It's Tribe Time Part Deux

Ok good day, this is the Free Agency part of the blog, you can read it at your Free Agency parties or by yourself on Christmas Eve if there's nothing else to do. Good day eh, in case you thought I wasn't on this part.

There are lots of good ideas in here so read and don't get stuck.

On the first day of the Free Agency blog we talked about a back-up catcher and the Indians signing Adam Dunn to help rehabilitate an offense that ranked 26th in runs scored, 24th in home runs and 23rd in average.

Today we will look into the middle of the infield and the hot corner. It's always interesting to see what route teams take with the middle of their infield. This year's World Series saw the Rangers with Kinsler and Andrus, two guys that when healthy will both bat .270 and steal 35 bases. With the Giants there was Freddy Sanchez and Juan Uribe. Sanchez is a career .300 hitter with no pop, who field well. Uribe is a .250 hitter with a 20 HR power.

The Indians with Cabrera and Valbuena don't really have either of those combinations. Cabrera is a Kinsler type player, but Valbuena is awful. He doesn't hit for power, he doesn't hit for average and he's a very average if not below average fielder, 10 errors in 2010; granted only 4 at 2nd base.

2B- Luis Valbuena is not the answer, but at 28 neither is Jayson Nix. Jason Donald is likely the best option. There are 2 players I like here. The first being 32 year old Orlando Hudson. O-Dog keeps getting one year mercenary deals and would be unlikely to sign with a team that isn't likely to compete until 2012. But he's a veteran and respected around the league as a good clubhouse guy. Last year's team was missing a true veteran, Russel Branyan and Shelley Duncan are far from being veterans. The other guy I like and is a bit more likely is Jorge Cantu. Cantu struggled a bit after being traded form Florida to Texas in a mid-season trade this year. The two years before that he averaged 75 runs, 22 homers and 97 RBI. Recently Cantu has played a lot of 1st and 3rd, but he does have experience at second. Not a bad choice as an extra infielder.

I don't know what the 28 year old Cantu would cost but it would probably be to the tune of 4.5m a year. Hudson would cost about the same. Put on your "thinking tooks" and try to figure out why signing both of these guys might not be a bad decision.

SS - As long as Asdrubal Cabrera stays healthy the Indians are set here. Jason Donald is the back-up. Derek Jeter isn't coming here and there aren't shortstops out there

3B - Andy Marte is not getting better. Nobody else is better than Andy Marte. Sounds like one of those word problems. The Tribe is not going to sign Adrian Beltre, they might invite some guys to camp but the options on the left are very weak this year. (political innuendo in case you didn't catch it)

If your "thinking took" worked you figured it out. Binging in Orlando Hudson would fill the void in case Cabrera got hurt. Cantu can play 3rd. Now all of a sudden if one guy gets hurt in an infield of Dunn, Hudson, Cabrera, Cantu. You can throw Donald, Valbuena or Marte in and still have a competent infield.

So yesterday we spent 10.75m today we add an extra 9m to that. To go to 19.75m, bumping payroll around 50m.
Now of course we won't sign all of these guys. If we get any of them we become better. I'd love to have Adam Dunn, but I'd rather have Cantu, Torrealba and Hudson combined for the same price.

Come back tomorrow for outfielders, and pitchers on Tuesday.