Indians sign Cliff Politte

[consigliere]

http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/news/a ... p&c_id=cle

Absolutely love this signing. He'll likely start in EST, but this could be Howry Redux. A former good White Sox reliever who fell on hard times and bounced back. Like how Howry started in EST in 2004 and eventually was called up by the Indians around the All-Star break, I see Pollitte offering up the same and he could be very valuable later in the year.

[pup]

I'll give Shapiro this, he looks ready to run anyone and everyone available out there to fix the bullpen. There were other ways to fix it and his shortsightedness last year is the cause for this run of signings, but I have to give him credit for bringing in as many relievers as humnaly possible.

I am still waiting for the Doug Jones signing

[DGeneral]

http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070214&content_id=1801694&vkey=spt2007news&fext=.jsp&c_id=cle

Absolutely love this signing. He'll likely start in EST, but this could be Howry Redux. A former good White Sox reliever who fell on hard times and bounced back. Like how Howry started in EST in 2004 and eventually was called up by the Indians around the All-Star break, I see Pollitte offering up the same and he could be very valuable later in the year.

I view this as more of the same journeyman talent Shapiro has stocked this team with. This garbage pile acquisition just puts a potential young flamethrower back in line to lanquish in the minors while this has been gets lit up again in the big leagues.

Another non event and waste of time IMO.

[leadpipe]

If you throw enough crap at the bullpen wall, something might stick. Even though they've signed 65 relievers, as Pup alluded to, I'm still not sure they have enough to cover the impending injuries.

[pup]

If you throw enough crap at the bullpen wall, something might stick

Damn you Pipes, now I have to rewrite my intro to our Sunday Roundtable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[consigliere]

Outside of a disaster at closer, I believe we have enough depth in this bullpen to be at least solid this year. We have a plethora of arms to fill various roles from the 6th-8th innings....whether it be guys like Betancourt, Cabrera, Hernandez, Fultz, Davis, Miller, or Borowski currently....or if they have to go down on the farm for one of Mujica, Perez, Lara, Sipp, or Mastny....or go with some of the NRIs like Pollitte, Stanford, etc. The key is the closer....if Foulke is healthy, as Gammons aluded to we are probably the most dangferous team in baseball....if Foulke blows up or is not good, it changes things.

The good thing is we have a good second option in Borowski. How many other teams have as good a backup plan at closer in case their closer goes down? Probably no one. The real problem to me will be if BOTH Foulke and Borowski struggle with injuries....at that point we once again have huge question marks in the 9th.

[leadpipe]

The Tribe has a lot of if's in that pen. Spring training is a time where every team seems to put a little too much faith in their if's. What "if" every team in the division's "if's" come thru? No reason theirs wouldn't and the Tribe's would. The teams with the least "ifs" tend to come thru much more than those with.

[consigliere]

The thing is, just about every team has a lot of "ifs" in the bullpen. If you ask me, when you compare the Indians lineup and starting pitching with the other 4 teams in the Central, they are probably on par with the White Sox and Tigers for ifs, while the Twins have a ton of ifs.

[leadpipe]

Detroits pitching staff as a whole has many less question marks than the Tribe. It's just a better 10 guys period. Here's the thing with a guy like Politte. Last 4 years ERA 5.66/4.38/2.00/8.70. An optimist is thinking more like the 2.oo, a realist knows it's probably going to be something around the other 3, what he normally does. Either one of these or on the DL with Foulke is the probable result. How you love the signing and think you might get Howry's year I just don't see. Hope your right, but usually it's not how these situations work.

[leadpipe]

By the way, you've got to be the only one ever to say, "I love the signing of Cliff Politte."

[consigliere]

I think Pollitte is a great pickup, therefore I love it. Just like I thought Howry and Elarton were good pickups in 2004.

Also, the thing you have to remember, is there is the potential for a ton more volatility with the Tigers staff. Outside of Rogers and Bonderman, the other three pitchers in their starting staff have no track record. They don't have a 2-3 year run in performance to judge whether last year's numbers can be expected to be duplicated or come close to being done. The only guy in the Indians starting staff you truly can't predict is Sowers.

[leadpipe]

I can predict Paul Byrd's lousy year. So what. And from top to bottom there is much less volatility in the tigers ten pitchers. There isn't a manager on god's green earth that would take the Tribe's ten over the Tiger's ten.