Some big names left out there, chasing what few bucks remain. Adding them could make a huge difference.

Smoltz
Pedro Martinez
Damon
Dye
Garret Anderson
Mike Sweeney
DelGado
Hampton
Wang
Livan Hernandez



Let's see who could the Indians get on the cheap? LOL
It's so much easier when you choose not to compete!

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100127&content_id=7987502&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

Kind of surprised no one has swooped up Dye yet.

^^^ I thought the reds were going to get him last year.

These are all guys who are going to want big bucks, but probably could be had for 1 year contracts. Damon was offered 2 years/$14 mill with the Yanks, who have since moved on when Damon and his agent (Boras)balked. He'll be lucky to get a 1 year deal at that figure.

I'm really pissed at the Indians who have abdicated any resposibility to the fans to even try to compete. The team really wasn't all that bad, and the addition of any one of these guys could have meant serious contention. Sure ...'they have no money', but it is also the responsibility of ownership to step up and prime the pump.

HitsRus wrote: These are all guys who are going to want big bucks, but probably could be had for 1 year contracts.

This.

Ryan Garko has landed with Seattle...$550K 1 year deal. You don't get good veteran help for much less.

I'd take a flier on Chien-Ming Wang. He's been bad, but he's been solid in the past. Give him a minor league deal, if he can pitch, put him in the rotation and if you win, that's great. If you're still losing but he's winning, trade him. If he sucks, release him. Low risk, high reward

Cleveland will pay you $6.40 an hour.

stroups wrote: ^^^ I thought the reds were going to get him last year.

Hal McCoy, great sportswriter for the Dayton Daily News who had his position eliminated so he then retired, reported last year the reds had a trade of Bailey for Dye. He got some inside info that was inaccurate apparently and it never materialized.

Other reports came out that it wasnt really close so possibly someone from the ChiSox floated that out to Mr McCoy so it would get reported so other suitors would come round for Dye.

I could see Livan, sounds about right for a Cleveland signing.

Sigh. I just can't get into it. I really see no scenario where this team is competing in the near future. And by near future I mean around 5 years. Fun.

Reds fans should like this:

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/dusty_baker_destroys[/i]

Find the list of guys who have never been good, but were almost useful at some point in their career, haven't played much over the past few years, and would come in on a minor league contract or spring training invite. That will fill out the Indians roster. What a joke.

burt07 wrote: I could see Livan, sounds about right for a Cleveland signing.

Sigh. I just can't get into it. I really see no scenario where this team is competing in the near future. And by near future I mean around 5 years. Fun.

It's pretty sad that the thing I'm looking forward to the most about this season is Mark Shapiro being unemployed at the end of it.

Mulva wrote:

burt07 wrote: I could see Livan, sounds about right for a Cleveland signing.

Sigh. I just can't get into it. I really see no scenario where this team is competing in the near future. And by near future I mean around 5 years. Fun.

It's pretty sad that the thing I'm looking forward to the most about this season is Mark Shapiro being unemployed at the end of it.

I don't think Shapiro is that bad a GM when you actually give him some cash to work with. I suppose you can blame him for presiding over the biggest salary dump the city has ever seen, but I have to think he had to have had a gun to his head when he made those 'deals' last summer. They made no baseball sense at all. I have to believe that he was under orders to trade the high( actually 'moderate' salaries) salaries for whatever he could get. He had as much leverage as a crack addict trying to sell his watch in a pawn shop. The only thing I hold Shapiro responsible in entirity for, is not canning his buddies (Wedge, Shelton et. al) when they couldn't win with the talent they had. The buck stops on Shapiro's desk...but Dolan has failed miserably as an owner, and deserves the lion share of the blame for the return to the 70's/80's status of Tribe baseball.