Sunday, July 15, 2012

Time to Fix the Left Field Albatross

Johnny Damon is just the latest in a long line of poor
left fielders.
Photo courtesy of WIkimedia Commons
Do you remember the last time the Indians had a decent left fielder?

A casual fan might guess it was 2007 when the Indians finished the season just one win away from making it to the World Series, and he'd be wrong.

Who was the left fielder that near-championship season? Well, the Indians used Jason Michaels and David Dellucci as a platoon in left for the first half of the season, but then traded for Kenny Lofton on July 27 who spent the rest of the season manning the position.

But in my mind, you've got to go all the way back to 2005 to find a Tribe left fielder that was actually worth his salt. In the offseason leading up to Spring Training, the Indians had signed Juan Gonzalez to come back and play the outfield, but he blew out his hamstring which opened up the door for Grady Sizemore to blossom as an everyday player. (If you remember, Gonzalez came back in June for one at-bat in Minnesota where he re-injured his hammy while running out a ground ball to first base.)

Either way, then-manager Eric Wedge had three fairly productive outfielders that season in Crisp, Sizemore and Casey Blake. And ever since? Well, it's safe to say the trade that sent Crisp to Boston and landed us Kelly Schoppach and Andy Marte was one of the worst of Mark Shapiro's tenure as General Manager. And the front office has been trying to solve the left field situation ever since.

If you're an Indians fan, you probably realize just how bad left field has been for now seven seasons, but just to give you some names...

We've got the aforementioned Michaels, Dellucci, and Lofton, but also Ben Francisco, Matt LaPorta, Austin Kearns, Shelly Duncan, Michael Brantley, Johnny Damon and a brief—but disastrous—stint by Luis Valbuena.

Excluding Brantley, who now of course starts in center, none of those names are anything to write home about. And that is exactly why each and every one of them has been replaced. (Well, besides Damon, but everyone knows he's not a long-term solution.)

Part of this rests on the fact that the Indians couldn't draft players to save their lives for the better part of the last decade. The fact that Trevor Crowe was the organization's 2005 first round pick is truly embarrassing, as is the fact that Jason Kipnis is the only position player currently on the 25-man roster the Indians drafted or picked up as an amateur free agent.

So what are the Indians to do about this? Well, it still burns me up that they spent $5 million on Grady Sizemore instead of sweetening the pot for Josh Willingham to take a two year deal here. But either way, there's no way Minnesota is going to deal Willingham in the first season of his three year deal.

That pretty much leaves Carlos Quentin and Alfonso Soriano as viable left field options potentially on the trade market (we can wish with one hand and you-know-what with the other about Shane Victorino, but every indication is that the Phillies asking price will be much too high).

Unfortunately, acquiring either one of those players could have the same effect of placing a band-aid over a gaping flesh wound, but at least those guys have shown they can be effective at the plate this season.

So between Quentin and Soriano, who would you rather have take over the left field vortex?

If the Indians were to trade for Quentin, it would have to be a priority for them to sign him to a long term deal. I mean two or three years—the same kind of contract they should've offered Willingham. This, in theory, should be easier for 2013 and beyond since Sizemore and Travis Hafner's contracts will be off the books next year—that's a combined $18 million saved.

But the more intriguing deal might be for Soriano. The Cubs left fielder has been quite durable the last few years, as he's played at least 130 games the last two seasons and he's well on his way to a similar number in 2012. He's also been good for at least 20 home runs a season since joining the Cubs in 2007, and should easily reach that total this year as he has 17 already. Even more interesting is that he's signed under contract through 2014—meaning that even if he stinks as a left fielder, the Indians could use him to replace Hafner at DH.

Now, the Cubs would have to eat a whole lot of his salary for this to work—Soriano's owed a whopping $19 million for 2013 and 2014—but the more I think about it, the more I'd like to see him in an Indians uniform sometime in the next couple of weeks. And who knows, maybe the Indians can find a one-stop shop on the north side of Chicago and take Ryan Dempster off the Cubs hands as well.


Soriano and Dempster may not carry the Indians to a World Series Championship, but boy would those two sure improve what is right now a very mediocre team.


We'll see if the front office can pull it off.

~MAS

No comments:

Post a Comment