Major League Baseball 2012 Season

[choxorn]

Michael Bourn finally found a home, getting 4 years/$48 million from Cleveland.

Probably an improvement over Drew Stubbs.

 

[El Justo]

awesome. now the d-bag mets can't plead for protection of their draft pick. indians are a sleeper team this year.

 

[downtown]

I'm totally confused about the Indian's off season. I love the sudden willingness to spend money, but we were told that the Tribe traded Choo to save coin?

I wonder if this move means we can move Swisher to 1B most of the time, and have Reynolds DH.

Certainly the tribe ought to be able to score more runs this year, and they may have one of the best defensive outfields in the Majors. My concern, is that they might not have a single good starting pitcher after Masterson, and he struggled last season. Lots of 8-7 games in our future I suppose.

 

[El Justo]

they'll be better than you think. watch

 

[choxorn]

They're better than last year, and if nothing else no longer have any positions that are black holes except maybe 3B, but the pitching is still too bad to get them to sleeper team status. The hitting could maybe propel them to .500-ish with a few of the youngsters having breakout seasons and some luck, but overall I'd say that even with these improvements they're still a couple years away from being good.

 

[GamezRule]

I look forward to the year when the Central Division isn't a joke. It's just so hard to watch the Tigers beat the other teams up all year long.

 

[choxorn]

Would this be the same Tigers team that finished just 3 games ahead of the White Sox last year, and spent most of the year not leading the division?

In other news, Felix's contract extension is now official.

 

[downtown]

They're better than last year, and if nothing else no longer have any positions that are black holes except maybe 3B, but the pitching is still too bad to get them to sleeper team status. The hitting could maybe propel them to .500-ish with a few of the youngsters having breakout seasons and some luck, but overall I'd say that even with these improvements they're still a couple years away from being good.

I actually like Chisenhall is a breakout candidate at 3B. The DH position is probably the biggest black hole candidate slot though. If Swisher or Santana is playing first, Reynolds can DH, but if Reynolds is at 1st...do you start Matt LaPorta? Chisenhall did a few times when Hanahan was manning 3rd, but now he's on the Reds and Chisenhall will probably have to be the everyday 3rd basemen.

The starting rotation is the biggest problem though. I'm a little surprised Chris Perez wasn't moved to secure other arm help, or maybe an extra outfielder.

 

[choxorn]

Why move Santana to first? There aren't any other catchers on the team that can hit nearly as well as he can. Stubbs to RF, Swisher to first, and Reynolds to DH makes some sense, I guess.

 

[downtown]

Why move Santana to first? There aren't any other catchers on the team that can hit nearly as well as he can. Stubbs to RF, Swisher to first, and Reynolds to DH makes some sense, I guess.

Santana already platoons at first base a little...I think he played around 40 games there last season, depending on pitching matchups. It's both to save his knees, and because Lou Marson (backup C) is a superior defensive player.

 

[Darkness]

Why move Santana to first? There aren't any other catchers on the team that can hit nearly as well as he can.

Hitting isn't the only thing that matters in baseball. Especially at a premium defensive position such as catcher having a good defensive backup makes great sense.

 

[choxorn]

I knew that, I just didn't know about how good Santana and Marson were defensively relative to each other.

Still, I imagine they'll continue playing Santana at C most of the time

 

[El Justo]

santana has a creaky knee or two. so it makes sense to spell him at first.

 

[downtown]

Yeah, Santana is absolutely the primary catcher for the Indians, and probably will be for the next several years. He's one of the only guys in the lineup with even slightly above average power (along with Kipnis and Reynolds I guess), so it's critical for the Tribe to find ways for him to stay in the lineup almost every day. Hence, letting him see time at 1st base.

 

[El Justo]

we are looking for a few more guys for the CFC Fantasy Baseball League

 

[choxorn]

Swisher doesn't have above average power?

 

[El Justo]

cut him some slack there's a whole bunch of new dudes that downtown now has to keep track of

 

[downtown]

cut him some slack there's a whole bunch of new dudes that downtown now has to keep track of

lol, you're exactly right. I totally forgot about Swisher.

Half the lineup is going to be different this year. It IS a lot to keep track of!