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Cleveland Indians 2018-2019 Offseason Outlook

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Yes, let me be clear, hitters, sorry, should have been more clear.

Hasn’t really been room for a random young hitter to come up and catch people by surprise. Been focusing more on short term sure bets while they’re trying to win a championship the last few years.

Guys like Zimmer, Diaz, and Allen have been given PT here and there, but injuries played a key factor in that (Zimmer struggling because of his health, Allen and Diaz getting PT because of other people’s health).

This will be a year where we could potentially see something like that. Bauers will get a ton of ABs, and some young OFs will be given a good amount of ABs out necessity as opposed to need due to injuries.
 
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Hasn’t really been room for a random young hitter to come up and catch people by surprise. Been focusing more on short term sure bets while they’re trying to win a championship the last few years.

Guys like Zimmer, Diaz, and Allen have been given PT here and there, but injuries played a key factor in that (Zimmer struggling because of his health, Allen and Diaz getting PT because of other people’s health).

This will be a year where we could potentially see something like that. Bauers will get a ton of ABs, and some young OFs will be given a good amount of ABs out necessity as opposed to need due to injuries.
Was hoping we would see Chang. Seems Tribe isn’t high on him. What do you think? Just hoping this doesn’t turn into another Jesus Aguiler situation.
 
Also Carrasco got hit by another comebacker right in the ass. Dude is cursed.
 
I've kinda bit my tongue on this whole Indians offseason.....

First off, for me, Dolan is easily the best owner of a professional sports organization in Cleveland.... by a mile. He lets his front office do their jobs and be innovative-- there's a reason why there's more former Indians front office execs as GM's than any other organization. Being an owner isn't just writing checks.... I like Dan a lot but, personally, I'd rather work for Dolan than Gilbert.

I respect the fact that he doesn't throw money at their roster problems. People think it's being cheap, I think it's being smart. Why not lean on and challenge your unbelievable front office to find and develop players to keep costs down? That's the only way to both sustain success and maintain financial flexibility; which is what 99% of every professional sports organizations strive for.

Look around the league. Nobody is spending. If the Indians didn't have such a great FO, I'd be way more concerned. If the Indians didn't have a top-5 farm system, I'd be more concerned. If the Indians didn't rearrange some of the deck chairs to add more talent to the upper minors, I'd be more concerned.

I don't think a lot of you understand just how good this organization is from top to bottom..... a lot of you guys just look at the fucking payroll.

Last year the Indians got nearly zero positive value out of anybody not named Lindor, Ramirez and the entire starting pitching staff. You can't convince me that they're any worse off going into this season compared to when they finished last year. More question marks? For sure. On paper, the Tribe should've been World Champs the past two years and we all know how that worked out.

Are the Indians going to move? No, don't be stupid.

This happens every year..... people piss and moan in the winter time about the Indians offseason moves so they have an excuse to ignore the team in the spring. Once the weather gets nice, people start to show up to the park. Once football starts up, attendance will dip until the playoffs and people will start to pretend to care about the team again so they can act indignant when they don't win it all. Rinse and repeat.

Very well said. I agree. Between Bauers, Allen, Zimmer, Naquin, Mercado, and Johnson we ought to be able to get two solid outfielders to add with Martin.
 
Even if they don't cap salaries, a max contract length would help smaller markets. There is a huge difference between 5/150 and 10/300.
 
I've kinda bit my tongue on this whole Indians offseason.....

First off, for me, Dolan is easily the best owner of a professional sports organization in Cleveland.... by a mile. He lets his front office do their jobs and be innovative-- there's a reason why there's more former Indians front office execs as GM's than any other organization. Being an owner isn't just writing checks.... I like Dan a lot but, personally, I'd rather work for Dolan than Gilbert.

I respect the fact that he doesn't throw money at their roster problems. People think it's being cheap, I think it's being smart. Why not lean on and challenge your unbelievable front office to find and develop players to keep costs down? That's the only way to both sustain success and maintain financial flexibility; which is what 99% of every professional sports organizations strive for.

Look around the league. Nobody is spending. If the Indians didn't have such a great FO, I'd be way more concerned. If the Indians didn't have a top-5 farm system, I'd be more concerned. If the Indians didn't rearrange some of the deck chairs to add more talent to the upper minors, I'd be more concerned.

I don't think a lot of you understand just how good this organization is from top to bottom..... a lot of you guys just look at the fucking payroll.

Last year the Indians got nearly zero positive value out of anybody not named Lindor, Ramirez and the entire starting pitching staff. You can't convince me that they're any worse off going into this season compared to when they finished last year. More question marks? For sure. On paper, the Tribe should've been World Champs the past two years and we all know how that worked out.

Are the Indians going to move? No, don't be stupid.

This happens every year..... people piss and moan in the winter time about the Indians offseason moves so they have an excuse to ignore the team in the spring. Once the weather gets nice, people start to show up to the park. Once football starts up, attendance will dip until the playoffs and people will start to pretend to care about the team again so they can act indignant when they don't win it all. Rinse and repeat.

Very well said. I agree. Between Bauers, Allen, Zimmer, Naquin, Mercado, and Johnson we ought to be able to get two solid outfielders to add with Martin.
Very well said. I agree. Between Bauers, Allen, Zimmer, Naquin, Mercado, and Johnson we ought to be able to get two solid outfielders to add with Martin.

I forgot to add Luplow to the list above. Also interested to see if Cargo has anything left.
 
I know quite a few people in the Cleveland business community that think its inevitable that the Tribe leaves by the end of this next decade. The only thing people cant agree on is where a baseball team would move.

Get out of here with that garbage. The league is looking to expand teams first and foremost. Also, Tampa and Oakland would be relocated before the Indians would ever have to be considered. Baseball franchises rarely move to begin with, so no need to be engaging in fear tactics.
 
Even if they don't cap salaries, a max contract length would help smaller markets. There is a huge difference between 5/150 and 10/300.

Mike Trout having to settle for 5/150 isn't really fair either.

The best way to fix this is to make the books public. It's tough to say you don't have money to spend when it's right there for everyone to read.

But that won't happen. Putting TV money in a big pot and divying it evenly would work too, but also won't happen.

There are smaller things you could do - an international draft, a one-year franchise tag, more/better compensation when losing a top FA.
 
I'm with you on the Indians' stadium, not so much on the Browns.

I’ve always thought the city should do them both.
Browns stadium on takes a couple weeks, but goddam Burke kills it every time.
It’s maddening.
 
Your math is based off a 100% sellout at $100 for every ticket for all 81 games. That is not a good base

@Lee as well, essentially I just did 24k ticket per game times the 100 dollars per ticket times 81 games. Then I did 35k in tickets at the same price. (35K is a sellout essentially)

I was hypocritically speaking and just made it simple to be honest. Just getting close to sellouts every game would increase the money brought in by over 100 mil. So that revenue stat @bigfoot5415 posted would have went to 370+ mil in total revenue rather than 284. It feels like we were essentially breaking even/in the red for what Dolan wanted (I mean he still wants to make money on the team since it is a business too) so if we had the attendance like in the 90s again now (Though the stadium originally had 45K in seats), we could have kept even slightly increased payroll this season and we could truly think of extending Lindor for at least a few more seasons I would think.

Personally I feel baseball needs a minimum and hard max cap to help even out the playing field a little better. I get the players union doesn’t want that, but what they need to do is also increase minor league minimums, pensions healthcare etc as well since this would help with ticket prices from going up too much for fans and help even out what teams can give out.
 
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2022.

What would be year 1 of a Lindor extension...

Crain's Cleveland has an older article up that I just read for the first time that states this:

When the Tribe sold STO to Fox Sports in late 2012, Paul Hoynes reported that the sale was worth $230 million, and the Indians landed a rights agreement of at least 10 years and $400 million.

That would take the contract through at least 2022, and we've since been told by a source we trust that the agreement goes through 2027.

Not accurate?
 
Crain's Cleveland has an older article up that I just read for the first time that states this:

When the Tribe sold STO to Fox Sports in late 2012, Paul Hoynes reported that the sale was worth $230 million, and the Indians landed a rights agreement of at least 10 years and $400 million.

That would take the contract through at least 2022, and we've since been told by a source we trust that the agreement goes through 2027.

Not accurate?

There’s a lot of conflicting info from the people I talk to.

But one of the people I’ve talked to said one of the stipulations for selling STO to Fox Sports was an opt out for the Indians after 10 years, with a max length of 15 years. Allowed them to see where TV revenue was heading and either stay in if ratings and revenue kept declining (the years prior to and including 2012 were terrible for TV ratings for baseball), or opt out and adjust to current TV revenue figures.

That sounds more realistic to me than being locked in for 15 when it’s been unanimously reported on that the deal is for 10.
 
There’s a lot of conflicting info from the people I talk to.

But one of the people I’ve talked to said one of the stipulations for selling STO to Fox Sports was an opt out for the Indians after 10 years, with a max length of 15 years. Allowed them to see where TV revenue was heading and either stay in if ratings and revenue kept declining (the years prior to and including 2012 were terrible for TV ratings for baseball), or opt out and adjust to current TV revenue figures.

That sounds more realistic to me than being locked in for 15 when it’s been unanimously reported on that the deal is for 10.

Man do I hope you're correct. Locked into that deal for 15 years would be a killer.
 
Honestly, I think the TV Deal being up the year after Lindor's free agency might be a blessing for us.

Have someone show Dolan what the TV deal might look like if the Indians are a contender with a re-signed Lindor, versus what the TV deal might look like with the Tribe rebuilding, and fans pissed at letting Lindor walk.

If you show him that the TV deal might be 100 million different, that might make giving Lindor a giant contract more palatable.

One can dream...
 
Here is my piece on Lindor......

If you own a baseball team and cannot figure out how to sign a generational player, who is 25 years old and plays a position where guys are typically good for a very, very, very long time......then just sell the team. That's it.

Let's assume Dolan has some amount of money he is unwilling to spend......let's just call it $110 million a year for this exercise. Let's also assume we are slated to make Lindor the highest paid player at a $400 million extension number.

Using Trout's bonus as a baseline, a small market team possibly wants to front load the contract to lessen the per year sting. I'm not a baseball cap guy, so someone can tell me if this isn't possible......but....

Extend Lindor, 10 years, $400 million.......$50 million signing bonus (can it be more?)......so $35 million a year base.

That leaves $75 million a year to build out a roster......which given our track record in developing pitching, seems fine.

Aren't we just better off doing that? From both a team building AND ownership standpoint? Lock down the generational star, a guy everyone can buy jerseys' of the next 10 years, maintain an organizational focus of developing pitching, slap Lindor's face on everything, sell him being here his whole career, negotiate the TV contract against "we have this generational player hitting his prime, who will be here for 10 years".......what am I missing here? It's easier to market to fans, it's easier to market to TV networks, it's easier to build around a true star player given his all around talents? Seems like we are just making this too hard for no reason.

Small market teams shouldn't be extending players like Pujols, who are in or moving past the middle of their prime, for big money......but guys who are 25? What the hell are we even doing as an organization if we home grow a sure fire (assuming he stays healthy) baseball hall of fame player, at a premium infield position and we just let that guy walk? What is the point?

I'm not talking about doing this for everyone.....but does it have to be possible but a top 10 WAR player? I mean, yes......come on. Especially when we effectively have Jose on what amounts to an 50-60% discount. Rationalize it that way if you have to. It's pretty easy to trade Lindor if you decide you want to do that but at least extend him beyond your comfort zone and cut back in other areas, if need be.....but letting a charismatic, home grown player like Lindor walk is going to be catastrophic IMO. I think Dolan is REAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLY underestimating the attachment people have to Frankie.
 
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