Posts tagged GradySizemore at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Apparently the ghosts of deceased Native Americans finally decided to take matters into their own hands in regards to team names like "Braves" and "Indians" this baseball season. I'm not going to get into the whole discussion on the insensitivity of these names because that's neither my inclination nor my job.

Still, it's quite eerie they way these two franchises in particular have been plagued this year.

Both were expected to be contenders for the World Series, chock full of fantasy gems. Instead the disappointments and injuries are plentiful, and sometimes hand-in-hand.

The most recent casualty is Victor Martinez, and he already fit the bill as a bust. He's normally picked in the first five rounds (earlier many times). His owners have been treated with pathetic numbers this year relative to expectations (.277, 0 HR). And now he's on the DL with a bum wing (inflamed right elbow, if you must know ... but "bum wing" is so much more fun). The catcher could be out until the All-Star break, so this is a big blow to both the Tribe and your fantasy squad. Unfortunately, I believe you have to sit on him in fantasy, because he's liable to get hot when he does come back and no one will give you anything valuable for an injured bust in a trade.

More haunted individuals ...

The problems that the Cleveland Indians are having on offense this season can't all be pinned on one player in particular. It's really been an entire team effort, as there are only two players on the team who started on Opening Day who are currently hitting over .255 on the season. They are Grady Sizemore (checking in at a robust .258) and Victor Martinez, who is hitting .292.

Of course, even though Martinez has the highest batting average of all the Indians regulars (Ben Francisco is hitting .304, but he's only played in 26 games) he still hasn't been as productive as Sizemore. Grady may only be hitting .258, but he's slugging .488 and has an OPS of .859. Martinez, on the other hand, is slugging .351 with an OPS of .685.

Victor's career marks are .465 and .836. Of his 49 hits this season, 39 of them have been singles. The only extra base hits he's had are his 10 doubles, as Martinez is yet to hit a home run this season. Why the drop off in power for the catcher who's averaged 21 homers and 99 RBI over the last four seasons?

His manager, Eric Wedge, thinks it has a lot to do with the hamstring injury Martinez suffered on Opening Day against the White Sox.

The growing trend in baseball is for teams to sign their young players to contract extensions in hopes of locking them up before they become too expensive. While it's a smart financial move for all teams, it's generally a real good move for teams with lower payrolls. The Indians started it with Grady Sizemore a few years ago, then the Rockies followed suit with Troy Tulowitzki. This season it's been Evan Longoria and Hanley Ramirez reaping the rewards of baseball's new trend.

One smaller market team that is yet to adapt to this new philosophy is the Kansas City Royals, but that doesn't mean they don't have some young, talented players who wouldn't mind an extension.

"It's just kind of a feel thing," general manager Dayton Moore said. "Obviously, there has to be a willingness on both sides. We talk about a lot of things, but we're still very early in the process."

The Royals are loaded with young players who project as key players for years to come. Of those, the closest to free-agency are pitcher Zack Greinke and catcher John Buck. Both are on track to enter the market after the 2010 season.

Neither has been contacted by club officials about possible extensions.

There is no one hotter in Major League Baseball than Cliff Lee right now. He is 5-0, he has a 0.96 ERA and he has 32 strikeouts in just under 38 innings. But if you own him in fantasy baseball, you need to shop him immediately.

Lee might not come crashing back to Earth in a painful manner; after all, his 2005 demonstrates that he does have a skill set to pitch well. But besides the fact that his peripherals are telling for some statistical recession, what he's doing right now is mind-blowing just in terms of history. From BP Unfiltered:

We have game logs going back to 1956, courtesy of Retrosheet and Baseball-Reference.com. Since 1956, do you know how many pitchers had made three straight starts with 8+ innings, <=3 hits, <=1 walk, and 8+ strikeouts? Here's the list, which I have put in alphabetical order for your convenience

Cliff Lee.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

Los Angeles Angels (16-10) vs. Oakland Athletics (16-10) - 10:05PM Est.

The fact that the Angels and Athletics are fighting for the top spot in the AL West isn't exactly a new experience. I mean, they've been doing it for just about the entire 21st century but they weren't supposed to be doing it this season. No, the AL West this season was supposed to be a two-horse race between the Angels and Mariners while the Athletics were supposed to be mired in a rebuilding process and battling with the Rangers for third place.

Yet here we are nearly finished with the first month of the regular season, and Oakland is tied with Los Angeles for the best record in the American League. To make it even more surprising, they're doing it without Eric Chavez and Rich Harden.

Just what the hell is going on here?

The Indians have had a pretty simple philosophy for years now: Acquire young talent, watch it blossom, and then sign it to a long-term contract. I can't be sure, but I'm guessing this philosophy is a direct result of seeing the best players from their dominant teams of the 90's leave via free agency after blowing up in Cleveland. Guys like Manny Ramirez, Albert Belle, and Jim Thome (those teams had the best lineup from top to bottom that I have ever seen).

It all started when the team wrapped up Grady Sizemore to a contract extension after only one season in Cleveland, and has been followed up with contracts for Travis Hafner, Jake Westbrook, and Cliff Lee over the last year. (Okay, so the Cliff Lee deal looks like a mistake at the moment, but you can't win them all!) Today it's Fausto Carmona's turn.

The Indians have signed Carmona to a historic long-term contract that has the potential to be seven years long. The first four years of the pact are guaranteed, with three individual club options for 2012, '13 and '14 tacked on. The deal will be announced at a press conference at Progressive Field on Thursday afternoon.

The value of the four-year guarantee was not immediately known. But it is known that if the deal goes the distance, Carmona will earn $43 million over the seven years, with escalators pushing its potential value to $48 million.

It's a historic deal, too, as it's the most money ever guaranteed to a pre-arbitration eligible player, and it's also the most guaranteed money ever given to a pitcher with only one full year of service time. Time will tell whether or not the Indians regret making this move, but I get the feeling they won't be sorry they did, at least not as far as Carmona is concerned.

What I'm really wondering is how much this is bothering C.C. Sabathia. He can't be happy watching all of his teammates get long-term deals from the Indians, while he sits and waits for the team to get serious with him. I can't help but feel that this is just another sign that there's no way Sabathia will be back in Cleveland next season.

I was born an Orioles fan, but fate and contextually affordable housing in the Bedford, Ohio area has made me an Indians fan. Pictured to the right is me with Slider, the Indians mascot, post dimensional jump.

The Indians don't use the Official Chatroom of Major League Baseball, so we don't feature them a lot. If you're a longtime reader you know about what's coming after the jump. If you don't, get ready to watch as I spend about a day and a half trying to narrow down all the crazy stuff that's happened to the Indians this winter into one online conversation without resorting to movie parody or epic mythological magicks battles.

You'll be seeing a lot more of the Indians this season. O-H, I-O (or whatever) after the jump.

Now that the season is over, and the Hot Stove League has begun, that means it's awards season in baseball. Today baseball got the party started by naming the Gold Glove winners in both the American and National Leagues.

Some of the names on the list won't surprise you, but there are more than a few new faces on this year's list.

American League
C - Ivan Rodriguez
1B - Kevin Youkilis
2B - Placido Polanco
3B - Adrian Beltre
SS - Orlando Cabrera
OF - Grady Sizemore
OF - Torii Hunter
OF - Ichiro Suzuki
P - Johan Santana

National League
C - Russell Martin
1B - Derrek Lee
2B - Orlando Hudson
3B - David Wright
SS - Jimmy Rollins
OF - Carlos Beltran
OF - Andruw Jones
OF - Jeff Francouer
OF - Aaron Rowand
P - Greg Maddux

Apparently in the National League they've instituted a rule that allows for four outfielders on the field at one time. Maybe it's an attempt to make up for the lack of a designated hitter.

As with all lists like these though, there are plenty of arguments for others to be included. I encourage you all to debate it vigorously in the comments section.

Grady Sizemore is a huge Cleveland favorite, especially with the ladies. In fact, he has his own harem, nicknamed "Grady's Ladies." He is also well-respected as a ball player throughout the baseball world. Going into the ALCS, he had Red Sox Nation afraid they might have to reconsider the focus of their home town blog. But in the end, the guy just didn't get it done in the series, folding like origami when it really mattered. His one home run, two RBI and .222 batting average weren't quite enough to get the Indians to the World Series. Tribe Time is no more in 2007. But the ladies still love him.

After the first five completed series in this post-season saw the losing team in the series win exactly one game, we've finally got a match-up that's living up to the hype. The Indians and Red Sox both won 96 games in the regular season and now they're playing toe-to-toe in the ALCS. Tonight's Game 6 features a guy who will go to the Hall of Fame based on his post-season resume, Curt Schilling, and the young Fausto Carmona, ace #1B in the Indians rotation. Neither pitched well in Game 2, though both were awesome in their respective division series.

Anyways, Fenway will be rocking tonight as the Red Sox try extend their season one more day and the Indians try to avoid the daunting task of playing at Game 7 at Fenway. This is by far the biggest game of this October, so follow along after the jump for the liveblog of the festivities, the McCarverisms, and the game, because games like tonight's are the reason that we all watch baseball all year.