Indians Confidential

Despite playing well out of the All-Star break, the Cleveland Indians once again find themselves sellers in the trade market which reared its head again at Progressive Field Wednesday night.

About 30 minutes before the scheduled start of the Indians-New York Yankees game, word came down the pike about a deal the Tribe had made with the Detroit Tigers, sending third basemen Jhonny Peralta to Detroit for a Class A pitcher.

The move is the end of the road for Peralta in Cleveland, a player that had been in the Indians organization since the age of 17.

“It was emotional for all of us,” Indians manager Manny Acta said of telling Peralta. “A lot of people only see the guy in uniform, but Jhonny is a fantastic human being, he lives in this community, he married a wonderful girl from this area, this is the only place that he has been.”

Players in the locker room that have been here and have made it through trades before are becoming accustomed to seeing the team make moves this time of the year.

Two years ago the team shipped Cy Young award winner C.C. Sabathia to the Milwaukee Brewers for current first basemen Matt LaPorta.

Last season it was another Cy Young award winner, Cliff Lee, who was shipped to Philadelphia Phillies, and then later on it was catcher Victor Martinez traded to the Boston Red Sox.

For current DH Travis Hafner, seeing friends leave the locker room is becoming a sight he is getting use to every July.

“Jhonny was a great teammate,” Hafner said. “He was a guy who played everyday, played hard, and was a really talented player. Everyone in the clubhouse is going to miss him, and the organization is going to miss him as well.”

Peralta was not going to be around after 2010, as general manager Mark Shaprio told the media Wednesday night the team was not going to pick up the team option on the player.

Nevertheless, losing a player that had been with the Major League club since 2003 is always tough, even if in the end the move is mostly applauded by fans.

“It’s always tough to see, unfortunately it’s been that way the last couple years,” Hafner said. “It is a business and that is part of it, but it still doesn’t make it any easier.”

Now the players that remain have to sit back and wait to see if anyone is next. Pitcher Jake Westbook has been talked about as possibly being next, and Austin Kearns is another player that could be moved as well.

Right now, Hafner says he and the team cannot worry about if there are going to be anymore moves, as they have to worry about the task at hand.

“Guys are just focused on their jobs, you can’t be worried about the outside,” Hafner said.

Indians General Manager Mark Shapiro talks about the trade of 3B Jhonny Peralta to the Detroit Tigers, as well as the teams future plans for third base and what is to come.

One more piece from the Indians opening day roster has been traded away. Third baseman Jhonny Peralta has just been traded to the Detroit Tigers for single A left handed pitcher Giovanni Soto. Peralta joins an injury-depleted Detroit team looking to get back into the thick of the American League Central race.

The Tigers lost former All-Star third baseman Brandon Inge until possibly late August to a broken bone in his left hand. Peralta batted .246 with 23 doubles, seven homers and 43 RBIs for the Tribe this year. The Tribe get in return a 6’-4” left-hander with a career minor league record of 10-6 with a 2.10 ERA and one save in 29 games. 22 of those games were starts. Soto was a 21st round pick of the Tigers in the 2009 June draft.

The Carolina, Puerto Rico native was the Gulf Coast League Pitcher of the Year in 2009 leading the league in ERA (1.18) going 4-0 in 13 games/ 6 starts with 45.2 innings pitched, giving up only 33 hits and 6 earned runs. The 19 year old has spent the entire season to date with Class A West Michigan, going 6-6 with a 2.61 ERA in 16 starts. He hasn’t allowed more than three earned runs in any start this season.

His best start of the season came at the cost of the Tribe’s Class A affiliate Lake County Captains when he pitched a complete game shutout on June 16. That was his second complete game shutout this year. Soto was the Midwest League pitcher of the week, the week of June 21, 2010. To take Peralta’s roster spot on the Indians, infielder Luis Valbuena was recalled from AAA Columbus Clippers and will wear the number 1.

Tribe general manager Mark Shapiro just discussed the trade of Peralta to the Tigers during the game with New York. He said that talks between the Tribe and the Tigers really only heated up a couple of days ago. When it comes to the money involved, he said that the Indians are responsible for the pro-rated remainder of Peralta’s contract.

They are not responsible for the option for next year which was not exercised. This means Peralta will be a free-agent at the end of this season. Shapiro said that this gives the club a chance to look to the short term future at third base with Jayson Nix, Andy Marte, and Valbuena. He also said that for the long term, they have Jared Goedert at AAA Columbus and Lonnie Chisenhall at AA Akron. When asked about any other trades in the works, he declined to comment.

Manny Acta always says that in baseball there is no such thing as luck. Well, the Indians have to admit then that they had someone smiling on them Sunday at Progressive Field, as a local kid had little luck in stopping the Indians offense in the teams fourth straight win, a 7-2 victory over the Tigers.

The local product was Tigers starting pitcher Andy Oliver, who has had some issues early in his career for Detroit, and they continued Sunday, as a rare inside the park homer for the Indians Jhonny Peralta gave the Indians a 3-0 lead and they never looked back as they completed the four game sweep.

“Pretty impressive,” Acta said of sweeping Detroit. “The fact we swept a team that was at the top of our division, and will be I’m sure towards the end of the year, we played good against them.”

While Peralta’s homer helped the offense, the pitching was again a huge story, as unknown Jeanmar Gomez, called up for a simple spot start, gave the team a possible glimpse of the future with 7 solid innings not allowing an earned run in giving up five hits, walking one and striking out.

Gomez knew he would not be staying with the team (he had his plane ticket back to the minors in hand prior to the game Acta said), but he did a lot to show that when call-ups are made in September, he should be one of the players first on the list.

As for Oilver, from Vermilion, he allowed five runs on four hits in just 3.2 innings to drop to 0-4. He got in trouble with walks (5) but did strike out four. For a team in a race to try to win a division, the Tigers are going to have to consider if Oliver is ready for this level.

The Indians remain quietly one of the hottest teams in the AL, winning 12 of their last 19 games, and they move to 38-54 on the season, 16 games back of .500.

It was the first time the team had won four games out of the gate of the second half of the season since 1995, a year the team got the World Series before falling to the Atlanta Braves four games to two.

The team takes a flight to Minnesota later tonight, and will play the Twins for three games before an off day and home for the top two teams in the AL East – the Rays and Yankees starting at home on Friday.

Second and third with no outs usually is a recipe for a team to get two if not more runs in an inning. The Indians have tried to break that trend in 2010, and once again Sunday in Pittsburgh it was that type of inning that came back to bite them.

The inning was the 8th with the game against the Pirates tied at three. They got a leadoff single from Austin Kearns, then a disputed double from Russell Branyan that almost nailed first base ump Bill Hohn.

Then with a chance to go up at least one, if not two runs, they failed. Miserably.

First it was Jhonny Peralta, who hit a weak flair to center field that wasn’t close to deep enough to score Kearns. That point was proved when Pirates CF Andrew McCutcheon threw home to make sure Kearns stayed put.

Then it was Aaron Hernandez, who with the infield in hit a grounder to second, and Neil Walker picked it up and ran it himself for the second out.

The inning ended when Jason Donald got behind in the count with two strikes, then hit a routine grounder to short. Inning over, no runs, game may have well have been over.

The Pirates on the other hand, the 2nd worse team in the Majors with 24 wins, took advantage of runners on with no outs. They got two on quickly in the 8th off Jensen Lewis, then scored when a sac fly by 2008 2nd overall pick Pedro Alvarez scored a run, and they added another on a single by short stop Bobby Crosby, who was hitting .214 entering Sunday.

The loss was complete when Pirate closer Octavio Dotel closed the door on the 5-3 win with a 1-2-3 ninth.

The shame was the solid outing by Justin Masterson, who went 6 innings for the Tribe, allowing two runs and striking out seven with allowing just five hits. Rafael Perez threw a wild pitch to allow the game to be tied in the 7th, then Lewis took the loss with the two-run 8th.

Carlos Santana also saw a day go to waste, as he went 3-for-4 with a homer, double and single with all three Indians RBI’s.

The team gets Monday off as they head to Philly to take on the Phillies for three starting on Tuesday at 7:05pm.

The past two seasons the Indians have made a number of moves in order to cut the budget, and it appears that this season it will be no different. Today the Plain Dealer reports on the players that will be available come the trade deadline.

The people available for trade, as in the last two fire sales, will be those in the final year of their contracts or approaching that status. Jhonny Peralta, Austin Kearns, Mark Grudzielanek, Russell Branyan, Mike Redmond, Kerry Wood and Jamey Wright fit the bill. Jake Westbrook, eligible for free agency at the end of the season, would probably be the most attractive of the group if he continues to pitch as he did in Tuesday night’s 3-2 victory over the Tigers. Still, there’s a good possibility that the Indians will keep Westbrook and try to re-sign him at the end of the year.

While it would be nice to keep Westbrook around, I wouldn’t doubt that the team does look to ship him if they can get a say two name prospects out of the deal. Then again, he’s one of the few vets left on this team, and they should look to keep him around.

The Indians have been haunted all weekend in the Bronx by the 7th inning, and Monday it once again was their undoing. After going into the 7th trailing just 2-1, the Mitch Talbot and the bullpen were scorched by the Yankees to the tune of 6 runs in an eventual 11-2 loss.

The big blow of the inning was Alex Rodriguez’s grand slam off of Chris Perez that made it 6-1. Then the very next batter, Robinson Cano, hit a solo homer to make it 7-1. A sac fly later in the inning finished off the 6-run inning at 8-1.
Talbot went 6.1 innings, allowing three runs on six hits to fall to 6-4 on the season. He didn’t allow a walk, which is a switch for Indians pitchers, and did strikeout three. The Perez boys (Rafel and Chris) allowed a combined five runs on four hits.

Jamey Wright gave up three runs on five hits in 1.2 innings, and his ERA is now 5.48 on the season. Andy Pettitte, who hadn’t fared well against the Indians at home in his career, shut them down with ease, going 7 innings allowing one run on four hits to move to 7-1 on the season.

The Indians first run of the game tied the game, as after NY went up 1-0 in the first on an A-Rod single, Jhonny Peralta homered to right to tie the game in the second. Talbot allowed another run in the fourth when Brett Gardner singled to make it 2-1.

The Indians did little all day on offense, as Pettitte was in control. They managed just six hits on the day, and were not able to mount much at all against the Yanks veteran pitcher.

The team is now 18-31 on the season, and will be in Detroit for the first of three on Tuesday.

The Indians will look for a split vs the Yankees today in the Bronx, and they will do it without maybe their All-Star, as Shin-Soo Choo will get the day off vs lefty Andy Pettitte. The Indians have owned Pettitte when playing in New York, as the Yanks thrower is 0-4 with a 6.50 ERA in his last six starts in the Bronx against the Indians, including one postseason outing.

A couple Indians that hit well against Pettitte include Austin Kearns (6 for 13) and Jhonny Peralta (5 for 13 with two homers).

The Yankees (30-20), though, have won eight of Pettitte’s nine starts this year. He allowed two runs over eight innings Wednesday to earn a 3-2 victory over Minnesota. As for Choo, he is sitting since he doesn’t hit lefties well, and is in an 0-for-17 slump right now. He’ll get three right handed pitchers when the Tribe heads to Detroit this week.

It would be nice to see Peralta, who is 1 for 11 in this series get on track against Pettitte.

The Indians will counter the Yanks lefty with Mitch Talbot (6-3, 3.73), who is 3-0 with a 1.33 ERA in his last three road starts. The Tribe is 18-30 right now, and are 11 games back in the AL Central.