A Look At... The Indians 25 Man Roster

Well hello there favorite blog followers. I know I've been a bit absent on here for the last month, but with an expanding role at Spec, there's been a little less time—along with a not too much to talk about—to write on here. But lo and behold, I'm back and fired up for the Indians season to start.

Here's the deal, though—are the Indians really ready to compete for the 2012 AL Central crown with their current 25 man roster?

Let me put it simply—NO.

You know how the Indians have their "What If?" campaign? Yeah, that's very nice to have for marketing, but if you ask me, it's not the way you put a team together.

I've already weighed in on the Grady Sizemore injury, but that is really what got them into this mess. Yes, friends, it really came to the Indians reportedly trying to deal for Bobby Abreu—a 38 year old, washed-up has-been, who hit .253 with just eight HRs and 60 RBI. Now if Abreu were just injured or something, maybe he'd have a better cae for wanting to resurrect his career someplace else, but the man played 142 games!

But the sad part—and I mean really sad part—is that Abreu would've been a whole lot better than what we've gotten out of the crop of players that were supposed to compete for the LF job this spring.

No one, and I mean no one grabbed the bull by the horns and took that job away, which means—if things stay as they are right now–Shelly Duncan will be the opening day, regular left fielder for the Cleveland Indians.

Now, I like Shelly Duncan. I think he did a good job this spring, leading the team with six HRs and 19 RBI. But let's face it—the man is 32, and he's been a part-time player for his entire career! It's unrealistic, and perhaps a bit unfair, to all of a sudden rely on him to be a productive, everyday player.

And that brings me to the real purpose of this post—I'm going to go through the 25-man roster and place a "?" next to players I'm at least a little concerned about going into this year. You may or may not agree, but, let's see what we have, huh?

(By the by, the list comes from mlb.com Indians beat writer Jordan Bastian's blog.)

Indians rotation

1. RHP Justin Masterson
2. RHP Ubaldo Jimenez (?)
3. RHP Derek Lowe
4. RHP Josh Tomlin
5. RHP Jeanmar Gomez (?)

Indians bullpen

CL Chris Perez
RHP Vinnie Pestano
LHP Tony Sipp
RHP Joe Smith
LHP Rafael Perez
RHP Dan Wheeler (?)
RHP Jairo Asencio

Indians projected lineup

1. Michael Brantley, CF (?)
2. Asdrubal Cabrera, SS
3. Shin-Soo Choo, RF (?)
4. Carlos Santana, C
5. Travis Hafner, DH (?)
6. Casey Kotchman, 1B
7. Jason Kipnis, 2B
8. Shelley Duncan, LF (?)
9. Jack Hannahan, 3B (?)

Indians bench

INF Jose Lopez
INF/OF Jason Donald
OF Aaron Cunningham (?)
C Lou Marson

To be quite honest with you, I actually have less question marks than I expected.

Clearly, the biggest question is Ubaldo Jiminez—and he certainly didn't help his case by drilling Troy Tulowitzki yesterday afternoon. But he also had a pretty bad spring, with an ERA over 7. That's awful. The only way he's going to be able to combat the perception that he stinks is if he starts to pitch like someone who deserved to be traded for Drew Pomeranz and Alex White. And right now, that's not looking so great as Pomeranz will be in the Rockies rotation, and White will be in their bullpen. 

I put a mark by Jenmar Gomez simply because he hasn't been in the majors for a full season yet. But based on his Spring Training, I think he's going to be alright.

When you move to the position players and the lineup, there are more questions, but not too many. 

Michael Brantley simply needs to step up and keep his development going in the right direction as a major leaguer. I think he'll be able to do that. Keep in mind he's only 24.

Shin-Soo Choo could get rid of that question mark right away this season if he comes out and looks like the Choo everyone got to know between 08-10. He reportedly looked in fantastic shape during Spring Training, and should be able to get back to his .300 average, with 20 HRs and 80 RBI form. 

Hafner, though...he has the biggest question mark of all—besides the non-listed Grady Sizemore, of course. Can he actually stay healthy for a full season? I doubt it. But if he can play 140 games with a .280 average and, say, 25 HRs? I think the Indians would be way more than pleased with that. And so would I.

I've already gone over Shelly Duncan earlier, so I'll skip to Hannahan. He only has the question mark denotation because of his offense—I expect his defense to be solid. But will he be the man who figured out how to hit after his son was born in August of last season, or will he be the hitter he's been for the rest of his career. Again, the guy is 32, so it's a bit unfair to ask him to do something he's never been able to do before. But maybe he'll hit enough to get by. At least until Lonnie Chisenhall is ready to take his place from AAA.

As it stands right now, the Indians have done absolutely nothing to improve the offense since the end of last year, and are relying on people staying healthy the whole season, or doing things they've never done before in order to contend in the AL Central. 

So here's the deal—if there are so many questions about people who will be playing most of the games for the Tribe, there are just too many "What If?" questions for the Indians to be thought of as serious contenders in the division. 

I'll have more for Thursday as we get ready for Opening Day. And even though I just hit you with all that negativity, I'll explain then why the Indians could still be fun to watch this season.

Just three more days, Tribe fans. Can't wait!

~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