Now that both Francisco Rodriguez and CC Sabathia have signed deals with teams, I'm pretty sure we can expect an influx of signings being announced in the next few days, at least when it comes to pitchers. For Kerry Wood, once K-Rod signed with the Mets on Tuesday it didn't leave him with a whole lot of options to choose from.
Kerry basically had to choose which AL Central team he thought provided him the best chance of winning -- and maybe the best chance of buying him a home made of solid gold -- between the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians. He's chosen the Indians.
With two teams to pick from in the American League Central, Kerry Wood appears to have rejected overtures from Detroit to take a deal with Cleveland.
The deal is believed to be two years with a vesting option for a third. Money terms remain unclear.
While the money may not be clear, radio reports here in Chicago are saying the deal is for two years and worth $21 million with the option for the third year.
As for what this signing actually means, it's a pretty good move by the Indians. No longer will the team have to torture fans by trotting out Joe Borowski, or bore them to death with Rafael Betancourt. Signing Wood helps solidify a bullpen that was a big reason why the Indians were so disappointing in 2008. Wood converted 34 of his 40 save opportunities last season, and more importantly, he managed to stay off of the disabled list for an extended period of time.
Footprints in the Snow is FanHouse's look at the paths to be forged by MLB teams this winter as they look ahead to 2009.
After falling just short of the World Series in 2007, the Indians entered 2008 with lofty expectations. Thanks to a combination of down years from and injuries to players who made significant contributions to the 96-win team of 2007, Cleveland fell well short of those expectations, needing a late-season surge just to finish at .500.
There is some reason for optimism, however. Despite the injuries and trades, the Indians outscored their opponents by 44 runs, not far behind division leaders Chicago (plus-81) and Minnesota (plus-85). If some of the guys that struggled in '08 bounce back and the front office plugs some of the holes one the roster, there's no reason to think the Tribe couldn't compete in the Central in '09.
Who may leave? C Sal Fasano (free agent)
What do they need? Cleveland's free agent list would've been a lot longer if you compiled it back in April, but the Indians got rid of nearly all of their impending free agents after falling out of contention. CC Sabathia, Casey Blake, and Paul Byrd were all traded away to contenders, and Joe Borowski was released in July. So although they can bring back almost everyone who was on the roster after the deadline, there is work to do.
Aside from Cliff Lee, there are a lot of question marks in the rotation. After a great 2007, Fausto Carmona had serious control problems both before and after going on the DL, with 70 walks in 120.2 innings. After that, they really just have a collection of No. 5 starters, with Jeremy Sowers, Anthony Reyes, and Scott Lewis leading the way. Jake Westbrook is expected to return from Tommy John surgery around midseason, but relying on a big contribution from him in 2009 would probably be a mistake.
Consider Joe Borowski, he of the higher ERA than save total for the season (7.56 to six), the first shoe. Borowski has been designated for assignment by the highly disappointing Cleveland Indians, who have gone from A.L. Central Champions to the team most likely to dump their ace.
Borowski always had a high ERA ... it was over five last season. But when you add in 45 saves for a winning team, a high ERA from your closer is a little easier to take. But on this Cleveland team, there's almost no reason to have a guy like Borowski, especially if they want to look at younger guys (like Jensen Lewis and Brian Slocum, who were called up from Buffalo). Now the question is this: Is C.C. Sabathia the other shoe? And if so, where is he going?
Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal is reporting that the Brewers are offering top prospect Matt LaPorta and shortstop Alcides Escobar for C.C. Sabathia.
Rosenthal has a lot of sources and quotes some of them anonymously as saying that LaPorta, a first-round draft pick last year now playing the outfield at Huntsville, and teammate Escobar are being offered for the big left-hander.
Considering how the Brewers blew a 5-0 lead against the Diamondbacks yesterday, the Brewers may want to look at Borowski too.
Where is the Closers League of Justice when we need them most? All around the major leagues, closers are losing their unique powers and watching their fastballs disappear into the deep, dark night. Has the Notorious Mitchwilliams escaped from the asylum where he was being kept so leads would remain safe? Joe Borowski felt the evil one's wrath Monday night while facing Manny Ramirez.
"[It was] like a fastball," Ramirez said. "It was something like 80 [mph]. Or a changeup. It was right there."
Two nights later another closer's fastball deserted him. Chad Cordero's fastball was flatter than his hat brim, reaching just 79 mph against the Mets on Wednesday night. Cordero, just off the DL, denies that he's hurting, blaming insufficient warm-up time for his pedestrian pitches. I blame the supervillain but whatever the cause, Manny Acta's not going to use Cordero as a closer for a while.
"We are going to have to pick and choose our spots. I really don't feel right now -- with the way he is throwing -- I should trust him to save a game here."
That's good news if you're a big Jon Rauch fan. He'll take over the closer duties for the time being. As for the Notorious Mitchwilliams, I'd watch out, Eric Gagne, for the evil one was last seen on a bus headed toward Milwaukee! MWAHAHAHA!
Usually we reserve Always Be Closing for Mondays. But, much like 1995, the Braves and Indians are all the rage right now. Only this time, instead of being World Series opponents, they are the focus of closer issues. Both Peter Moylan and Joe Borowski -- the current shutdown guys -- were placed on the 15 day disabled list, leaving the closing duties open for two pretty cushy save situations.
Atlanta Braves Bobby Cox never officially named Moylan the closer in the ATL, and maybe it's because he knew he could face "right elbow soreness" a little later down the road. Like, perhaps, today. Moylan had been absolutely dominant last season and equally as tough this year, nailing down his only save situation thus far. This works out "well" in the sense that the Braves need a roster spot for Buddy Carlyle, who was called up to take a rotation slot in the coming week. It works out "not well" in the sense that the previously deep pitching staff is getting thin quickly. Manny Acosta has a 7.20 ERA and a 1.60 WHIP on the season, but he's only pitched five times this year and the one bad outing was that freakish debacle against the Pirates. Add him immediately in all deep and NL-only leagues and think about jumping anywhere else if you need saves. Cleveland Indians Borowski has long been the bane of fantasy owners because of his ability to give up four earned runs en route to getting a save. In other words, no one understood why he kept the closer gig in the first place. Well, now he doesn't have it. Or at least he doesn't for the next 15 days as he'll be spending that time on the disabled list. Taking his place will likely be Rafael Betancourt. Betancourt recorded 31 holds last year, the sixth highest totals in the MLB, so it's pretty clear that Eric Wedge trusts him in a late inning role. Add in his 0.76 WHIP and a .184 BAA, and he's a very nice candidate to add in nearly any league. If he pitches well in this gig, there's no guarantee he gives it back.
It was a familiar scene for Indians fans yesterday, as they were forced to watch their closer Joe Borowski blow a save against the Red Sox by giving up a home run to Manny Ramirez. After the game Borowski expressed his frustration towards his performance, saying he had no idea what was wrong with him, but that it felt like he "was throwing through water."
Well, the Indians and Borowski now know what the problem is (well, besides the fact he kinda sucks) and Joe is going to be taking some time off and going on the disabled list.
The club said Borowski, who led the AL with 45 saves last season, has a strained triceps. He had been puzzled and frustrated by a significant loss in his velocity.
The club recalled right-hander Tom Mastny from Triple-A Buffalo.
For now the team will probably put Rafael Betancourt in the closer role, and that's probably music to the ears of many an Indians fan. Borowski may have managed to pick up 45 saves last season, but he didn't do it without giving his teammates and fans about 243 heart attacks. So far this season, Joe's picked up two saves for the Indians despite an 18.00 ERA, but he's also blown two saves and generally you'd like your closer to convert more than 50% of the time. At least, if you want to win you do anyway.
The Indians announced Tuesday that they have exercised their 2008 club options on right-hander Paul Byrd, closer Joe Borowski and left-handed reliever Aaron Fultz.
See, I told you.
It's not surprising that the Indians have chosen to keep Paul Byrd around. C.C. Sabathia and Fausto Carmona may have gotten all the Cy Young talk, and Jake Westbrook may have gotten the contract extension, but without Byrd this season, the Indians wouldn't have won the AL Central. His 15 wins in 2007 made it pretty easy to pick up his $8 million option, and the Indians will have a strong rotation again next season.
There is still the question of whether or not Byrd will face any punishment stemming from the reports he's used HGH before, something Byrd confirms. If he is suspended for any amount of time, the Indians will not have to pay him during that period.
As for Borowski, he may drive Indians fans insane, but he seems to get the job done. Without a lot of other options at closer in free agency, or within the organization right now, keeping Borowski is the safe move for the Tribe.
Sabermetric types (baseball stat nerds, if you will) have long disputed the importance of a shutdown closer. After all, why save your best reliever for when you have the largest margin for error: the start of an inning with no runners on base and a 1-3 run lead? With that kind of cushion, guys like Todd Jones and Joe Borowski get the job done most of the time.
And now, the business folk at Forbes are jumping on the bandwagon, pointing out that investing in a high-priced closer doesn't make the most fiscal sense. The average MLB closer makes $3.9 million, which is more than both the Red Sox and Rockies pay Jonathan Papelbon and Brian Fuentes, respectively. That means they could afford to invest in other quality relievers, whereas teams like the Yankees who devoted over half of their bullpen budget to one guy lacked as many other options.
Forbes also asked the question: does having a specialized closer actually even help? They looked at the data since Tony La Russa and Dennis Eckersley popularized how modern closers are used and found some surprising results:
Yet in the 20 seasons since LaRussa's brainstorm, teams holding late leads have won at about the same rate they did in the 20 seasons before. Since 1988, teams leading after eight innings have won at a .951 clip, according to Baseball-Reference.com and STATS Inc., compared to .948 from 1968 to 1987. That adds up to less than one win per season per team.
How much added value can be expected from a guy who specializes in pitching the last inning, when there's so little room for improvement? Very little, though the perception of the ninth inning as overly important (do runs scored in that inning count more?) has made developing a track record as a last-inning specialist very lucrative.
I can accept the idea that guys in the bullpen perform better when they know their roles, but that doesn't mean the guy designated to pitch the ninth inning has to be the most talented, let alone the most expensive.
Boston made its way into the record books late Saturday night, though it was for an incident for which they're certainly not proud. The Red Sox bullpen gave up seven runs in the top of the 11th, allowing the Indians to take a 13-6 lead. The seven runs were the most ever in LCS history for an extra-inning, no surprise. Eric Gagne crapped out once again for Boston, putting two men on after getting the first out in the inning. Javier Lopez followed only to surrender an RBI single to Trot Nixon of all people, wild pitch another run home, intentionally walk Victor Martinez, and give up an RBI single to Ryan Garko. Jon Lester allowed an RBI double to Jhonny Peralta, and a three-run home run to Franklin Gutierrez, for good measure.
Joe Borowski on the other hand, closed out the seven run lead without allowing a run in the 11th. Now exactly what twilight world are we living in? Wasn't the Boston bullpen supposed to be a strong suit, while the Cleveland pen was full of question marks? Whatever the reason, the Indians grabbed the coveted road split and now head home to the Jake tied up with the Red Sox in the best of 7 at 1-1. Jake Westbrook will go for Cleveland on Monday, while Dice-K counters for Boston. Given how poorly Sabathia pitched in Game 1, the Indians have to be pleased with where they stand.
Since the playoffs have started, Joe Borowski has been getting knocked by just about everyone with an opinion. When I picked the Indians to win the World Series, my fellow 'Housers screamed "WITH BOROWSKI?!?" Tony Gwynn was incredulous that Eric Wedge brought him in to close out game 4. Bill Simmons and Slate are piling on mercilessly today and I could probably furnish 100 more links if I really wanted to. But instead, let's look at Borowski's 2007 and see if it was really all that bad.
First off, he's a relief pitcher. He only pitched 65 and 2/3 innings this year. That means that his high ERA (5.07) could easily be inflated by a couple of bad outings, like, say the two outings in April and May when Borowski gave up six and four runs in less than an inning. Since May 13th, the four run outing that raised his ERA to 9.00, Borowski's line has looked like this: 3.91 ERA, 1.34 WHIP, 40 Ks, 10 BB, all in 50 and 2/3 innings. It's not fantastic, but it's certainly passable or better. Another way to look at it is to compare the Indians' record in games Borowski has appeared in to the other closers left in the playoffs. The Tribe is 58-11 when Borowski takes the mound. The D'Backs are 54-11 when Jose Valverde takes the mound while the Red Sox are 50-9 with Jonathan Papelbon on the mound.
Yes, they're both better relievers than Borowski and I'm not arguing that. Keep in mind that Eric Wedge hasn't used Borowski for more than an inning all year while Rafael Betancourt has made 25 multiple inning appearances and Rafael Perezhas 26. That suggests to me that Wedge pretty clearly knows the limits of his closer. So long as Wedge keeps using Borowski like he did during the season and in the ALDS and not like the Red Sox used Keith Foulke in 2004, I think all of the Borowski dumping could well turn out to be much ado about nothing.
Now that both Francisco Rodriguez and CC Sabathia have signed deals with teams, I'm pretty sure we can expect an influx of signings being announced in the next few days, at least when it comes to pitchers. For Kerry Wood, once K-Rod signed with the Mets on Tuesday it didn't leave him with a whole lot of options to choose from. 
Consider 
Where is the Closers League of Justice when we need them most? All around the major leagues, closers are losing their unique powers and watching their fastballs disappear into the deep, dark night. Has the Notorious Mitchwilliams escaped from the asylum where he was being kept so leads would remain safe? 
Usually we reserve 
It was a familiar scene for Indians fans yesterday, as they were forced to watch their closer 
The Indians have picked up the options on three members of their pitching staff for the 2008 season. 
Sabermetric types (baseball stat nerds, if you will) have long disputed the importance of a shutdown closer. After all, why save your best reliever for when you have the largest margin for error: the start of an inning with no runners on base and a 1-3 run lead? With that kind of cushion, guys like 
Boston made its way into the record books late Saturday night, though it was for an incident for which they're certainly not proud. The Red Sox bullpen gave up seven runs in the top of the 11th, allowing the Indians to take a 13-6 lead. The seven runs were the most ever in LCS history for an extra-inning, no surprise. 
Since the playoffs have started, 
