Weekend Update: 10/11

I know I mentioned this several times leading up to the show, but if you missed our Thursday night internet radio show “Smoke Signals”, you missed a dousy. Newly acquired outfielder Michael Brantley called in and spoke to us for about 15 minutes and his agent Josh Kusnick was on the show for well over an hour and touched an a myriad of topics from the Sabathia trade, to life as an agent, to the baseball draft, and so on. The podcast of the show is available at the link below:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/TheClevelandFan/2008/10/10/Smoke-Signals-Cleveland-Fan-Live

Anyway, now that Brantley is here, the Indians outfield situation in Cleveland and Triple-A Columbus may very well be the strength of the organization. With a nice four-man outfield in Cleveland of Grady Sizemore, Shin-Soo Choo, Ben Francisco, and Franklin Gutierrez backed up by an outstanding starting outfield expected to start in Triple-A Columbus with Brantley in center and Trevor Crowe and Matt LaPorta on the corners, that is some serious depth. This does not even factor in Nick Weglarz who will be in Double-A Akron to start the season, or even Stephen Head who will likely be a swing guy playing first base and outfield in Columbus next year. With this kind of depth in the outfield, the Indians almost surely will look to use some of it in trades this offseason to fill needs at the major league level. In any case, Brantley's arrival could mean a player like Trevor Crowe who has a similar skill set could be dealt, or a big bopper like a Nick Weglarz could be sent the other way in a blockbuster.

Speaking of Weglarz, it looks like today his hometown of Stevensville, Ontario is throwing a nice party for him now that he is finally home after a long baseball season. The town is very excited and proud of Weglarz with his accomplishments in the minor leagues and playing for Team Canada in the Olympics, so they wanted to show their appreciation with a little party for him. I was forwarded the flyer for the event and am posting with permission:

Good for Weglarz, and big props to the town for recognizing the Gentle Giant.

Right-hander Neil Wagner is providing some insight from the Arizona Fall League with a blog he just started up.

The Indians have released some players recently: Zach Booker (C), Ramon Hernandez (OF) Daniel Morales (RHP), Mark Rodrigues (LHP), and Luis Solano (RHP). Also, right-hander Matt Ginter and shortstop Andy Cannizaro were recently granted free agency. For a complete list of Indians minor league free agents, click here.

Next week, I hope to have an unofficial listing of the Indians Rule 5 eligibles posted on the site. An official list will not be made available until about a week after the roster deadline in mid-November, which is when major league baseball sends out the Rule 5 eligible list to every team.

Also, you'll start to notice some asthetic changes with the site and also a lot more links and info added to the panel at the right. Any suggestions on things that you would like to see added, removed, or changed, please let me know. I'm also trying to put together a listing of the best minor league blog/sites for each of the other 29 major league teams and list them. And suggestions for those, feel free to let me know as well.

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