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Kerry Wood, Joe Smith will provide some sizzle
By Patrick McManamon
Beacon Journal sports columnist
Published on Sunday, Dec 14, 2008
The Indians strengthened their bullpen this past week, which is a good thing.
Because when the Indians' bullpen is good, the Indians are good.
In 2008 and '06, the bullpen collapsed, and the Indians won 81 and 78 games.
In 2007 and '05, the bullpen was a strength, and the Indians won 96 and 93 games.
This being another odd year coming up, and given the addition of Joe Smith and the signing of Kerry Wood, the Indians should again have bullpen success.
Wood's signing gives the Indians a power-throwing closer, and for some reason they always seem more effective. Yes, we will all miss those nail-biting ninths provided by Joe Borowski and Bob Wickman, but Wood provides the heat to go one-two-three.
There is risk with Wood — he has spent a lot of time on the disabled list — but the Indians are expected to spend $10 million per year for two years to get the guy to shut the door.
And if Wood does get hurt, the Indians have Jensen Lewis at the ready. Lewis was successful on 13 of his 14 save opportunities last season.
Smith, 24, brings a submarine delivery that is very tough on right-handed hitters — righties have hit .223 against him in his career.
He will be a valuable late-inning guy if he maintains what he's done the past two seasons for the New York Mets (9-5, 3.51 in two years, with 52 strikeouts and 31 walks in 631/3 innings last season).
When it mattered most last season, Smith was at his best. He made 14 appearances in September, going 4-0 with a 1.80 ERA.
''He'll give us a different look and complement our guys well,'' General Manager Mark Shapiro said.
The bullpen now includes a closer and four late-inning situation/setup guys in Lewis, Smith, Rafael Betancourt and Masa Kobayashi.
Adam Miller remains an intriguing wild card.
Second baseman Luis Valbuena, acquired from the Seattle Mariners, has major-league potential. In fact, if the Mariners had traded Adrian Beltre, Valbuena might have been on the Mariners' Opening Day roster.
The Indians, though, likely will keep him in Triple-A to start the season.
''We like his bat quite a bit,'' Shapiro said. ''We feel he has a chance to be an average defender and an average runner. . . . At the very least, he's going to be a guy who provides depth at some point next year.''
The Indians still need another starting pitcher or two, and they will add another infielder, but these deals must be measured against who left.
Outfielder Franklin Gutierrez helped in the 2007 playoff run, but it was in the playoffs that Gutierrez proved unable to hit a breaking ball. Those problems continued in 2008.
Shapiro said most trades start with another team calling to ask about a player. He usually tries to find out how that team values said player, whether it's as a starter or depth or platoon player.
Clearly, the Mariners valued Gutierrez as an everyday center fielder.
''We have a pretty good center fielder in Grady Sizemore,'' Shapiro said.
So Gutierrez could go.
And for a guy who hit .241 and struggled with the breaking ball, the Indians received a legitimate reliever and potential help in the middle of the infield.
Add in Wood's signing, and it all appears to be good.
Things still have to work out on the field and Wood has to stay healthy, but at this point Shapiro has made the Indians a better team than the one that ended the 2008 season.
Random thoughts
• The importance of adding Wood, a reliable closer: ''It has a tremendous impact on your entire ballclub because you don't want something hanging out there day in and day out over the course of three hours and people wondering what's going to happen,'' Indians manager Eric Wedge said of the closer in a transcript provided from the winter meetings. ''You want to feel very good about that guy you bring in . . . The domino effect is tremendous. We saw that early last year. We've seen that multiple times during my time in Cleveland when you don't have that.''
• The Indians wanted to acquire closer J.J. Putz from the Seattle Mariners, but now the New York Mets have a Putz as a setup man for their new closer, Francisco Rodriguez.
• Apologies to J.J. for the cheap joke.
• The Indians cannot say enough nice things about CC Sabathia, which speaks to the kind of person he is and the way the Indians run things.
His decision to go to the New York Yankees, of course, was not about money, but about where he wanted to play.
Ahem.
Which of course was the reason he sought out the Los Angeles Dodgers at the winter meetings to say he wanted to play there.
Sabathia got $23 million per year for seven years to go to the Yankees — though reports said he could escape the deal after three years if he doesn't like pitching in the spotlight New York provides.
Prior to trading him, the Indians offered a five-year extension averaging $18 million per season.
It will be interesting to see two things: How Sabathia handles the pressure of big games in a brighter and much more unforgiving spotlight, and whether the $5 million extra per season will be worth it.
• Perhaps with the extra money, Sabathia can bail out the auto industry.
• Again, Sabathia signing with the Yankees was not about the money.
• Wedge on not being able to afford Sabathia: ''I don't like to see teams or organizations use it as an excuse. We sure as hell don't. There's no reason to. We're all at the same level, we're all expected to compete, and you either win or lose and get after it.''
• Wedge said that Travis Hafner's shoulder rehab is going very well, and that he expects Hafner to be ready for spring training. ''Obviously we're going to keep a close eye on him and we're going to handle him the way it's going to give him the best chance to be healthy. But I think it's also important for him to have quite a few swings the next spring. I want him to have some [at-bats] and have that repetition. We don't want there to be anything but thoughts of success when we leave Goodyear.''
• The Indians think a slow free-agent market for starting pitchers might help them land one in the next month or two. Any free agent has to come at the Indians' price.
• Those who assume the Browns will just go out and tap Bill Cowher on the shoulder and hire him as coach after the season conveniently forget the Rooney Rule.
This is an NFL requirement that teams interview minorities for a coaching opening.
So if the Browns want to focus on one guy and hire him, they'll risk a significant fine.
And the league's wrath.
• You never want the folks on Park Avenue mad at you.
• They'll hit you with a briefcase or something.
• In that regard here's a behind-the-scenes name to remember if (and only if) the Browns make changes to their front office: Lionel Vital.
Vital was the first guy hired by Tom Dimitroff with the Atlanta Falcons, and he has worked for Bill Belichick with the Browns and with the New England Patriots, for Bill Parcells with the New York Jets and with Ozzie Newsome with the Baltimore Ravens.
He's considered one of the league's up-and-coming evaluators, and he's African-American.
• As for Cowher, if the Washington Redskins do not finish strong it would not be surprising if owner Dan Snyder pulled the plug on Jim Zorn after one season. That might open things up for Cowher to work for the Redskins.
• Though you keep hearing over and over that the guy really is not ready to return to coaching again.
• Can't imagine why. He's got a TV job that pays well and allows him to see his kids. Coaches arrive at the office at 5:30 in the morning and work until midnight.
Can never watch enough tape, after all.
Then they get ripped by dumpy Irish sports writers for something that happened because a player had a brain cramp.
• Let's see . . . a well-paying TV job . . . or coaching . . .
• Shaun Rogers is having a Pro Bowl season yet the Browns' run defense is worse this year than it was last year. That might be the most amazing reality of this season.
• Thirteen of the 30 players drafted by Browns General Manager Phil Savage are now out of football. Seventeen of the players Savage has drafted are on the team, and nine are starters (including quarterback Brady Quinn).
• Browns inside linebackers have combined for 259 tackles, but only seven are for a loss. This is partly a product of the 3-4 defensive scheme, which asks inside linebackers to control two gaps (sounds intelligent, no?) but also is a product of the fact Browns linebackers are not really ''downhill'' guys.
• That being said, D'Qwell Jackson's 156 tackles rank second in the league behind Bradie James (162) of the Dallas Cowboys.
• It's hard to figure what quarterback Ken Dorsey will be able to do Monday night against the Philadelphia Eagles' array of blitzes.
• Just guessing, but the prime-time schedule does not figure to include the Browns a lot next season.
• I'm thinking Marty Schottenheimer's statement of noninterest in the Browns coaching job was a classic case of the nondenial denial. If owner Randy Lerner starts talking money, that noninterest might change quickly.
• It won't, of course, be about the money.
• Wise move by the University of Akron to lock up soccer coach Caleb Porter for five more years. Porter was Athletic Director Mack Rhoades' first hire, and he has lived up to the trust Rhoades showed in him.
• Now if the NCAA can leave game sites well-enough alone the Zips might win a national title in soccer one day.
• As well as the Cavaliers are playing — and they are playing extremely well — the Boston Celtics have started better, going 21-2.
Kind of stinks when you start 19-3 and are still looking up at someone.
• The Cavs now must continue winning without Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Daniel Gibson. This was going to happen eventually, some kind of challenge.
• Is there a more reliable and consistent player in Cleveland sports than Z? Night and night out, you know what you will get from the guy.
Rebounding, shooting, defense, effort, that same level-headed approach.
He's one of those guys who, when it's over for him, you'll look back and realize how much he meant to the team.
And what he goes through to play would scare away most players. Word is if he had stock in ice, he could retire 10 times considering how much he has to use before and after games just so he can play on his surgically repaired feet.
• Only 11 more shopping days left to buy your favorite Beacon Journal columnist a big, fat Christmas present!
• Lisa Abraham will be very appreciative when it arrives, too.
• Until next time . . . there you have it.
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/mcmanamon/.
The Indians strengthened their bullpen this past week, which is a good thing.
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Comments
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Posted 02:49 PM, 12/15/2008
Jensen Lewis had far more save opportunities than 14 as stated in this article. You need to check the stats.
