The fourth installment of our 2013 Cleveland Indians Key Player series focuses on Carlos Santana. After arriving in 2010 with an impressive showing before suffering a serious knee injury, while he has shown flashes the last two seasons, the Indians are waiting for Santana to truly arrive as an offensive weapon. The IBI's Michael Goodman takes a deeper look into Santana, a player he believes is the engine that will make the Indians offense flourish.
It was another busy day at camp for the minor leaguers on Wednesday as releases were announced first thing in the morning, and then the rest of the players went out for morning workouts and then games in the afternoon. With camp winding down the rosters for the four full season teams are really starting to come into focus, and Tony discusses how those are shaping up and also some of arms set to open in the Carolina and Lake County rotation, plus much more.
Daisuke Matsuzaka made his first appearance since being resigned by the Indians to a minor league deal, and the right-hander impressed as he allowed just two runs while pitching into the sixth inning. On the offense end, third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall also continued his tear and led the Indians with two hits. Join the IBI's Steve Orbanek as he looks back at Wednesday's game and offers some key takeaways.
The Nostalgia League continues on and two months are in the books. As the season moves into June, some teams like the 1995 and 2005 Indians continue to dominate, while the 1968 and 1976 Indians have struggled. Shortstop Lou Bourdreau is setting the league on fire with his hitting, Vic Wertz and Rocky Colavito are showing the power, and Cy Falkenberg has been dominant on the mound. Check it out!
It's hard to believe, but this is the last Corner of Carnegie and Ontario before the regular season kicks off next Tuesday in Toronto. The Indians secured one of their most successful offseasons of the year, and are now led by one of the best baseball minds in the game today. Will their offseason success translate to on-the-field victories? Jim Pete walks through the 25-man rotation, with a preview of what's to come...
The Indians today announced that have released five players from their minor league contracts: shortstop Jairo Kelly, outfielder Chia-Ching Lin, outfielder Andrew Campbell, catcher Dwight Childs, and infielder Davis Stoneburner.
On the night the Indians traded Shin-Soo Choo to the Reds for a deal that included Trevor Bauer and Drew Stubbs, the IBI's Michael Hattery was elated with the Bauer acquisition but did not know what to thing of the Stubbs pick up. After some time to think about it, one thing struck him as interesting, that being they were two high ceiling players being given up on by their draft teams a little too soon and that Stubbs could be in for a comeback season.
The Indians brought out the minor leaguers on Tuesday after they got blasted on Monday night, and while they lost the game 7-6 to the A's, top prospect Francisco LIndor put on a defensive display. Zach McAllister scuffled a bit, but Chris Perez returned and looked pretty nasty. The Indians lost the game, but if there ever was a game in which I was left impressed after a loss, this was it.
Tuesday was a camp day for the Indians' minor leaguers, which means more roster decisions could be coming. With more releases on the horizon and full season rosters set to be announced by the end of the week, Tony reviews all the stats from the games on Tuesday and provides some insight into which players may be on the roster and release bubble, and where some players may be assigned to start the season.
A month is in the books in the IBI's Nostalgia League, a simulated league that pits the 18 greatest Indians' teams against one another over a full 162 game season. Eric Wedge's teams always got off to horrid starts, but not in this simulation as the 2005 Indians lead the Speaker Division and the 2007 Indians lead the Boudreau Division after one month of play. The Rock leads the pack with 15 homers, Albert Belle leads with 31 RBI, Otis Nixon leads with 20 stolen bases, and Luis Tiant leads with 73 strikeouts. Check it all out!
The Cleveland Indians' farm teams took on the affiliates of the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday in the eighth of 11 scheduled inter-organization preseason exhibition games. Trevor Bauer started for Columbus, T.J. House for Akron, Jacob Lee for Carolina and Luis DeJesus for Lake County, and Arthur has the details on how all of them did as well as several standout performances in the lineup.
The Cleveland Indians had a rough visit to Salt River Field on Monday Night, as the Colorado Rockies managed to make Arizona look like the thin air of Colorado. The pasted the Indians, scoring 18 runs on 26 hits on the night, and just beat up on the Indians' Brett Myers, David Huff and Rich Hill.
With his sweet swing and mature demeanor, Indians third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall may be a potential star in the making and a fixture at third for many years to come. Is it possible that Chisenhall could blossom into the next left-handed hitting slugger like Jim Thome? That's a question the IBI's Jim Berdysz asked and tries to answer....
Opening day is always a great day to be alive, and for the Nostalgia League it means the beginning of some exciting matchups in this nine-part series simulating some of the greatest Indians teams of all time against one another over a full 162 game schedule. On opening day in the league 378,815 fans jammed into three parks on the shores of Lake Erie to see 9 games with 18 teams. Luis Tiant squared off against the juggernaut offense of the 1999 Indians, Bob Feller squared off against the 1995 Indians....and more!
The Cleveland Indians announced the beginning of their final roster moves on Monday afternoon. While there are still some questions as to who will make up the final 25-man roster when they break camp next weekend, most were answered in a flurry of moves. Scott Kazmir was officially named the fifth starter, but won't be added to the roster until prior to his first start on April sixth. Here's a list of the moves made so far.
The 2013 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider book featuring the Indians' Top 100 Prospects and more is now available. Also, previous editions from 2008-2012 are also available at a discounted rate. Just click on the book image for more information. Thanks again for all the support!
