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Your 2019 Cleveland Indians

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I love Hand though. Dude is definitely an allstar and one dominant motherfucker. He's the type of closer where players plan for but he just punches them in the mouth.

If we can get a kings ransom for Hand, I guess I'd listen. @AZ_ who's our closer of the future m

It may be a dick answer, but Hand is our "closer of the future."

You want a name from the minors? Karinchak.
 
It may be a dick answer, but Hand is our "closer of the future."

You want a name from the minors? Karinchak.
Karinchak was the name i was thinking, just wasn't sure, but his stuff is great quality per content. Obviously Hand is our closer of the future but a topic was started about considering to deal him. It's not a terrible idea if we're getting the sun, moon, and stars.
 
If you can get Brent Honeywell for Brad Hand, you do that, and you run away laughing. I don't even care who else gets thrown in.
 
If you can get Brent Honeywell for Brad Hand, you do that, and you run away laughing. I don't even care who else gets thrown in.

He’s recovering from Tommy John surgery, although that seems to be pretty standard these days. I’m only trading Hand if I can receive a top 30 prospect in the deal.
 
He’s recovering from Tommy John surgery, although that seems to be pretty standard these days. I’m only trading Hand if I can receive a top 30 prospect in the deal.

Honeywell is more valuable than the guy we sent out for Hand a year ago. Plus, we’d still have Cimber. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
 
So, with everyone healthy, is Kluber our 4th starter now?

Absolutely crazy. Clev, Bauer, Biebs, Plesac, Kluber, then the younger guys in the system, particularly the guys from the top of the draft the past two years?

That's extremely exciting, and they still have another top 100 prospect SP in their system on the way. This is legendary stuff right now.
 
Alright, here's my masterplan:

I have my doubts that we're going to catch the Twins this season. The starting pitching is either beat up or not playing up to expectations. Bullpen is surprising, but the offense outside of Lindor, Santana, Perez, Mercado, and Luplow against lefties is absolute trash.

We still have a chance obviously. It's June 6th, Clevinger is back soon, and we still have a decent chunk of games left against Minnesota and the trash-ass Tigers and Royals.
  1. Send Jake Bauers to Triple-A; call up Bobby Bradley | Bradley is raking down in Columbus, and I'm pretty sure Bauers has an OPS below .670 and a WAR below -0.5. Easy switch to make at this point in the season.
  2. Send Naquin to Triple-A (if he has options, not sure if he does); call up Daniel Johnson | We know what we have with Naquin, and we've already got an outfielder in Martin who can't hit lefties at all. Difference here is that Martin is still a really good glove in the outfield and has a cannon for an arm. Johnson has tore up Double-A and Triple-A thus far, might as well give him a chance with this anemic offense.
  3. Send Mike Freeman to Triple-A; DFA Eric Stamets; call up Mark Mathias | Stamets blows and will never be a competent Double-A stick, let alone an MLB one. Not a big loss here. Mathias isn't a hyped up prospect or anything, but he's producing at a good enough level in Triple-A (.823 OPS) where I think he's worth a look over Kipnis at this point. Kipnis stays on the roster and gets the occasional DH stint or start against a righty at second. Mathias has roughly similar successes against lefties and righties, so he wouldn't have to be a platoon guy.
Starting lineup against righties:

LF - Oscar Mercado
3B - Jose Ramirez
SS - Francisco Lindor
1B - Carlos Santana
DH - Bobby Bradley
C - Roberto Perez
RF - Daniel Johnson
CF - Leonys Martin
2B - Mark Mathias

Starting lineup against lefties:

CF - Oscar Mercado
3B - Jose Ramirez
SS - Francisco Lindor
1B - Carlos Santana
LF - Jordan Luplow
DH - Bobby Bradley
C - Roberto Perez
RF - Daniel Johnson
2B - Mark Mathias

Bench guys not listed in either lineup: Kipnis, Plawecki

My main problem with this team composition is that 1) Mathias likely wouldn't be any better than Kipnis at the big-league level but I just want to see something new and 2) we're kind of left without a utility infielder when you send down Freeman.

I'd also be down for something that moves Jose to second, because good God he is the worst defensive third basemen I've seen in a long time right now. Like, laughably bad. Just made his 11th error tonight.

Sincerely I would keep Stamets over Freeman at the end of the day since Stamets probably is the best SS glove next to Lindor on the 40 man roster, but I really don't have an issue with anything else you are saying outside of Ramirez. Ramirez actually has one of the better ranges at 3B so he is getting to more balls than most at 3B will get too. I think he will have a really good second half, since his BABIP is still at .222 and it hasn't gone up and I feel it will in due time. We just don't have anyone to replace him at 3B in the farm system right now since the next guy who has the most experience at 3B is Stamets or Mathias and Mathias is a plus defensive at 2B so why move a low power heavy contact guy to a position he is average at.

We have a full 40 man roster, so we would have to cut 2 players to bring up Mathias and Johnson, plus one more to bring back Clev in due time, so more than likely it would be Freeman (hes not a plus fielder or hitter so why keep him?) also we would either have to move Carrasco/Kluber to the 60 day DL to make one spot, and likely to add Johnson we will cut Martin. So I would project if we truly are bring up Johnson and Mathias, Freeman and Martin will be cut.

Only problem I found is Johnson isn't on the 40 man so you're going to have to DFA someone else. I think that's why most people would choose to cut Martin since Naquin has options and Martin is free agent next year. Only other option is to DFA Kipnis, DFA Haase who would most likely pass through waivers, or move Kluber to the 60-day if they think it's going to be awhile.


An injury update on Yu Chang to replace Kipnis would be nice

Haase would not make it through waivers, he is at a premium position and most teams would take him in a heartbeat if they need a catcher (I mean we just traded Federowicz from AAA to fill in an injury at another team) but I don't think any of us on paper want to keep Martin or Kipnis if we are not going for the wild card this season. IF we are punting we may as well go with Mathias and Johnson on the roster and see what they can do going forward!
 
So Carlos Carrasco. Do we think this "blood condition" is leukemia?

What are his symptoms?

A friend got leukemia a few years ago. Nasty bruises that would not heal were his first sign.
 
What are his symptoms?

A friend got leukemia a few years ago. Nasty bruises that would not heal were his first sign.

They really didnt disclose any symptoms other than they were doing tests. I didn't see anything else anywhere, but my guess is right now they don't believe he will miss the rest of the season, so they don't believe its a leukemia from that statement.
 
If you can get Brent Honeywell for Brad Hand, you do that, and you run away laughing. I don't even care who else gets thrown in.

Looks like Honeywell just fractured a bone in his elbow yesterday and is out for the year
 
Looks like Honeywell just fractured a bone in his elbow yesterday and is out for the year

Not sure what we should do right now anyways, when it comes to buying and selling, since we can easily get the Wild Card if we keep playing well. Put a couple more solid bats in the lineup and we can easily get that last wild card spot, or do we just go for max talent in 2020 when on paper we should have everyone back healthy and guys more experienced?
 
@The Wizard of Moz, You can be angry at my comments but I still feel we can buy and sell and make the Wild Card spot and still be better in 2020. I personally would have no issues, if we traded Bauer, cut Kipnis and Martin, called up Mathias, then we acquire EE back from Seattle to fill out the lineup. I really feel having him back would help out Jose in the end and having that RH power bat to go behind Santana in the lineup would be nice.
 

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