Hello (and goodbye!) from Milwaukee

If you had any doubts that CC Sabathia is gone for good, this paid ad was in this morning's P.D.

In addition the thanking a lot of individuals and organizations, the ad had this message from CC and his family to Indians' fans.

"Thank you for 10 great years. You've touched our lives with your kindness, love and generosity. We are forever grateful!"

I'm sure it was meant as a gesture of gratitude by the Sabathias.

But it leaves me feeling a bit empty.

How 'bout you?

Closer top off-season priority: Shapiro

Tribe GM Mark Shapiro says finding a closer is likely to be the Tribe's top priority this winter, that the closer is most likely not currently in-house and that he hopes to sign a free agent - but not anyone at the top of the free-agent list.

He also said Jhonny Peralta is not likely to be moved from SS - at least for now; Akron's Matt LaPorta and Wes Hodges will likely start 2009 at Triple-A, but will be on speed dial if the lineup falters early; David Huff will get a long look in spring training; and Ryan Garko, Ben Francisco, Franklin Gutierrez and Andy Marte will be under the microscope for the rest of this season.

In his fourth-inning gabfest on STO tonight, Shapiro said finding a closer is "at the top of our list" as far as off-season priorities are concerned, and that the free agent market is the place he'll likely find one.

The list includes names like Francisco Rodriguez and Kerry Wood. That's the good news.

The bad news? Shapiro says the Tribe front office has to set its sites a little bit lower.

"Everybody wants that lights out one, two, three guy. .... But the reality is there's maybe 10 of those out of 30 teams and to find one you're probably going to have to go out and develop your own. You're probably not going to be able to compete in free agency in a market like ours for that guy."

So Shapiro says he'll look to free agency for now and hope to come up with the "lights out" guy on his own.

"Adam Miller we won't know for a year or two but maybe. We're going to be able to find someone with some experience. There's 8 or 9 free-agent closers in the market. .... Could Rafael Perez close? I don't know. Masa Kobayashi? Can he grow into that role? I can't answer those questions. That's why there's still a lot of time to take advantage of this season and get some answers."

As for 3B, don't look for Jhonny Peralta to be there next season. Shapiro says "for now" Peralta is staying right where he is, at SS.

"That's kind of a sore subject for me because I think Jhonny gets kind of beat up unjustly. I think the reason why is the easiest tool to identify in the game is speed and so guys see a guy that – they look for a shortstop and they think it should be a guy who can run fast. But Jhonny is as dependable and reliable on the average play as any SS in the game. He doesn't have exceptional range but he makes the plays he needs to make and he's developing into a hitter who has some tremendous ceiling. Though I do think his body is so big he's going to outgrow that position at some point, but that point may be two, three, four years down the road, I'm not sure."

Another thing Shapiro is not sure of is what kind of 3B Peralta would be if a switch were made.

"It's a different position. It requires different reactions and skills. He does have enough arm to play third base. His hands should be good enough but what kind of range he'll have over there you don't know. Put it this way, in the list of things we have to deal with that is so far down there so we're not going to get into that one."

It's no surprise, but Shapiro says a lot of spots are up in the air next year and that Garko, Gutierrez, Choo and Marte will be given a long look in the last two months of this year.

He said the newly acquired LaPorta, and the Tribe's top minor league 3B prospect, Hodges, will be pushing the guys mentioned above.

"I look at Wes and maybe Matt LaPorta as guys that maybe we can adjust with next year - guys that their proper level next year is going to be Triple-A. If they go to Triple-A and they go off there and we're in the month of June and we're struggling up here at that position, they're guys that can come to the rescue. They need to go at least to start next season. We're not going to plan the team around them but I'm going to use them as guys we can make adjustments with."

For example:

"We may say hey, you know it's a bit of a risk to go with Andy Marte next April, but we've got Wes Hodges coming. If Andy can't do it, we got Wes. We can make an adjustment in mid-May or June."

He gave a similar scenario with LaPorta and Francisco/Garko/Choo et al.

As for the rotation, the only guy touched on in the interview was Huff.

"It's hard to see any scenario where he is not one of the top six of seven coming into next year. He's struck out more guys and gotten better at every level he's gone up. It's very rare that that happens and when it does it's a guy who's tasting the big leagues, he can see it in his sites. He's got that killer instinct. He keeps upping his game and upping his level. His stuff right now is as good as it's ever been. He's a guy that has a chance to help us next season, either out of the gate or sometime during the season."

Despite making veteran-for-prospect deals in recent days, Shapiro insists this is a retooling and not a rebuilding that's underway.

"I don't think we've done anything to impact our chances next year at all. What we have done is replenished the upper levels of our system with both some ceiling and some depth. We haven't at all compromised our chances to win next season."

More than fair return for Casey Blake; Dodger blogs none too happy

Put me down as quite satisfied with the Tribe's latest round of wheeling and dealing - the biggest part of which was the trade of Casey Blake to the Dodgers.

They picked up once-touted pitcher Anthony Reyes from the Cardinals today as well, but we'll get to that later.

It looks to me like the Tribe got two legitimate prospects for Blake, including one that stands a pretty decent chance at being somewhere in the back end of the Tribe's pen next year - and just might get a look with the big club before this season comes to a merciful close.

In addition, they got a guy who - from what I've been able to dig up - was one of the Dodgers better hitting prospects and who is a switch-hitting catcher to boot.

First the pitcher.

(Before I go any further let me just say I'm borrowing (stealing) these stats from my colleague Paul Cousineau at the DiaTribe, since it is 10:20 PM as I begin to write this and this is the first chance I've had to sit down all day.)

Anyway.

The pitcher in question is righty Jon Meloan who is having a not-to-great year as a starter for AAA Las Vegas this season.

But he throws low-to-mid nineties, as a decent curve and was lights out as a reliever in the past two years at three minor league levels.

Here are the numbers:

2007 (in AA and AAA)
2.03 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, 91 K, 27 BB in 66 2/3 IP over 49 games

2006 (in A and AA)
1.90 ERA, 0.83 WHIP, 91 K, 16 BB in 52 IP over 21 games

Not sure what the Dodgers were thinking when they looked at those '06 and '07 numbers and said "let's make him a starter," but the Tribe intends to quickly move him back to the pen in Buffalo.

Walks have been his problem, particularly this year, but it could be that as a starter he has to mix in some pitches he's not all that comfortable with as the game wears on. As a reliever he doesn't need to mix it up so much and so he may be able to limit himself to his bread-and-butter, helping his control

Whatever the case, it appears he has closer stuff if he can get it under control.

It's been a long time since the Tribe has had a closer who can blow somebody's doors off. His K to IP ratio is ridiculous in the pen., so I don't think it is out of the question that Meloan could work his way to that spot - starting out in a lesser role on the big club first of course.

For next year, he could be a good 7th or 8th inning guy, giving the Tribe the chance - maybe - to give Raffie Perez a look in the closer's role.

If they open the wallet and hire an established closer, all the better. Add in Kobayashi and you could have a serious back end of the pen.

I commented earlier somewhere that if the Tribe got a solid bullpen arm for Blake I would be happy. I was thinking more along the lines of someone who has done it at the big league level. But this guy appears to have a big "upside." (as the professionals like to say)

But, the trade looks even better when you add in the high-A ball catcher the Tribe got - Carlos Santana.

Here are his numbers, thanks again to The DiaTribe.

2008 (single-A)
.323 BA / .431 OBP / .563 SLG / .994 OPS with 14 HR, 96 RBI, and 34 doubles in 99 games.

Santana is new to the catcher position and from what I've read his defense needs a little work, but those offensive numbers look pretty darn good.

As a Tribe fan, it's too hard not to draw the comparisons to Victor Martinez - also a converted infielder, with a solid bat that he swings from both sides of the plate.

It is A ball, but this guy is intriguing, and in many of the stories I read he was the key to the deal.

Did we get enough for two months worth of Casey Blake?

I'd say so.

But it might be more useful take a look at what is being said elsewhere about the trade - particularly in L.A., where - presumably those doing the writing know more about these prospects than I do.

This blog may be a little biased - since Ned Colletti is the guy who pulled the trigger on the deal for the Dodgers - but over at Fire Ned Colletti Now, they hate the deal from the Dodgers' point of view.

At this point, the Dodgers are a tossup to even make the playoffs, and even assuming they do, is that really worth sacrificing two chips that may have been much larger a year from now? You have to look at it from the context that Ned is likely giving up a solid bullpen arm and a Top 5 prospect for Casey freakin' Blake in a season that will most likely end up as nothing more than a nice try at the playoffs and a pat on the back.

6-4-2 bills itself as an Angels/Dodgers double play blog (meaning that it covers both teams). Since the most typical double-play is scored 6-4-3, the name of the blog is either an attempt at cleverness or raises serious doubts about the baseball knowledge of the writers there.

But from reading this blog, they seem to know what's going on, and they don't like the deal that much either - again from the Dodger perspective.

In short, it's not as bad a deal as the Denny Baez/Lance Carter for Edwin Jackson/Chuck Tiffany deal, but it represents the same wastefulness, an inability to read the team's true needs, and a failure to properly value prospects.

At True Blue L.A. they hate it too:

It seems like all Ned did was look at Casey Blake, see he was hitting decently and decided he would be an upgrade without looking at the context of the team. Paul DePodesta got taken to task for making "fantasy baseball" moves but this trade is far worse in that regard than anything DePo did. An absolutely terrible move, even for Ned.

Ken Davidoff writes for Newsday, the daily on Long Island. Except for the fact that the Mets were in on Blake, Davidoff really has no real "local angle" on this, but I think he is one of the better baseball beat writers I've come across. So I decided to link his comments too. He thinks both teams will be happy with the deal.

The Dodgers, very much in the race in the weak NL West, owed it to their players to make this trade That said, one official from a team not involved in the deal thought that the Dodgers overpaid for Blake, giving up two good pieces in Santana and Meloan. So let's call this one even.

So, from either coast, this trade looks pretty good for the Tribe.

The Blake deal got all the attention, but Tribe GM Mark Shapiro picked up another arm in a deal today who may be part of the competition for a rotation spot next year.

The Tribe picked up Anthony Reyes from the Cardinals for minor league reliever Luis Perdomo.

Reyes has been a starter in the Cardinals' system for the past few years but made the parent club as a reliever this year. He has not had much success in either role in the majors, but has put up some good numbers in the minors.

He will be stretched out and put back into a starter role in Buffalo.

Perdomo was the closer at class-A Kinston and put up 18 saves before being promoted to double-A Akron, where he been decent.

As with any deal the Tribe is likely to make at this juncture, it's impossible to tell how this one will turn out.

But the Tribe needs potential starters at the big-league level pronto and so it seems worth the gamble that the Indians can figure out how to make Reyes as successful in the big leagues as he has been in the bushes.

I'm going to bet we see him at Cleveland just as soon as they can get his pitch count up at Buffalo.

And, finally, speaking of Buffalo, the Indians sent Aaron Laffey back there today to work out his control problems.

The move was a bit of a surprise to me since Laffey has had a fair amount of success for the Tribe this year and last.

I guess they felt Laffey could get himself back in gear in a low-pressure situation and then call him back up ASAP.

As for Jeremy Sowers - your guess is as good as mine. Sowers has done the job in a few stints in at Buffalo, so the Tribe must feel he needs to prove to himself that he is capable of making the jump to the majors - something he can only do by pitching in the majors.

Who knows?