This will be a thread I post in a few times over the course of the next few days. And then forget about because the team tends to not do much in the offseason that's worth talking about.

So, here are HERETIC'S TEAM GRADES by unit.

STARTING PITCHING: C+

Kind of a tale of two halves bunch. The first half, they were surprisingly good; in the second half, a lot of guys fell back to earth in a big way.

Kevin Correia and Paul Maholm both were excellent early on (Maholm for longer than Correia, but Correia had more run support and, therefore, a better record than Maholm, who was like 5 under .500 when his ERA was in the low 3s. Correia started struggling before the all-star break and just got worse and worse before being shut down. Maholm had about three bad starts before he was shut down. It will be interesting to see if they pick up Maholm's option for next year. I would have said HELL FUCKING NO before the season because it's like $9M or something like that and he's been mediocre for his career, BUT he pitched as good as he ever has before those last couple starts before going on the DL. Add to that how their top minor league guys aren't ready yet (hoping Rudy Owens would be, but he struggled a lot at AAA last year) and I think keeping him around would be key to them continuing to improve.

Jeff Karstens was a feel-good story. Went from a nobody to a guy who was contending for the ERA title for a good part of the year. Faltered late, probably because his inning count was getting higher than ever because he wasn't getting bounced between the rotation and pen constantly AND because he was getting better at going deeper into games than in the past.

Charlie Morton also seemed to wear down a bit, as his start was skipped a couple times to give him more rest. HUGE improvement over the debacle that was last year, which gives me hope he can be a valuable member of the rotation.

James McDonald still struggles with inconsistency. When on, he's very good. When off, he really struggles with baserunners.

In one year, Ross Ohlendorf went from the best of the bunch in that trade with the Yankees (him, D. McCutchen, Tabata, Karstens) to the worst. He's injury prone and just seemed tentative and a weak link.

Brad Lincoln looked better than last year (taking away one atrocious start against the Dodgers). Probably a back-end rotation guy if he even makes the rotation, but that's an improvement and makes him worth keeping around. Jeff Locke got a September look, but he's AAA next year, as he only was there for a few weeks before a September call-up.

Relief and offense coming tomorrow or later. Whenever I feel like it. It's a long offseason...lol...

Heretic;921687 wrote:This will be a thread I post in a few times over the course of the next few days. And then forget about because the team tends to not do much in the offseason that's worth talking about.

You have an error in your thread title. It should read "Cleveland Indians: The Offseason(aka:time for the crickets to chirp)"

Least your team didn't trade its pitching core for a washed up bum.

like_that;921691 wrote:You have an error in your thread title. It should read "Cleveland Indians: The Offseason(aka:time for the crickets to chirp)"

It's funny. For all the football rivalry jabs and hatred, we both have to admit that in baseball, the franchises are far too much alike. The only difference is that Cleveland is a year or so farther along as far as minor league development. Which means nothing if minor league development doesn't turn into actual good major league players. Which leads to the fun tidbit I read yesterday about how Pittsburgh has surprisingly few people ranked as top prospects in the low levels of the minor leagues by Baseball America considering how much money they've put into the draft and overseas.

Heretic;921702 wrote:Which leads to the fun tidbit I read yesterday about how Pittsburgh has surprisingly few people ranked as top prospects in the low levels of the minor leagues by Baseball America considering how much money they've put into the draft and overseas.

Oh man what are the yankees going to do then? I'll have to let my yankees know about this. doesn't bode well for them in the next few seasons.

The quest for .500 continues.

Heretic;921702 wrote:It's funny. For all the football rivalry jabs and hatred, we both have to admit that in baseball, the franchises are far too much alike. The only difference is that Cleveland is a year or so farther along as far as minor league development. Which means nothing if minor league development doesn't turn into actual good major league players. Which leads to the fun tidbit I read yesterday about how Pittsburgh has surprisingly few people ranked as top prospects in the low levels of the minor leagues by Baseball America considering how much money they've put into the draft and overseas.

It's because our lame ass GM was Mark Shipiro's whipping boy in Cleveland for several years.

I can see that for hitters. There are no hot hitting prospects in the minors. I would have hoped that pitching would have been different with the high draft picks going to that in recent years.

GoPens;921971 wrote:It's because our lame ass GM was Mark Shipiro's whipping boy in Cleveland for several years.

I can see that for hitters. There are no hot hitting prospects in the minors. I would have hoped that pitching would have been different with the high draft picks going to that in recent years.

Taillion was decent at A, so he's doing well. For a 16-17 year old, Heredia did good at rookie ball. Allie at low-A was worrisome. He was shelled as a starter, but seemed to do better when moved to relief and held to one-inning stints.

But a lot of their pitchers at the lower levels seem to be more on the border between organizational players and marginal major leaguers, as opposed to what the team really needs. We have tons of mid/low rotation players, but need ANYONE to be an ace.

I don't look at Huntington as perfect, but at least he seems to be aggressively trying to make the organization better and trying to do all he can within the limits he has. Of course, following David Littlefield, virtually anyone would look good in comparison. He might have been the worst GM in baseball history.

RELIEF PITCHING: B

Relief was interesting this year. For the vast majority of the year, Hanrahan was lights out as closer. The best in baseball for the first half of the year. He seemed to struggle some later on, but the entire team seemed to be going down the crapper. And 40/44 saves, 1.85 ERA and 1.05 WHIP with a 61/16 K/BB ratio is still damn good. You could easily call him the team MVP.

A number of guys that were expected to be big contributors to the pen weren't all that good. The lone 2010 All-Star, Evan Meek, spent large chunks of the year on the DL and wasn't particularly effective when on the mound. Chris Resop was inconsistent, as was Jose Veras, who was absolutely dominating for stretches...and then would get shelled consistently for a while.

Daniel McCutchen was a pleasant surprise for much of the year. An afterthought as a AAAA starter, he was great in middle relief for the first half the year before gradually fading. I wonder if that was him falling back to earth or if his arm was wearing out, as I'd imagine going from a starter to a reliever and making 71 appearances in his first year in that role could have played a role in his performance fading.

Probably the best thing about the pen was how the team got extended good runs from guys who didn't start the year with the major leagues. When Mike Crotta went down in flames, Meek went on the DL and Jeff Karstens was getting moved to the rotations, guys like Daniel Moskos and Tony Watson (and Jared Hughes, if you count September call-ups) were making immediate impacts in a good way. Unfortunately, it seemed that just when they started getting entrenched in important roles, they'd start to falter, but you have to give them credit for the team staying good for as long as they did, as the team needed good middle relief considering how their starters did struggle to eat innings consistently. Mid-season acquisition Jason Grilli also was pretty good, moving between long relief and setting up. Chris Leroux also did good in a long relief role.

One big positive with those guys was that there was a sort of "when it rains, it pours" deal going on. It seemed their bad outings would coincide with each other, so you'd have the occasional huge blowout when three or four guys got shelled. But then, you'd have multiple outings where they all would be rock-solid.

There were a few failures. Crotta for one, as well as Tim Wood (8 innings, 8 walks) and Jose Ascanio. None of them were around very long, though. At least, they weren't dragging out horrible guys regularly this year. One worry about many guys is that their peripherals were worse than their stats, which makes me wonder if any of them will be able to maintain their success. Like, Moskos had a 1.56 WHIP and .302 BAA, which makes his 2.96 ERA look like a mirage. Meek was similar, although I'm hoping this year was just a fluke caused by injuries. Especially since the other option is that last year was a fluke and he's an average guy who had one great year.

At the least, they'll have a lot of guys who were capable in 2011 competing for jobs on the 2012 team, which is a positive.

One point of worry for the team's starting rotation is how so many of their pitching prospects from past years became failed starters who were converted to relief. McCutchen, Moskos and Watson especially. They need to develop guys who can make the bigs as quality starters...too many of them wind up being the sort that's best in smaller doses.

Charlie Morton had sort sort of hip surgery and will be out 4-6 months. Which means he may or may not be ready to do anything at the beginning of next season. With their overall lack of depth as far as starters go, that's not the best of news.

Apparently, the team is likely to NOT pick up the option on Maholm for next year. Ordinarily, I'd agree that dumping $9.5 million into a pitcher who's been barely mediocre for his career (ie: he wouldn't be a permanent member of the rotation for a good club) and who had easily his best season (until his starts right before being shut down for the year) last year isn't a good idea.

But with Morton possibly not going to be ready by the beginning of the year and with how starting pitching is where I'd consider the team to have the most question marks, I don't know if I feel that way. He might not be great (or even that good), but he's experienced and can regularly give 6-7 innings of at least passable baseball more often than not. To me, not having him would probably be taking a small step back. Only a small step, but after taking a step forward last year, I don't want to start going back again like they have every single time I've thought they've moved forward over the past two decades.

I would try and renegotiate a longer term deal with Maholm, but he's definately not worth $9.5 million for one year.

Good article on Clint Hurdle.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11292/1183085-63.stm