Here We Are Again

Ah, rebuilding, it seems like only yesterday...

Buster Olney had a column up on ESPN.com the other day making the case that the Tribe does not, in fact, have to rebuild completely, simply retool or "reload" as the saying goes these days. The assumption, of course, is that we'll have a core of players to build around, something we didn't have a few years back (or, we had them, they just weren't really that good yet).

It would seem that the core he's looking at would be Grady Sizemore and a healthy Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez. It's hard to see the forest from the trees when your "core" consists of three guys, two of whom are currently on the DL. But I understand the point.

One would have to assume that Asdrubal Cabrera is a part of that core, even if he is in Buffalo at the moment. I think he's proven himself down there, although is AVG has leveled off at the .320 range.

Oh, and a note on Cabrera. I've long maintained that he's hitting better in Buffalo because he has less pressure on him, probably a bogus belief considering how well he performed for the Tribe down the stretch last year. What HAS been different in Buffalo as opposed to Cleveland are these two things: he's playing short stop every day, and he's BATTING LEAD OFF.

You heard me.

Mull that one over. Cabrera is hitting lead off and doing a pretty good job of it.

Grady Sizemore leads the LEAGUE in homers.

The writing is on the wall, Wedge.

You also have to assume that at least ONE of our young outfielders will pan out, be it Ben Francisco or Shin Soo Choo. I'd like to see both of them do well, honestly, but we really do need more runs produced from those spots.

I shake my head at the bullpen. I have no idea what we're going to do there.

Our strength could, again, be our rotation. We'll go 1-3 with Carmona, Lee, and Laffey. If I have to sacrifice live chickens myself to make it happen, Adam Miller will be healthy and we'll finally see all that potential. That would leave us with Sowers in the #5 spot, a prospect that's only barely tolerable the way he's been throwing these days. Still, that's a pretty impressive rotation.

Now, for those complaining about the Sabathia trade along the lines that we didn't get enough in return, let's keep a few things in mind:

1) The Tribe was desperate to move him. We're out of the running, which means the most we have to look forward to at the end of the year is waving good-bye and getting two draft picks, neither of which would be very high in the first round.

2) No team in the Majors was going to give up Major League ready talent for a rental. And that's exactly what CC is.

3) We need to stock up our farm system again. We've gone to the well the last two years and it's time to keep things moving. We're a mid-market team -- we have to thrive on that.

As for what we got specifically, some people are complaining that our big catch, Matt LaPorta, is only hitting .288 (with 20 homers) in AA (in his first year, mind you, which means he's moved up the ranks pretty quickly already).

You think that's bad, at least we didn't take a guy hitting .258 with NO home runs in TWO seasons in advance single A! That would have been a horrible deal, particularly if we traded an ace to get him.

Oh, wait, we already got a guy like that for an ace. We got him for Bartolo Colon. His name is Grady Sizemore.

The lesson? Wait and see, people. Grady looked like chopped liver on paper when we made that trade.

I'd say he's doing pretty well these days.