Posts Tagged ‘Wood’

Wood Warming Up As Trade Deadline Approaches

It took three pitchers in the sixth inning, and five overall, for the Indians to beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4.  And surprisingly, Kerry Wood is three for three in save attempts in three days.  Where has this been all season?

Wood only has seven saves this season in 10 opportunities, but may have finally found his groove.  The timing could not have been better, considering the trade deadline is getting closer, and the notion that the Dolans are willing to trade everything (Hell, even Slider might get traded at this point, I reckon).

I honestly think that Wood is peaking at the right time, from the trade perspective, since some team looking for a better closer will trade a few prospects and take his huge contract (well, huge for Cleveland) off our hands.  Sure, we don’t NEED to lose a closer just as he’s getting good, but the season has been lost since game one.  Time to start looking at the 2013 season (yea, I’m giving up on 2012 already) and the wish of a new owner (could Dan Gilbert buy the Indians too? Pretty please?).

While some of our younger talent (LaPorta, Crowe, and the less famous Carlos Santana) are starting to develop (unfortunately at the pro level since they were rushed through the minors), I don’t see them leaving for greener pastures.  Choo could be departing, but odds are that his situation is not attractive to other teams (essentially trading for his services the rest of this season if he decides to go back to South Korea to fulfill his military obligations in 2011).  Sizemore is too much of an injury liability now for any other team to take him.  Also, Hafner isn’t putting up the numbers like he used to, so is no longer worth trading.

Returning to pitching, Talbot or Carmona could be on their way to other cities since they have won more games than most at Cleveland.  Somebody looking for a cheap fix might try to wheel and deal for an OK pitcher.  With Huff still recovering from being drilled in the head, he’ll never fetch much.

You may be wondering, what about Kearns?  Dan Tylicki over at Bleacher Reports says that he may be heading to the Giants. I guess he has a solid enough bat.  I don’t see us getting anything near what Branyan got us.  Although, what we got for Branyan was a gift in itself.

Overall, it seems like the major Tribe move has already occurred.  The opportunity remains for several other moves to be made, at the disgust of Cleveland fans everywhere.