 1 or 2 freaking starter.

Ugh. I hope we don't plan on trading the starter that starting the first game of every series in our playoff run. He is going to be one of the best pitchers in the league this year. Ugh. WTF was the point of trading for Vazquez then. We could have just given his money to Contreras and signed JG.

QUOTE(witesoxfan @ Dec 26, 2005 -> 02:58 PM) The Indians are probably better than they were last season too. I like their rotation more this year than last anyways, and their bullpen should still be just as good. It will be a fun race in the AL Central this year, there is no question about that. Their staff is nowhere near as good. They lost the freaking AL ERA leader and one of the best bullpen arms, and they picked up one decent journeyman, and another not so decent journeyman.

Nice! THank you Indians and Twins for your offseason!

A 1-year rental is only going to be really valued to teams who need a good starter on a contending team. One that really has a shot.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Dec 20, 2005 -> 01:47 PM) Actually it was the middle of August (Buerhle had a 3.07 and Santana had a (3.37). Sorry technically it was a .30 difference. They were going head to head. Buerhle gave up a bunch of runs, I made a comment in the game thread that we should have an ACE like Santana and you jumped on how Buerhle was better because at the time he had more wins and a better ERA by a small margin. We had that argument before August, and .30 ERA is NOT a small difference. It's a big difference. Buerhle was better at the time. Nobody in their right mind would take Buerhle over Santana in the long run.

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Dec 20, 2005 -> 01:46 PM) Not at all. I would not define a 3.98 ERA as "sucking." Definately a little high of an ERA for pitchers like Buehrle and Santana but I would not label it "sucking." Buehrle has a 3.63 career ERA and put up ERA's of 4.14 in 2003 and 3.89 in 2004. A 3.98 ERA isn't much higher than those numbers. LOL. Nice try. He was sucking compared to Buerhle and his CY numbers the year before, which was my point, as stated. But thats cool. Just try to weasel your way out of it. I would to if I came in an argument with your post too. its understandable.

QUOTE(ZoomSlowik @ Dec 20, 2005 -> 01:45 PM) I'm done. I'm sorry, I can't see all the love for a guy that is a career .255 hitter with a .303 OBP. I can buy loyalty or defense as an argument, but not when comparing him to another player that's better than him in almost every way imaginable. We keep arguing home/away and lefty/righty, but what's the point when the guy you are trying to defend doesn't hit anyone particularly well? Is Crede's .250-ish average with an OBP barely over .300 on the road, or his mid-.270-ish average with hardly any power against lefties that big a deal that we have to worry about losing it? During the year many of us were clamoring to get someone that could crush right-handed pitching, and Blalock does that. Personally, I'd rather take a guy that hits righties pretty well, especially at home and hope he irons it out (he only needs semi-respectable numbers to put up good totals) as opposed to a guy that is decidedly mediocre in pretty much every aspect of hitting, especially when there is little to no dropoff defensively, the new guy is locked up to a reasonable contract for a while, and we don't have to worry about the new guy's back acting up in his mid to late 20's. Where do you see any love for Crede? Not from me. You see a lot of dissapointment for Crede from me, but even more for Blalock, especially considering the hype.

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Dec 20, 2005 -> 01:42 PM) When was there a 1.4 difference between the two? Jeez. Does nobody here read?

QUOTE(SSH2005 @ Dec 20, 2005 -> 01:40 PM) Good question. Santana was never sucking if you look at his month-by-month game log: http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/...6371&statType=2 On July 6th he had an ERA of 3.98 which is sucking for him and Buerhle, especailly considering Buerhle's was 2.58. Don' you wish you could erase that post now.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Dec 20, 2005 -> 01:34 PM) Actually at the time the difference between ERA was like .07. It was smaller than anything. LOL. See. People like you make s*** up. Too bad it was an ERA difference of about 1.40 at the time. If you are going to try and talk s*** at least get your facts straight so you don't look like a dumbass when you do it.

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Dec 20, 2005 -> 01:36 PM) Santana was sucking???? When was this. When he had an ERA around 4 on July 6th last year, while Buerhle had an ERA of 2.58. Anything else you need?

QUOTE(southsideirish71 @ Dec 20, 2005 -> 01:30 PM) Why do people take Bob seriously. JP(bob) was the one that also said last year that he would rather have Buerhle than Johan Santana because at the time Santana's Era was slightly higher and Buerhle had more wins. Santana had a lower WHIP, higher Ks and outside of JP's world everyone in baseball including Mark's mother would agree that Santana is a better pitcher. Mark B is a great guy and all but come on. I told him that if Santana was offered for Buerhle straight up, that before TR said SANTA KW would of said DEAL!!!! In game chat we had a good laugh over that one. One, I'm not anybody named Bob, so you need to get your facts straight. Two, I never said I'd rather have Buerhle over Santana. I might have said Buerhle was having a better year when Santana was sucking and Buerhle was dominating. Get your facts straight before you spout off buddy.