What Johan's stance means for the Tribe

It's been a few days. The holiday, a knock-you-on-your-butt case of bronchitis and a lack of Tribe-related news has kept me from my keyboard.

Thanks to those who have been checking in.

The biggest baseball news since we last posted was the signing of Torii Hunter by the Angels. Two keys here for the Tribe. It takes Hunter out of the division. It also puts an end to nasty rumors that Hunter would end up with the White Sox, or even Kansas City.


Bigger news for the Tribe? Johan Santana has decided that a four-year extension at an average of $20 million per is not enough.

Santana wants a six-year extension. Santana will be 29 when the season starts, so he'd be 35 when a six-year contract ends. Plus you have to assume that $20 million per is a bit short of Santana's mark as well.

So what will a certain lefty who is nearly a year-and-a-half younger than Santana and beat the Twins' lefty three times this past season command?

It's true that the Indians are a top-tier team that has invested in its key players, while the Twins are coming apart. Torii Hunter is gone and closer Joe Nathan is talking about splitting after next season. So Santana has a much bigger incentive than CC to leave his current situtation.

Whether CC will be looking around the locker room at his talented mates or looking at dollar signs at decision time, only time will tell.

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In other Central Division news:

• The White Sox made a big upgrade in their pen by signing Scott Linebrink, but unless there's more to come it's little more than a finger-in-the-dike move.

• The Royals are making Jose Guillen - steroid allegations and all - their number one priority after losing out on Hunter. The are also said to already have a deal in place with Japanese reliever Yasuhiko Yabuta and are chasing after the top starting pitcher coming out of Japan this year, Hiroki Kuroda.

Tribe starts holiday shopping

The Indians placed the first check on their holiday shopping list today, signing Japanese reliever Masahide Kobayashi.

Having no access to the Japanese league on my DirecTV, I can't really tell you any more about him than what you can read in the story on the Tribe's Web site.

I do know the Tribe site is already offering you the chance to "customize a Kobayashi jersey," so you'll want to run right out and do that at $200 a pop or so, I'm sure.

He's been a closer for most of his career with the Chiba Lotte (can you buy one of those at Starbucks?) Marines of the Japanese Pacific League, has at least 20 saves in each of the past seven years, has an 89-91 mph fastball and a good cutter (or so they say). His lifetime ERA in Japan is 2.79.

The Tribe isn't saying what they plan for Kobayashi, except to say they will use him in the back of the bullpen.

This is just my opinion, but I don't think he's being brought in to replace JoBo as the closer, though I do believe he is being brought in as an insurance policy in case Borowski falls off that tightrope he walked all last season or if JoBo or one of the other late-inning mainstays has a down year after being used to death deep into the playoffs.

Even If everybody pitches up to snuff, it's still great to have another solid arm at the back end of the pen, as we found out this year the deeper the Tribe got into the post-season.

Now, about that left field situation.

CENTRAL ISSUES

Depending on what you read and where, Torii Hunter is all but signed and sealed for the White Sox, or he is not. If they were to add Hunter in center along with the acquisition of Orlando Cabrera at short and a possible move of Juan Uribe to second, the Sox would be very strong up the middle - both on offense and defense.

However, they have a three-deep rotation right now. The plan for the Sox this winter is to go back to the pitching-defense approach that got them a World Series title in 2005. So far they seem to be getting the defense part right.

There was some talk that the Rays might be interested in Uribe, but maybe not so much.

And there's also word that the Sox are still in on the Miguel Cabrera sweepstakes.

Wedge is AL Manager of the Year; Gabe Paul in the Hall?

There are two bits of news on the Indians Web site tonight.

One is nice, and probably not surprising. But other than to say "congrats" to Eric Wedge for being named A.L. Manager of the Year, I don't have much reaction.

It's another piece of off-season hardware for the Tribe - a Gold Glove for Grady, a Cy Young for C.C. and Executive of the Year for Mark Shapiro are the others.

But what we really need is some post-season hardware. The big one! The off-season awards may be an indication that we're on the right road. Let's hope we get there - and soon. I'm not that young anymore.

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One honor that may be in the offing baffles me. But I guess that's because I measure this person by the work (damage) he did with the Indians for so many years and not his overall career.

That's why I gagged when I read recently that Gabe Paul - the architect of thirty years of the embarrassment that was the Tribe from the 60s through the 80s - is one of 10 executives nominated by the Hall of Fame's Veteran's Committee for entry into the Hall.

Paul spent about 30 years in baseball, 19 of them with Cleveland- with some World Championship time in the middle in New York and a pennant won in Cincinnati early on.

During his 20 years at the helm of the Tribe he - and sidekick Phil Seghi - were responsible for 30 years of awful baseball. It was during their tenure that the Tribe became the joke of baseball - the late-century version of today's Kansas City Royals, only worse.

In Paul's first go-round with the Tribe, 1962 - 1973, the team had two winning seasons, one .500 season and losing seasons for the rest of the period. They finished anywhere from 14 to 40 games out of first place during those seasons. Their best season at the gate was 1965, when they drew 934,786; their worst was 1963, when 562,507 watched the Tribe in person.

In Paul's second coming, 1978 - 1984, the Tribe finished two seasons out of seven above .500, 1979 (81-80) and the strike-shortened 1981 (52-51). Excluding the strike-shortened season, the closest they came to first place was 17 games, in 1982.

Mostly I'll remember Paul for one thing. The role he played in two of the Tribe's worst-ever deals. Over the period of about 18 months the Indians sent slugging first baseman Chris Chambliss and powerhouse third-baseman Graig Nettles to the Yankees for what amounted to Charlie Spikes, a pair of spikes and a bag of balls. A few months after the Nettles deal he joined the Yankees' front office. A short time after joining the Yankees, he picked up Chambliss. Hmmm?

Plus Paul is said to have played a key role in the sale of the Yankees by CBS to George Steinbrenner.

It's not exactly betrayal of Art Modell proportions, but it smells a bit doesn't it?

To be fair, the Paul-led Tribe teams were backed by some of the worst ownership groups (Ted Bonda, Vernon Stouffer) in the game's history, but four winning teams in 19 seasons?

Sounds like Hall of Fame material to me.