i don’t know whether or not they’ll go after a 2B or a SS, but it has been widely reported in and out of cleveland that they view peralta as their long-term 3B solution….

if you had ken griffey, jr. of 1995 in center and were offered marquis grissom of 1995, would you worry about who would play center?! no…you’d work them both into the lineup and thank God that you had two offensive forces like that….it’s quite different than if you already had pudge rodriguez and you were offered bengie molina in a deal, neither of which has much offensive value off their position….but if you have two guys who play the same position, but have some positional flexibility and both bring positive offensive attributes, you work them in….

Who, exactly is clogging up 1B? Garko? Brown? Aubrey? The Tribe has a bunch of blah players/prospects at 1B/LF who would all fall behind LaPorta and Brantley, IMO.

When you need a 3B and have one of the best CF in baseball, I think common sense would dictate that when you have the option of picking a 3B with upside or a CF with less upside, you take the 3B.

1. I completely disagree. Even if Green would have been in Cleveland in 2011 at best. Thats THREE years from now. Who knows whats going to happen in three years? An A ball is simple way too far away to consider as filling a whole in a major league club right now.

2. Perelta is reportedly going to make the move to 3B next season. Wedge told him i his exit interview that the Indians were going to look for a 2B or a SS during the offseason to facilitate this trade. (With Cabrera moving to his natural position at SS if they sign a 2B)

3. Its arguable whether Brantley or Green have a better upside. We had this argument over at Lets Go Tribe and the majority tilted towards Brantley. I know personally, I’m not too enthused about Green myself. if Green had succesfully played more 2B in the minors that would certainly have added to his value, but the Tribe already got burned on their attempt to move Trevor Crowe to 2B from the outfield, so I doubt they’re eager to try that route again.

4. Beau Mills was drafted originally drafted as a 3B. Although he’s playing mosty first base right now, the Indians have gone on the record as saying they believe he might be able to stick at third because Mills has regained some of his strength from his surgically repaired throwing shoulder.
I’m sure the Indians kept that in mind when picking Brantley over Green. Not to mention we already have Wes Hodges in the system at AA who looks like he’ll turn into a solid major league player.

You are right, that is one of their biggest needs. The only problem is that the patient hitter that Cleveland just got has no where to play. How many on-base, above average speed, no power having LF are there in baseball? LF is likely where LaPorta has to play (since 1B and DH are pretty full right now) with Choo in RF (with either Francisco or Gutierrez platooning with Choo and being the 4th OF).

You see a logjam, i see a surplus of players we can use to our advantage. If this “nightmare” scenario were to come true and LaPorta, Gutz, Francisco, Choo, and Brantley were all putting up good numbers, then the Indians can simply use their surplus at outfield for trades. Thats exactly what the Brewers did when they trade LaPorta to the Indians. Prospect depth is never a bad thing.

But of course this all assumes that your premise is correct, which its not. While our current 1B Garko has put up some decent numbers, they’re nothing that the Indians would allow to block LaPorta from moving to first. The Indians could easily trade Garko and put LaPorta at 1st and Brantley in LF.

Unfortunately, chances are that not every one of the Indians prospects/young major league players is going to turn into major league starters

And if Sizemore was going to move down in the line-up, it would have been done by now. Like last season when they had one of the best lead-off hitters of our generation for half the year. Or this year when their biggest bat missed much of the season due to injury, VMart couldn’t get an extra base hit if he paid for it, and Garko was in a slump for two-thirds of the season. In other words, they needed pop in the middle of their line-up, but still Sizemore was the lead-off hitter.

1. Lofton did bat leadoff at times. But he was much more valuable for us in the 2 hole which was almost as big a hole for us as leadoff.

2. Jhonny Perelta? One of the best offensive SS in the game right now.? I’d say he has a considerable amount of pop in the middle of our lineup.

3.. I’’m not sure if you noticed, but the Indians had one of the most potent offenses in baseball this year. The Indians problem isn’t a lack of pop in the middle of the lineup, its was very streaky hitting. Sizemore wasn’t immune to this streaky hitting either.

Moreover, while Martinez was in his slump, primarly due to injury, Shoppach was raking quite well in the middle of the lineup.

4.. And finally, 3-hole hitters are great, but considering our options, it was more important to have people who can get on base at a high rate, Sizemore, and decent power/ high

But as it stands right now, they just got a player who plays the same position as the best hitter on their team. So either he moves to LF and has one of the lowest OPSs in all of baseball, or he is a bat off the bench. Or he gets traded again. We will see.

This seems to be the heart or your argument. But if you look at the Indians you’ll notice that their roster doesn’t align with the normal hitting/position stereotypes we associate with baseball.

They recieve most of their offensive production from atypical positions. (SS,C, CF). There’s no reason why they have to, or even should, but their high OBP guy in CF rather than LF. Its about place players where it helps your team, not where they “should” be. Look at Gutz who plays RF even though he’s arguably one of the , if not the best, CF in baseball right now.