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Jason
Michaels signed to a two year deal
by CSF
Staff
01-18-2007
Casey Blake
Aaron Boone
Ben Broussard
Ramon Vazquez
Jose Hernandez
Alex Cora
David Dellucci
Jason Michaels belongs in the
same category as the above named players - players that are part
time/bench players at best. So, why give Michaels a two year
guaranteed deal worth $4.5 million?
You say, this is the market.
Maybe for the Yankees. Maybe for any other team that doesn't
constantly lecture their fan base about market realities while
selling them on some supposedly great farm system over the last
five years.
Michael's signing is another in a
long line of the current manager and GM becoming enamored with a
player, either because he 'hustles' or is cheap in the grand
scheme of things. The result is the team ends up with another
useless player locked into multiple years.
The Cleveland Indians gave
Jason Michaels a golden opportunity last year to prove all of
the other teams in this 30 year old's
career wrong - that he was a legitimate full time player in MLB.
He would be arbitration eligible after the 2006 season which was
even more incentive to take the opportunity and run with it.
To top it off, Michaels hit
behind Grady Sizemore and in front of Travis Hafner all year.
Here are the results:
494 at bats, .267 batting
average, .326 OBP, .391 SLG
What he did was prove once and
for all that he can't hit RH pitching. His .799 OPS against LH
pitching also leaves a lot to be desired.
This type of performance gets a
winning team in gear to improve the position, not somehow find a
way to not only keep him around for another year but multiple
ones.
Michaels will platoon with
David Dellucci.
Apparently the logic is if you can rotate enough players through
one position during the course of a year their sum will be
greater than their parts = one legitimate corner outfielder.
The Indians once vaunted farm
system already has two legitimate options to play in left field
- Franklin Gutierrez and Shin Soo Choo. Oh, but Choo can't play
there because another one of these types is being moved from RF
so Choo will have to go there. Casey Blake is moving to 1st
base, in the process, blocking another legitimately good hitting
prospect in Ryan Garko. So instead of watching young, exciting
players with real talent play this year, Indian fans are left
with hoping that these journeymen have career years. Top beastiality pictures and movies.
I guess this means that
Dellucci/Michaels will be hitting second again, which does not
bode well for this offense given their problems getting on base
in the past (.360 & .348 respectively). What this also means is
that Casey Blake is probably going to be hitting 5th. I really
feel for Victor Martinez. Not only does his manager attempt to
run him into the ground each year by playing a ridiculous amount
of games at the catcher position, but he's had nothing but
garbage hitting behind him. If you think Hafner could use
someone better than Martinez hitting behind him, well Martinez'
situation is much worse and has been throughout his career with
the Indians so far. cheap jewelry for babies
After the Dellucci signing,
everybody was saying just hold on, Shapiro is not done blah,
blah, blah. He was done. He did just what I thought he would -
sign more scrubs, whether our own or others, off the reject pile
and call it a year. Shapiro had every opportunity (huge
flexibility - number of options) to significantly improve this
club and yet again, sat on his hands. If he didn't want to play
young players in the OF then he could have had either Gary
Sheffield or Manny Ramirez. They were both available this off
season. Power tool battery for Craftsman 11198 315.22407 11072 11094
The move of Blake to 1st base -
the stated reason is to allegedly improve the defense at that
position. My hunch is that Blake will be a worse defensive
player there than either Garko or Broussard were. Casey's good
attributes defensively are that he can run well and has a decent
throwing arm. If he plays anywhere on the diamond it should be
in the OF. He averaged 20+ errors/year the last time he was in
the infield (3B) and those weren't because of throws. The guy
has fielding issues, as in catching the ball cleanly, and it
will be interested to see how he handles balls in the dirt at
1st base. Not that I really care that much about 1B defense. It
is an offensive position, always has been, but since I'm trying
to follow along with the Indians reinventing the wheel on how to
build a winning team, I'll go with the flow here. Even the
Indian's stated reason for moving him there - I don't agree with
their evaluation. But have no fear. Since this is CYA mode for
both Shapiro & Wedge this year, they won't let Blake butcher
things for long over there. They can always move him back to RF.
Of course, this means another one of their good hitting
prospects (Choo) will go to the bench or minors again. And
Victor Martinez will have to play 1st base, which means the
light hitting Shoppach will play catcher and further erode a
shaky offense.
Jason Michaels will use his
"strong point" (.799 v lefties) against the best LH pitching in
MLB in the AL Central. Since the Indians are on record as
saying Dellucci will get some time against LH pitching,
this means Michaels will face the cream of the crop in that
respect. I'm guessing by the end of the year no one will think
he is worth $2+ million/year to hack away at Johan Santana on
occasion.
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