Tribe Happenings: Hannahan getting more opportunities

Hannahan has been a spectacular defender

at third base this year (Photo: AP).

Some news, notes, and thoughts from my Indians notebook…

Hannahan taking playing time away from Chisenhall

Lately Indians third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall has been giving up some of his playing time stake at third base to former everyday third baseman Jack Hannahan.

This would have been considered blasphemy back when the 22-year old Chisenhall was called up on June 27th. He is the future at third base and is very talented, so he came up with the full intention to insert him into the everyday lineup at third base. But that is not the case anymore as he has shown his true colors as a very green and unpolished hitter and defender at the big league level. He has been steady as a defender, but he is clearly a step down from Hannahan who is a gold glove caliber defender at third base.

Chisenhall has been a very inconsistent hitter and has struggled as he is hitting just .234 with 3 HR, 7 RBI, and a .661 OPS in 35 games. By the same token Hannahan is hitting .220 with 5 HR, 24 RBI, and a .654 OPS in 89 games. At the moment Hannahan is proving to be the better and more consistent option at the plate.

Chisenhall has really struggled against left-handed pitching going just 2-for-17 with seven strikeouts against them. This was something that he worked a lot on earlier in the season at Triple-A Columbus, but he still struggled with as he hit just .200 with a .642 OPS against lefties in 75 at bats. He is a much better, confident hitter against right-handed pitching but with the Indians in the thick of a pennant race they can’t afford to be patient and hope he develops a better approach against left-handed pitching.

Chisenhall was brought up at the end of June because it was felt that while he would be a step back defensively to Hannahan at third base, he would be a much more effective offensive contributor for a team desperate for help in the lineup. But at this point Chisenhall has not shown to be much of an offensive upgrade over Hannahan, at least right now.

With Hannahan being a superior defender, manager Manny Acta has slowly been giving the third base job back to him more and more as the days go on. When Chisenhall first arrived he took the lion’s share of playing time, but in the last six games Chisenhall and Hannahan have split time at the position.

Coincidence? Probably not. Just a sign that Acta trusts Hannahan and knows exactly what he will get out of him.

While Chisenhall is the future, the Indians need to concentrate on winning now and it appears they believe Hannahan’s glove and suspect bat give them a better chance to win. Plus, it is not like Chisenhall has played well enough to earn the right to continue to be put in the lineup card every night, especially for a team trying to win the AL Central.

If it were May or June the Indians would probably consider optioning Chisenhall back to Columbus as he looks a little overmatched right now, but with September 1st so close they won't do that now. What should be expected is for Chisenhall to continue to lose playing time to Hannahan not only for the team’s sake, but so Chisenhall can take a break and catch his breath.

Wanted: Spot starter

The Indians have their second doubleheader of the season on Tuesday against the visiting Seattle Mariners. The game is a makeup of the postponed game on May 14th, and is a day-night doubleheader.

Right-hander Justin Masterson is scheduled to get the ball for the early game, but the Indians have not yet made a decision who the starter will be for the second game later that evening. The three candidates to get the spot start are right-handed pitchers Carlos Carrasco, Zach McAllister, and Jeanmar Gomez.

Carrasco is currently on the 15-day disabled list, but is eligible to come off at any time. However, he is not expected to come off the disabled list anytime soon so does not appear to be an option. In addition to that, once he is removed from the disabled list he has to finish his six game suspension he earned the last weekend of July for throwing at the head of the Royals’ Billy Butler. Since Carrasco’s activation will result in the loss of a roster spot while he is suspended, he probably will not be activated until after September 1st when rosters are expanded.

This means the decision will come down to one of Gomez and McAllister.

The way things set up, the Indians will have the option to pick either one as both will be rested and ready to pitch. Gomez just pitched on Wednesday night for Triple-A Columbus and went 7.0 innings allowing one earned run on 108 pitches. His next scheduled start for Columbus is Monday. McAllister just pitched on Thursday night for Columbus and went 7.0 innings allowing four earned runs on 98 pitches. His next scheduled start is on Tuesday.

Gomez is expected to get the start because he is pitching well in Columbus and is more experienced at the big league level than McAllister. The Indians could really go either way with their decision for the spot start, and no matter what pitcher they bring up to pitch the game they will be optioned right back out after it. Needless to say, it is still an important start as the Indians look to find a way to catch the Tigers in the AL Central race.

Remembering Winter Haven

It is hard to believe it, but the Indians have already been out of Winter Haven now for over three years. When the Indians packed their bags at the end of spring training in early April of 2008, they were leaving Winter Haven for good for a new state-of-the-art facility in Goodyear, Arizona.

Three years later the Winter Haven facility still exists. About the only thing that has changed is most of the old signage pertaining to the Indians has been taken down, but the “Indians Legends” poster still stands outside the old team store next to the stadium. The Chief Wahoo is still painted on the water tower overlooking the complex and the rest of the city. Also, the big Indians banner at “Andy’s” - a popular diner and a place with some incredible milkshakes – is still showing proudly on the front of the restaurant.

The facility continues to fall to ruin, but is still being used these days. It is a popular destination for college baseball teams from the north who need a place to train for a few weeks or months in the winter and early spring. This summer Winter Haven joined a summer college wooden bat league the Florida Collegiate Summer League. Their new team the “Loggerheads” are a part of the six team league for the first time.

The facility may not stand for much longer as a developer bought the land and is supposed to build condominiums on it, but reports are that as a result of the poor economy the developer is having second thoughts and the area may end up being abandoned.

In the mean time the city continues to operate the facility and has realized they made a mistake in letting the Indians go as they are scrambling to find tenants to use the facility to keep it afloat. In an effort to make up for their mistake of letting the Indians go, a new amusement park called Legoland is being built on the old Cypress Gardens grounds and is expected to open on October 15th this year.

For as great as Goodyear is for the Indians from a business and training perspective, it is too bad nothing could have ever been done to keep the team in Winter Haven or somewhere in Florida with a new facility. The Indians did their best to stay and the city leadership now realizes they made a mistake in letting them go, but it is too late to change anything. So long Winter Haven.

Injury bug bites again

If you consider the amount of injuries the Indians have had this year, it is amazing they are even still in the AL Central race. If someone told you going into the season that Travis Hafner would miss over a month of the season, Shin Soo Choo would miss a month and a half, and Grady Sizemore would miss half the season with injuries you would have probably said they would have been 20 or more games under .500 by now.

But even with all the injuries they have had the Indians continue to find ways to win games. Others like Michael Brantley and Matt LaPorta do not look like they are 100% healthy, Alex White missed a significant portion of the season with a finger injury before being traded, Carlos Carrasco and Fausto Carmona have spent stints on the disabled list, and now Jason Kipnis has gone on the disabled list with a hamstring injury that is expected to sideline him for at least three weeks.

If the Indians can somehow, someway ever get 100% healthy with their lineup, they might have a chance to get on a roll. Everyone saw it earlier in the season when they were healthy and the lineup was intact how consistently good they could be. Maybe once Kipnis and Sizemore come back in September it gives them that final push needed to overtake the Tigers and win the AL Central.

Sizemore progressing, slowly

Indians outfielder Grady Sizemore is slowly making his way back from a sports hernia operation on July 21st and from a right knee injury that has plagued him for most of the season. He is currently throwing long toss and doing some light hitting sessions while he tries to build up the strength in his knee.

The Indians have not set a timetable on when he might return, but their hope right now is sometime in early September. He is only hitting .237 with 10 homers, 27 RBI, and a .769 OPS in 61 games, but before the injuries started to mount up again for him this year he looked like the old Grady back in April and May. If he can come back 100% healthy, or even just at 90%, he will be a huge addition for the final three weeks or so of the season.

Parting shots

According to Baseball America the Indians spent $8.2 million on the draft this year, down a little from the $9.4 million they spent on the draft last year. Most of that was because money allotted to 8th rounder Stephen Tarpley and 20th rounder Dillon Peters never ended up being spent since the Indians were unable to sign them. Even still the Indians finished 12th in the league in spending this year in the draft. … Outfielder Trevor Crowe is recovering from right shoulder surgery this spring and began a minor league rehab assignment in Arizona this weekend. If all goes well he could finish the season in Akron or Columbus …. The Indians designated outfielder Austin Kearns for assignment last Friday to activate Choo from the disabled list. On Wednesday he cleared waivers and the club released him.

Follow Tony and the Indians Prospect Insider on Twitter @TonyIPI. Also, his latest book the 2011 Cleveland Indians Top 100 Prospects & More is available for purchase for $20.95 to customers in the US (shipping and handling extra). Use discount code 2Z6F362B to receive 40% off the book through the site store!

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Winter Haven Carries On Without Indians

The Indians are now well into their second year of operations in their new state of the art Player Development Complex located in Goodyear, Arizona. But while they are enjoying the comforts of their new digs in Arizona these days, how are things these days at the facility and city they once called home in Winter Haven, FL during the spring for 16 years from 1993-2008?

Those who don't recall or may not know, the Indians were set to leave their spring training home in Tucson, Arizona of 46 years and move into their new state of the art spring training facility in Homestead, Florida back in 1993 until Hurricane Andrew wiped the $18 million facility to a pile of debris in August of 1992. Because of the excessive damage and the need to have a spring facility they could train at six months later, the Indians had to move quickly and find a temporary spring training site. The Boston Red Sox had just moved out of Winter Haven that year, and while the facility was very much out of date, the Indians were homeless and did not have the luxury to be picky, so they made an agreement with the city of Winter Haven to temporarily move their spring training operations there.

That temporary agreement turned into a 16 year marriage between the city and team. From the time the Indians arrived in Winter Haven they were always looking for a better facility to move to or another city they could convince to put up the funding required to build them a new complex like Homestead had done and Goodyear in later years would do. Several times they appeared to be leaving Winter Haven, but every time could never find the right match so they stayed. For 16 years.

Winter Haven had long been a Red Sox town before the Indians arrived as the Red Sox had just moved out the year prior to the Indians arrival. But the local people really took well to the Indians and they quickly and openly adopted the Indians as their new favorite son’s. Also, over the years many Ohioans found the 17-hour drive to Winter Haven for spring training quite bearable, and some people even moved to or retired to the Winter Haven area. As a result a religious following was born. But that all came to an end in 2007 when the Indians announced their intentions to leave Winter Haven after spring training in 2008 and move into a new state of the art facility in Goodyear.

The new facility in Goodyear provided a complex the organization was in dire need of, which was a facility in operation 365 days a year and that had all the technology and equipment needed to help their players train, rehab, and develop throughout the year. This new facility would not only be in operation during spring training from late February to early April, but it would become a year round home to the Indians' Player Development system for everything from extended spring training (April to June), rookie league ball (June to August), Instructional League (September to October), as well as all rehab and workout programs during the season and in the offseason. The only time any structured practices or games are not being conducted are from November to January, though during that time many players filter in and out of the complex for various reasons and participate in voluntary workouts on the field. Most of those things were available at the old Winter Haven complex, but now things are much more efficient with travel as a dozen or so other team sites are all within 30 minutes of each other in Goodyear whereas in Winter Haven almost every team was a few hours away.

Having a facility such as the one in Goodyear that is operational year round is a big reason the Indians left Winter Haven, FL for the greener....errr...browner pastures of the desert in Arizona. While the home office is in Cleveland, Ohio at Progressive Field, in Arizona the Indians now have their sister site located in the heart of a booming area in Phoenix, Arizona where more and more people are moving by the day, and more importantly more and more players are locating to. Having a facility such as the one the Indians now have in Arizona is a big benefit to them not only because of how new it is and all the amenities it has, but also because of its location where many players may find it attractive to workout there in the offseason rather than the previous option that was located several thousands of miles away in Winter Haven, Florida.

Meanwhile, back in Winter Haven, they are still assessing what to do with the old, decrepit facility. It still stands today, though is much quieter these days during the spring. The fields and complex are still maintained daily by the city, but it is not the bustling site it once used to be in February and March like it was from the early 1960s when the Red Sox arrived there and then the Indians after that.

Winter Haven is still considering their options with what to do with the facility, and ultimately it will probably be torn down for retail or housing development though no plans have been finalized for either at this moment. For now, the facility is mostly used in the January to March months as a spring training facility for several northern colleges to come for practice and get out of the cold and snow in the northern United States. This year and last year small colleges such as the College of Mount St. Joseph (OH), Northeastern University, Augustana College (IL), Illinois State University, State University of New York Institute of Technology, and others have made their way to the complex.

In May, the city hosts an annual baseball tournament with a lot of small local colleges such as Central Florida CC, Palm Beach CC, St. Petersburg College, Chipola College, and others at the Chain O'Lakes Stadium. They also have other infrequent events there throughout the year, but from June to January the complex is mostly dormant.

I actually visited Winter Haven about two months ago around New Year's Day, and in some cases you would never know the Indians had ever left. All of the signage in regard to the Indians located throughout the complex has been taken down, but the Chief Wahoo logo is still on the big water tower that can be seen for miles.

In talking with several of the grounds crew there who got to know a lot of the Indians staff and players over the years, they mentioned how much they miss the Indians being there. Some of the local businesses, like Andy’s, miss the Indians as well. Home to the best shakes in the world, Andy’s still sports their Indians banner near the front entrance of the restaurant showing their support of the Tribe.

The Indians may have moved on for the better to the warm desert sun in Arizona, but they also left behind a lot of warm hearts in Winter Haven who dearly loved them. A city that offered the team a place of refuge in a time of need after the disaster in 1992, which ultimately turned into a long-lasting connection between the team and city.

Here are some photos, including the one above, from my recent visit to Winter Haven two and a half months ago:

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