No Youkilis, No Problem

Youkilis to the Tribe? Thank goodness
it didn't happen.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

There are a bunch of Indians fans out there that really wanted Kevin Youkilis.

I was not one of them.

If you look at Youkilis' stats, injury history, and the position(s) he plays, trading for him just didn't make any kind of sense. And I know that the Indians were reportedly "in" on him, but as I tweeted the other night, thank goodness he's not going to be in a Tribe uniform.

Yes, there is a huge need for a right handed bat, but unlike the nearly 70% of people that have voted in this 92.3 The Fan online poll, the Indians don't just need any right handed bat.

Kevin Youkilis—since he's so topical right now—is right handed, but he absolutely was not the answer. I think any educated Indians fan knows this, but all the people starving for any right handed bat off the street do not.

First of all, where could Youk play on this team? First base? I know Casey Kotchman has not been great with a bat, but you're not going to take away his defense. And if you want a right handed first baseman hitting in the mid-.200s, we've already got Jose Lopez. 

You can make a similar argument for third base, where Jack Hannahan and Lonnie Chisenhall are splitting time. And even if you thought Youkilis would be an upgrade there, why would you get Youk to limit Chisenhall's playing time—especially cause the Chiz kid is so young and is making progress in his development. There's no space at DH either, since Travis Hafner is reportedly about to start a rehab stint and should be back with the team soon.

I mean, are you seeing a fit here? Because I'm definitely not.

And if you want to get some numbers, how about these—in the second half of last season, Youkilis hit .199 in 37 games with just four HR and 17 RBI. Even more alarming, in 57 games away from Fenway, Youkilis hit just .191 in 2011. This year, he was on the DL with back problems—a red flag for any athlete in any pro sport—and has hit .233 with four HR and 14 RBI. Again, he's hitting just .191 away from Fenway, and only hitting .256 against lefties. Nothing to write home about there. 

So again, how in the world would this guy have fit on this current Indians team?

Of course, now that I write this, Youkilis is probably going to light up the world with the White Sox. Everybody knows the situation in Boston was toxic, and when a guy is so discontent in the clubhouse a change of scenery can definitely affect performance—just ask Brandon Phillips.

But I'm going to stand firm in my belief that the Indians using their limited trade resources to bring Kevin Youkilis to Cleveland would have created more problems than it would've solved. 

~MAS 

Opening Weekend - A Series Recap

Unfortunately, due to MLB rules and regulations, I am not going to be able to listen to any of the Tribe games until I get back to the CLE. Therefore, this is my "I'm only going by the stats and what I read from others" disclaimer, which will be in effect until mid-May. That being said, there are a few things on my mind after the Indians finished their opening series of the season with the Chicago White Sox...

Pitching Anyone?
Well, my favorite person to question, Justin Masterson, got it right on Sunday. But other than that...Fausto Carmona and Carlos Carrasco? Are you kidding me? Carmona especially, after everything we heard about Carmona having a "great spring" and maybe looking like he's ready to get back to that '07 form... Well, not on Opening Day, that's for sure. 10 earned runs in 3+ innings (granted 2 of them scored after he left, but still) translates into a 30.00 ERA. Yes, our "Ace" has an ERA of 30.00. Let me drive this point home one more time, if he were to pitch 9 innings, this projects him to give up 30 runs. Ack.

Carrasco doesn't bother me as much, because as I have said before in this very blog, I had no trust in him going in. But, at least he was able to stop the bleeding and stay in the game for a little while. Both of those guys have got to get their mess together before their next start. Please.

Guys with some Pop?
Despite getting down by two touchdowns, the Indians did end up scoring 10 runs in that opening game. The second one wasn't so great either, but the Tribe then came out and scored 7 runs on Sunday. I'll take that average of 6.6 runs a game, which will be great as long as the pitching stays under, you know, 5 runs a game. I don't think that's too hard, is it?

I was impressed by a couple of guys (well...based on their highlights) this weekend, Travis Hafner and Jack Hannahan. The Man-Formerly-Known-As-Pronk blasted a home run into the visitors bullpen on Saturday afternoon, and also hit safely in each of the opening three games. I know I wasn't expecting much of him in the season preview, but this was an encouraging weekend. Especially that home run, if you haven't seen it, it reminded me of his '06 blasts—back when he was on steroids before he got injured. And then Hannahan also had a pretty good weekend, although his contributions mostly came in the first game when he hit a nice home run. Hopefully he can hit somewhere around .250 until June when Chisenhall will most likely be promoted.

Can't have a post about offense without mentioning clean-up hitter Carlos Santana, who has reached base at least two times in each of the Indians games so far. He only has one extra base hit, the home run in the Opener on Friday, but I have no doubt that more will be coming this week. Santana also started the league's first triple play of the year at first base on Sunday! I got this stat from indians.com beat writer Jordan Bastian but there have been three triple plays in the history of Jacobs/Progressive Field and Asdrubal Cabrera has been involved in all of them. How about that!

And here's an honorable mention to Orlando Cabrera who jacked a two-run bomb to the home run porch out in left field on Sunday. It's good to have the veteran presence at second base.

Attendance...Or Lack Thereof
Okay, I can't say I blame anyone in Cleveland for this, but the attendance? Man oh man, it just makes me sad to see all the empty green seats in such a nice stadium. I know the Indians are bad, and I know that the economy isn't the greatest, but can we at least get...I don't know, 15,000 people in the stands? It's not like the Cavs are that great anymore, so we don't have that as an excuse. I mean, setting the record for smallest attendance at the stadium on Saturday was bad enough, but then we had to break it on Sunday with 8,726? I hate to say it, but I feel like there will be some weekday games where we'll have around 7,000. Hopefully it won't go any lower than that.

Just for the record, I fully intend to do my part and go to a bunch of games during the summer. At least when it hits June and Chisenhall comes up. That should at least be a little exciting, right?

Not entirely sure when the next post will come about the Tribe, but it'll be soon. Probably a little mid-week filler...remember those? Until then Cleveland fans!

~MAS