Let’s Go Tribe says that Matt Underwood is reporting Grady Sizemore will bat  second in the batting order, while Asdrubal Cabrera will bat leadoff. Acta believes that dropping Grady in the order will better utilize his power and create more run production. Acta estimated that the leadoff hitter gets approximately 150 AB’s with no one on base (Which seems off actually -shouldn’t it be at least 162 ABs, or one for every game a player leads off??), and must feel that is a lot of wasted RBI opportunities.
Regardless of how you feel about the RBI stat (I don’t care for [...]

The Russel Branyan signing became official yesterday, and Manny Acta all but declared Branyan the starter at first base, saying, “We didn’t sign [Branyan] to be a backup guy.”
Ughhhhhhhhh.
Ironically, this may be the move to give me my wish and send Michael Brantley down to AAA to start the season, as Matt LaPorta will get a lot of time in left.  It’s a small consolation to guys like Jordan Brown, Andy Marte, and Trevor Crowe, who all get screwed out of playing time and or active roster spots, and Chris Gimenez, who was outrighted off of the 40-man roster to [...]

Tribe signed Russel Branyan today as a corner infielder/oufielder. The deal is a $2 million base with up to $1 million in incentives, and a mutual option for 2011 for $5 million. He’s there for insurance in case Matt LaPorta isn’t ready to go.
I get why the Tribe is signing him, and that’s cause he’s pretty cheap, but these moves KILL me. This is taking playing time away from Jordan Brown (who’s never had a shot with the club) or Andy Marte. Younger, cheaper options with higher ceilings. That’s what the Tribe needs to be doing. There are times when [...]

As I mentioned yesterday, Cleveland kinda, sorta, did a front office shakeup (but not really). Indians GM Mark Shapiro will be promoted to team president after the 2010 season, while assistant GM Chris Antonetti will then slide into the helm as GM. Paul Dolan will assume a newly-created role of CEO.
Snap judgment when I heard the news: “This is much ado about nothing.”
This had been rumored for awhile, really since Antonetti turned down the St. Louis GM’s gig after the 2007 season. Antonetti is also Shapiro’s boy, and most likely shares much of the same philosophies and vision for the [...]

Mark Shapiro will be promoted to team president at the end of the 2010 season, and current assistant GM Chris Antonetti will be promoted to general manager. I can’t go into detail about my thoughts due to a quirky work schedule, but they will be up later tonight or tomorrow afternoon.  For right now, I don’t think this  news is really surprising, except for maybe the timing. I’ll get back to you later on this.

Spring Training is a little over five days away, and I’m excited. Now, I always get geared up for baseball season, regardless of how the Indians are expected to do that year. And this year, it’s expected to get ugly, as the team is clearly rebuilding. However, I found it pretty easy to come up with five reasons to be excited about the 2010 Cleveland Indians. Now, nothing’s as exciting as winning, but there are other positive things about this team. These are not in any order of importance.
The new blood on the bench with Acta at the helm
In a [...]

Howdy Tribe fans, here are some links to get you through this Saturday.
Jamey Wright agrees to a minor league deal with the Tribe. I think this is another move just to add warm bodies to the pile of invites to spring training.
The Bleacher Report says watch out for the Indians this year. I wholeheartedly disagree. I don’t think this years Indians are the 2008 Rays, and I think it could be quite damaging to the rebuilding project to “go for it” in 2010. But it’s an interesting read so I included it.
The Indians are still interested in Jermaine Dye, Johnny [...]

If the rumors are true, and it’s likely they are very close to being true, then the Indians made a “serious” bid for Orlando Hudson prior to Hudson signing a one-year deal with the Twins.
I put serious in quotations because it’s not known how seriously Hudson took the offer. However, if the reports are true, the Indians offered a 2 year, $10 million dollar contract that was apparently heavily backloaded.  The Indians did this as they had no way to really increase payroll this year, so they decided they would defer it to 2011 by backloading the contract. Anthony Castrovince [...]

I’m quoted over at Hotstove.com, on the question of if I was happy with the acquisitions of Austin Kearns and Mark Grudzielanek and what the Tribe needs to do to climb out of the AL Central basement. My response was supposed to be only 4-5 sentences long, but I thought it was two questions, so mine’s a little longer. Here it is:
Any Indians fan that thinks Mark Grudzielanek or Austin Kearns will help this team needs to have their head examined. The moves are pure filler, just warm bodies to throw on the 40-man roster. The Indians made their offseason [...]

I realized yesterday that I’ve been writing for this site for about two weeks and I have yet to really introduce myself. And since there’s no real Indians news to write about, I’m hoping to let you know a little about me. Of course, you could go to the “about” section, but nobody reads that.
Anyways, I am Ed Carroll, and right now I am the sole voice of Deep Left Field.
I’m a 26 year-old, deeply passionate Indians fan. I’m also very opinionated about my Tribe. I’ll tell you when I think a move is stupid, smart, or even significant enough [...]