Flee2theCleve

...and Eparabola...I do not view your opinion as misinformed or ignorant at all...far from it. If anything, the airing of our grievances demonstrates our devotion to the team. Anything less borders on apathy, which is never a measure of a true, devoted fan.

^it is unbelievable how indoctrinated the Indians fan base has become with resigning ourselves to so-called "small-market limitations". Bottomline is that our owner is more concerned with turning a sizeable profit every year than being consistently competitive. Forbes has the Indians turning a tidy $32M profit last year, one of the highest in the majors. Team Current Value 1 ($mil) 1-Yr Value Change (%) Debt/Value 2 (%) Revenues ($mil) Operating Income 3 ($mil) 1 New York Yankees 1,306 9 77 327 -47.3 2 New York Mets 824 12 97 235 32.9 3 Boston Red Sox 816 13 29 263 -19.1 4 Los Angeles Dodgers 694 10 61 224 20.0 5 Chicago Cubs 642 8 0 214 21.4 6 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 500 16 7 200 15.2 7 Atlanta Braves 497 9 0 199 28.1 8 San Francisco Giants 494 8 28 197 19.9 9 St Louis Cardinals 484 5 51 194 21.5 10 Philadelphia Phillies 481 5 36 192 14.3 11 Seattle Mariners 466 7 21 194 10.1 12 Houston Astros 463 5 12 193 20.4 13 Washington Nationals 460 3 54 153 43.7 14 Chicago White Sox 443 16 9 193 30.6 15 Cleveland Indians 417 14 24 181 29.2 16 Texas Rangers 412 13 65 172 17.2 17 Detroit Tigers 407 14 52 173 4.6 18 Baltimore Orioles 398 1 38 166 7.7 19 San Diego Padres 385 5 45 167 23.6 20 Arizona Diamondbacks 379 12 54 165 5.9 21 Colorado Rockies 371 17 22 169 26.2 22 Toronto Blue Jays 352 2 0 160 -1.8 23 Cincinnati Reds 337 10 12 161 19.3 24 Milwaukee Brewers 331 15 36 158 19.2 25 Minnesota Twins 328 14 27 149 23.8 26 Oakland Athletics 323 11 28 154 15.4 27 Kansas City Royals 301 7 13 131 7.4 28 Pittsburgh Pirates 292 7 34 139 17.6 29 Tampa Bay Rays 290 8 14 138 29.7 30 Florida Marlins 256 5 34 128 35.6 The Indians will only become more profitable over time as they move into the Columbus TV market next year by moving the AAA affiliate and with STO's continued development as a top-tier Ohio-related sports network. The fact is we can and should be as competitive as just about any other team in MLB and should demand it out of ownership. I personally believe Dolan purchased high back in 2000 at $323 million, failed to turn a profit in the first couple of years (-$40M in 01 alone), freaked out and ordered Shapiro & Co to slash payroll, an edict still being followed to this day. By now it should be to the point of where we have a payroll commiserate with our market footprint and inline with our far-reaching fan base, allowing for consistent excellence.

ideally, shapiro would target some of these holes in free agency w/ the money left over from Byrd/CC/Blake, etc...maybe a starter and some backend bullpen help/corner OFer, or a 3B to bridge the gap until Hodges is ready...here is a list of free agents this upcoming offseason: Third basemen Casey Blake (35) Hank Blalock (28) - $6.2MM club option for '09 with a $0.25MM buyout Joe Crede (31) Morgan Ensberg (33) Nomar Garciaparra (35) Wes Helms (33) - $3.75MM club option for '09 Chipper Jones (37) - $8-11MM vesting option for '09 Dallas McPherson (27) Left fielders Moises Alou (42) Garret Anderson (37) - $14MM club option for '09 with a $3MM buyout Milton Bradley (31) Emil Brown (34) Pat Burrell (32) Adam Dunn (29) Cliff Floyd (36) - $2.75MM club option for '09 with a $0.25MM buyout Luis Gonzalez (41) Raul Ibanez (37) Jacque Jones (34) Kevin Mench (31) Jason Michaels (33) - $2.6MM club option for '09 Craig Monroe (32) Jay Payton (36) Wily Mo Pena (27) - $5MM club option or $2MM player option for '09 Manny Ramirez (37) - $20MM club option for '09 Juan Rivera (30) Right fielders Bobby Abreu (35) Casey Blake (35) Milton Bradley (31) Cliff Floyd (36) - $2.75MM club option for '09 with a $0.25MM buyout Brian Giles (38) - $9MM club option for '09 with a $3MM buyout Ken Griffey Jr. (39) - $16.5MM club option for '09 with a $4MM buyout Vladimir Guerrero (33) - $15MM club option for '09 with a $3MM buyout Jacque Jones (34) Bobby Kielty (32) Brad Wilkerson (32)

^definitely agree with you that LaPorta is better than Garks/Aubrey/Brown/etc, plus he is insurance against Hafner being a lost cause (hopefully not) Hodges "d" is more than serviceable at 3B...he is a good athlete

2010 roster? OF: Sizemore/Francisco/Choo/Crowe 3B: Hodges SS: AsCab/Peralta 2B: TGreen/Barf 1B: LaPorta/Mills DH: Hafner/Garko CA: Martinez/ShopVac Starters: Lee/Carmona/Westbrook/Laffey/Miller/Huff Relief: Perez/Betancourt/Sipp/Lewis/Kobayashi/Bryson

LaPorta will never play in the OF. Read the scouting reports, his outfield defense is a huge liability. Milwaukee tried to move him there b/c Prince Fielder was blocking LaPorta at the big-league level @ 1B, but the move back-fired, which is why they were willing to trade him to the Tribe. Taylor Green, IMO, is the player with the highest ceiling, but I am willing to bet the Tribe tries to move him back to 2B. If he stays at 3B, what does this portend for Wes Hodges?

Not impressed by this deal at all. We basically traded C.C. and the two top draft picks Milwaukee will receive as compensation for losing C.C. in free agency after the season, for a one-tool 1B/DH type, of which we have many already: Martinez/Hafner/Garko/Aubrey/Brown/Mills/Mulhern, a player that projects as a journeyman spot starter that has struggled in the pitching-friendly NL, and a couple of low-level prospects. Hopefully Shap sees something I don't. This trade seemingly didn't do much to satisfy any of our pressing needs, starting pitching, corner OFer with power, middle-IFer w/ above-average power, closer, 3B, etc

how one could discern from those comments that he doesn't like, or even love, Cleveland, is beyond me. all his comments infer is that there are 5 places that he likes more than Cleveland...nothing wrong with that.

i wish we had something a bit more classy situated on our city's proverbial welcome mat, but I guess for now it is better than nothing...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but they would not be doing this, exposing the building and its internal space to the elements, without having plans to immediately begin rehab work, right?

how sad that they would just haphazardly bore their way through the facade without consideration given to how amazing it is

it sounds as though Pluto ripped off the "waiting for next year" article...

Many are speculating that the Nets moves are in preparation of trying to land LeBron in 2010. The addition of Yi Jianlian is an attractive teammate to have if LeBron is looking to further court the huge Chinese market. It is well known that LeBron wishes to be the first billionaire athlete, something that would be much easier accomplished if he were a more renown worldwide brand. Personally, I don't see LeBron leaving, but it is interesting to see the personnel moves being made in advance of his impending free agency.

that is section 8 housing...DAS is doing some remodeling, nothing of that significance...

From ESPN's Jayson Stark this morning • Indians rumors of the week: Seems as if the only Indians anyone ever talks about hitting the market next month are Sabathia and Paul Byrd. But one NL executive says the Indians have also let teams know they would talk about several of their bullpen arms -- starting with Rafael Betancourt and Rafael Perez -- and enigmatic 25-year-old outfielder Franklin Gutierrez.

11-1 with 3 more starts before the All Star break..plus the bully ruined 2 other games he should have won he is now our stopper without Lee this year, the Indians would be 25-42...crazy

that original facade looks intriguing

Are there any merits to his claims?

With the gas leak this morning over by Cleveland Clinic, it brought to mind this area, more specifically the NE corner of East 9th and Prospect/Huron. Every time I walk by this area I catch the distinct smell of natural gas. Am I alone in this, or has anyone else noticed the same thing?

PICTURE PERFECT!...pardon the pun

nice pics! Jacobs/Progressive has always had some of the best city sight lines of any MLB field....pittsburgh/detroit/cincy/baltimore aren't too shabby either

while I'm sure there are some people in the market for this type of housing and the accompanying high price tag...but 1,150? seems a lot...

6 acres of Midtown property for $83,600 in close proximity to ECTP....Man I wish I had some extra coin to make some investments...

Mayor McCheese, how do you know that there will be balconies?

does shapiro consult you on these matters or something? how on earth would you know this as fact? since Choo was brought up 5/31, Choo/Frisco have been the team's everyday outfielders... Right now, Gut isn't anything more than a defensive replacement/4th OFer on this team, whereas others envision him as more...the only way he'll see more time is if he learns to take a pitch. Currently, out of 257 batters with at least 150 plate appearances in the majors, Frankie G is 240th in BB/K ratio. .. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting?sort=walkToStrikeoutRatio&split=0&league=mlb&season=2008&seasonType=2&type=sab&ageMin=17&ageMax=51&minpa=150&hand=a&pos=all&startDate=null&endDate=null&qual=false&count=218