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Will Jeremy Sowers make C.C. Sabathia expendable?

By James Pete | May 7th, 2008

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Jeremy Sowers continued his impressive 2008 resume last night in beating the Syracuse Chiefs 6-3.

Sowers went seven three-hit innings, walking two, and striking out three. He didn’t give up a run, lowering his stellar ERA to 2.21 over the season. He improved his record to 2-2, and continues to make a serious bid to force the Indians hand into finding a spot in their 2008 rotation.

Sowers was recently called up to make a one-shot start against the Yankees in place of injured Jake Westbrook. It was a solid start, but because of the way the schedule fell, lefty Aaron Laffey fell into the rest of Westbrook’s starts. Westbrook will be out at least the next three weeks. Sowers, ever the professional, has gone back to Buffalo and continued pitching well. If he continues pitching this way, Mark Shapiro might have to make a move.

Sowers’ performance this season has certainly given the Indians some trade-able pieces, if Shapiro feels the need to pick up some offense. I wouldn’t want to deal Sowers with the seemingly inevitable departure of C.C. Sabathia. At the same time, if the Indians firmly believe that Adam Miller is going to be a major part of the rotation in the future, Sowers becomes a bit more expendable.

There is some thought that with Sowers pitching so well, Cliff Lee pitching like an ace, and the rest of the Indians starters looking solid, that C.C. Sabathia could become the pitcher that gets put on the market. Sabathia has had well-documented, early-season struggles, but could fetch the biggest prize should the Indians be looking for a major bat to infuse into the sputtering offense.

Whatever the Indians ultimately do, Jeremy Sowers will certainly be a major player in the Indians near-future. The only question is, will it be as a starter, or as piece that gets the Indians some offense.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 7:13 am and is filed under Aaron Laffey, Cliff Lee, Mark Shapiro, Adam Miller, Syracuse Chiefs, Jake Westbrook, Jeremy Sowers, AAA, New York Yankees, Buffalo Bisons, C.C. Sabathia, James Pete, Tribe Report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Will Jeremy Sowers make C.C. Sabathia expendable?”

Geoff Beckman says:

May 8th, 2008 at 1:35 am

James, I hate to throw cold water… and obviously things can change (e.g., Arizona offers Schertzer and Upton for Sabathia). But the vibrations I am getting say this is rather unlikely:

1. The Indians have no intention of trading Sabathia. It doesn’t matter how far south the season goes. They sincerely believe they have a great chance to retain him– that he will decide that Cleveland is the best place for him, the extra money isn’t that important and the chance to become the greatest lefthanded starter in franchise history will nail it.

Allegedly, the handling of his bad start was another step in that direction. The organization rallied around him, the manager and pitching coach figured out what was wrong, and the media and fans didn’t pile on excessively, all of which made Sabathia warm and fuzzy.

For what it’s worth, their assessments of who they can get and who they can’t– and why someone is likely to be receptive (or not)– have been pretty good in the past.

2. They’re not going to trade surplus pitching. Management thinks their oft-stated belief that a team needs seven starters was vindicated by what happened in 2007 and underscored by the recent rainout/doubleheader scenario. How often has a team needed to pull up not one but two AAA starters, and gotten two high-quality efforts?

I’m guessing it can be traced to the friendship between Shapiro and New England’s Scott Pioli, but the Indians seem to be moving toward viewing AAA as baseball’s answer to the NFL “practice squad”, as much as the dress rehearsal for the majors. That is, it’s better to keep Buffalo filled with players who can step into an emergency and contribute right away, than it is to get a lot of talent in the majors, but strip the system.

Detroit’s struggles are probably reinforcing this notion, too. The Tigers have holes, but they don’t have people who can fill them.

3. They believe the AL Central is their for the taking. They don’t think anyone will run away with the division– that as long as they can get the offense straightened out, they’ll win it. It probably won’t take 90 wins– 85 might be enough.

The big concern seems to be Minnesota– they have the bullpen, the makings of a a good rotation, and enough prospects in the lineup to be able to score runs.

That said, Kevin Baker and Kevin Slowey are on the DL, Franciso Liriano is going backward and Livan Hernandez could go south at any time. Offensively, Mike Cuddyer, Carlos Gomez and Delmon Young have all disappointed, and they’re not more likely to turn things around than any of the struggling Indians.

4. They think the offense will get untracked. They really believe in Travis Hafner, Ryan Garko, Jhonny Peralta and Asdrubal Cabrera. They think David Dellucci is justifying their decision to sign him, and that he will get even better. They’re thrilled about Franklin Gutierrez, Victor Martinez and Grady Sizemore.

This is purely my speculation– I’m reading between the lines of something I heard and then reading between those lines– but I believe the price of the “dump Michaels and get Francisco” move was Eric Wedge’s promise to spread more of the work around. Which means:

A. Andy Marte has to play more, until he amasses enough at-bats to verify that he can’t play. Wedge can keep using Casey Blake, as long as he uses him more at first base, DH or the outfield.

B. There will be more pinch-hitting, pinch-running and defensive substitutions, to keep people sharp, get advantages and keep players “m in the game.” If a player feels he might enter the game at any time, depending on what happens, he is less likely to zone out on the bench.

C. Jamey Carroll can play more, but only to give rest days. He won’t be going into the lineup, because he’s an aging, marginal player. The only person who can push someone out of the picture is Josh Barfield.

D. Starting Kelly Shoppach and using Victor Martinez at DH is fine. Martinez at first now seems to dead. The only reason to play him at first was to give him a day off from catching, but still keep him and Hafner in the lineup. With Hafner struggling, that’s no longer essential.

E. Lefty-righty matchups will be taken into account more often. Until they regain their form, Hafner won’t face as many lefties and Garko won’t face as many righties.

I don’t know if I agree with this philosophy, but I can’t label anything as outright foolish. I think it’s crazy to have Sowers, Laffey, Andrew Miller, Scott Elarton and Jason Stanford cooling their heels… but given Byrd’s age and the injury history for Lee and Westbrook, they do need insurance. Lee, Carmona and Sabathia can be inconsistent, and this would keep the staff afloat.

With Choo and Barfield, the Indians have two useful spare parts. If they had an OF-DH, a 1B-DH and a good defensive catcher (even if he couldn’t hit) in AAA, they would be pretty well protected against anything short of a catastrophe.

I dunno about the C.C. notion, and I’m not buying into everyone snapping back. But, as crazy ideas go, it’s a lot less stupid than “Pitchers should throw 120 pitches per start” (in use in Detroit), “The road to the playoffs is paved with .260 hitters” (Minnesota) or “The manager should curse out anyone and everyone on a daily basis” (Chicago).
Chet Wheeler says:

May 8th, 2008 at 7:00 am

Good insight, Geoff. Didn’t someone take a flier on Stanford? I think he’s with some other organization, but the Tribe certainly has depth in their rotation, almost excessively.
Geoff Beckman says:

May 8th, 2008 at 8:51 am

Washington did, Chet, but he busted out big time at their AAA club (10.05 ERA, 19 hits in 14 innings, 3 homers 9 walks and 12 whiffs), so they dumped him..

Cleveland picked him up a few weeks ago– just after Westbrook went down, (they knew someone would be needed to fill the void left by the callup). And he’s got a 1.15 ERA after 3 starts. 14 hits in 15.2 innings, no homers. Only thing ugly is 6 walks and 6 whiffs

How he could blow his shot to win a job with the Nationals– and then pitch so well for a team that would need a “We Are Marshall” moment before they turn to him– passes understanding.