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Sorry if you took my attempt at clarification as a jab as that was not my intention. :!BuckNutty said:My sincere apologies. Tuesday night. Is that better??
Whether it's Monday, Tuesday or Saturday the fact this team is only drawing 20,000 fans in the middle of a pennant race is pathetic. They deserve better.
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=750 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top width=560><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD height=7><SPACER height="1" type="block" width="1"></TD></TR><TR><TD class=yspsctnhdln>Winners within</TD></TR><TR><TD height=7><SPACER height="1" type="block" width="1"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>by Jack McDowell, Yahoo! Sports
August 14, 2004
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 align=left border=0 hspace="5" vspace="5"><TBODY><TR><TD class=ysptblbdr2><TABLE class=yspwhitebg cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=3 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><TABLE class=yspwhitebg cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=2 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR><TR><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>In my two years with the Cleveland Indians, 1996 and 1997, our team was stocked primarily with homegrown talent. With GM John Hart at the helm, the organization made strong long-term commitments to a group of young players in the hopes of keeping a team together to win it all. For about five years, Cleveland fielded arguably the most talented team in the game.
At the same time, talent was traded away in an attempt to get that one key player to lead the tribe to victory. Brian Giles, Jeromy Burnitz, Richie Sexson, Sean Casey, Danny Graves – the sheer talent of the players traded away shocked me. All left in a three-year period.
Sadly for the Tribe, two World Series appearances (1995 and 1997) produced no championships, and with the departure of Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez that era was over.
Mark Shapiro replaced Hart as the Indians GM in November, 2001. At the time, Shapiro was faced with rebuilding not only a major league power, but a minor league system as well. Shapiro was Hart's understudy, and he believed that winning teams required a core of homegrown players (even the Yankees).
Now, somewhat surprisingly, Cleveland is in the thick of the AL wild card race – and may just take the AL Central crown ouright.
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>The Indians have rebuilt by developing talent and giving their own kids a shot to develop – a proven method. Most of the Indians' top offensive performers fit this bill: Casey Blake, Jody Gerut, Victor Martinez, Travis Hafner and Ben Broussard for starters.
The starting rotation is filled with "Tribe Pride." Jake Westbrook, C.C. Sabathia, Cliff Lee, and Jason Davis account for 85 starts as of this writing. This is what scouting, development and evaluation are all about.
Sure Blake, Hafner and Westbrook weren't Cleveland originals, but the tribe saw enough in them to offer their first crack at regular big league roles and have been rewarded for doing so.
Funny thing is, the organization that Cleveland most closely resembles is the team they're tracking in the AL Central: The Minnesota Twins. Minnesota has shown a knack for developing talent from within while fielding a championship-caliber squad year after year.
Isn't it ironic that the Indians must pass through Minnesota for the Central crown? This may or may not be the year the Indians get back to the postseason, but the core to win is there. And there is no doubt more where that came from.
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In a recent interview asking him if he minded the "project" label, he responded something to the effect of, "if they drop the project label, then I'll just be Donk, so I don't mind." Classic....vrbryant said:So...if the Indians win the pennant, and Pronk finishes out the season at his current clip (final stats of rougly 30, 120, .320) is he the MVP? Ortiz, Manny and Vlad can each make a case, but just presuming (for the sake of argument) that the Angels lose the wild card race and the Indians win the central... I don't know. Is this just crazy talk? He's got 20 more RBIs than A-Rod and is batting twenty-five points higher, for crying out loud. Like Ash said - 4th in doubles, 4th in RBI, 5th in average, 2nd in OBP, 3rd in slugging, 3rd in OPS. How can you argue?