Steve Karsay may be hurt
timdav
column, he mentioned Steve Karsay has been
sent home (from Winter League action in the
Carribbean) with a sore shoulder.
If it's serious, there goes Steve's nearly guaranteed
spot on the '99 Tribe roster as a middle reliever/spot
starter (Ogea's old role).
FYI.
Glenn Channell
>FYI.
Which means there's even fewer decisions for Grover and Hart to
make. Here's what I saw as the roster:
C: Alomar, Diaz
1B: Thome, Sexson
2B: Alomar
SS: Vizquel
3B: Fryman
UI: Wilson
OF: Justice, Lofton, Ramirez
SP: Colon, Nagy, Wright, Burba, Gooden
CL: Jackson
RHP: Reed, Shuey, Spradlin
LHP: Assenmacher, Rincon
That leaves 3 spots. Fighting for those 3 spots were:
One of those spots obviously will go to a backup outfielder
(Cruz, A.Ramirez, Whiten, D.Roberts).
Fighting for the last two spots were
Karsay
Cabrera
Manto
backup outfielders who miss the spot above
If Karsay is out, I assume the Tribe will probably forgo the long relief
role out of spring training. The decision, then would come down to a
backup infielder (Cabrera or Manto) or outfielder (Whiten, Ramirez, Cruz,
or Roberts).
In another post, someone said Hargrove was considering keeping Cabrera
instead of Whiten since Jolbert could play centerfield and backup the
infield. IMO, that's a bad idea. Whiten can fill in for Lofton as well
(on a part time basis). With Wilson on the roster, Cabrera would be the
SECOND utility infielder, and with Sexson/(Cruz/Ramirez), Whiten would be
at best the 5th outfielder, and in practice probably the 6th.
The logical conclusion, therefore, is that the pot occupied by Cabrera/
Whiten would be a deep bench player who gets the VERY occasional
start, but more likely fills in only as an injury replacement. His full-
time role would therefore be as a pinch-hitter. Who would you rather
have coming off the bench to pinch hit, Whiten (switch hitter, career OPS
~0.750) or Cabrera (bats right, career MINOR LEAGUE OPS ~0.610)?
Ben Flieger
Glenn Channell wrote in message <77u10l$gvp$1...@vixen.cso.uiuc.edu>...
> One of those spots obviously will go to a backup outfielder
>(Cruz, A.Ramirez, Whiten, D.Roberts).
D. Roberts?????!?!? Is this your ramblings or the Indians?
Newflash everyone: Roberts is easily the worst of these, not even
Ramirez can beat his crappitude. Yeah, he battered AA for half a
season. He is 26 years old. That helps. Branyan battered AA for half a
season at _22_.
Glenn Channell
It's the Tribe's. I agree with you, and don't really see that
he has any chance to beat out the others, but Hargrove said he'll get a
shot at the job in spring training.