Stuff from all over: Staff, Offseason Moves, Spring Training

So things are taking a snails pace in Cleveland concerning just about everything.

Last week we got Tim Belcher, this week, we may not get anything.

In fact, according to Paul Hoynes, the staff may not be finalized until December 7th, which is the opening of the Winter Meetings in Indy.

Which the Indians don't expect to be big players at.

We'll talk about that in a second.

Hoynes mentions that Radinsky, Tim Tolman, and Columbus hitting coach Jon Nunnally are favorites to earn some of the coaching spots. Tolman would be the third base or bench coach for Manny Acta, Nunnally the hitting coach, and Radinsky the bullpen coach, if any or all were to be hired.

I've updated the offseason chart to reflect some of the more candidates.

I also added Kirk Gibson as an official target for the Indians. It appears that they had at least interviewed the historic slugger (I can't believe what I just saw!) over the phone as one of their ten finalists. He's the current bench coach for Arizona.

Much needs to be made about the changes the Indians are making throughout their organization. They will go unnoticed by many casual fans, but the people who want Shapiro to change things are clearly not looking hard enough.

The shake up in the Latin American and Asian scouting departments is clearly a step in the right direction. Ramon Pena was brought on as someone who can do more than just go down once and awhile to scout. He's someone who's going to live there and take good care in his homework of the players he's watching. Not only that, the Indians are moving the academy they have closer.

"Our academy was so far away before, we were having trouble getting top prospects to come for tryouts," said Mirabelli. "Ramon can really help with something like that."

And in case you were wondering. Yes, Omar Minaya gave high recommendations about Pena, whatever that may be worth. He may not be loved by many people, but Minaya is a good baseball guy.

The Indians announced more changes, this time with the Asian scouting department.

John Mirabelli, Indians director of scouting, said Pacific Rim scouts Jason Lee and Nate Minchey have been fired. Minchey was scouting Japan and Lee the Pacific Rim. Mirabelli said Dave DeFreitas will scout and live in Japan, while two part-time scouts will be hired to cover Taiwan and South Korea.

With this... Mirabelli acknowledged genuine interest in Takafumi Nakamura, the shuuto pitch guy we had fun with last week. They are competing with the Japanese Industrial League, whatever that is. Sports Nippon, a Japanese newspaper that the Indians will officially make the signing later in November.

The free agent market doesn't figure to be something the Indians make a splash in and we've mentioned this before. I doubt they even make a major signing until January/February-ish. Last year's example of players lasting for awhile and signing one year contracts is appealing, but a good point that I read today may even make that something that won't happen much.

If players get deals early that are more than one year or so, they might just take them because they'll probably not get anything better.

Or you take another one year deal and try and test things out again next year.

Either way, this market is a different animal and if there is a good decent player out there that comes cheap, and he IMPROVES the team without "blocking a young player" from the major league roster or playing time, I could see the Indians going after him.

It would have to be a pitcher though. Honestly, that's going to be a very narrow market for them though. So really when it comes down to it, we may not even see much activity, if any at all. If the right name and situation comes around, maybe, but this year will just not be one for the Indians to do anything. Not that I think they should anyway.

The Cactus League schedule is out for 2010 and the Indians will open the Spring Training game schedule with Cincinnati on March 5th. The two will play two days in a row, with Cleveland being the away team in the opener. The longest roadtrip for the Tribe this year will only be two separate two-hour visits.

Of course, those who travel to Arizona to check out the Spring Training action won't have to travel far to see the Indians' road games. The only drives in excess of about 40 miles will be the two-hour treks to Tucson to face the D-backs on March 8 and the Rockies in a split-squad on March 17.

But the greatest part of this all....

PITCHERS AND CATCHERS REPORT FEBRUARY 21ST 2010!

Wooohooo!

What you really care about though... The Indians are one of the best organizations in the game and this further proves why.

Responding to some fan concerns from the first year in Goodyear, the Indians will open a new fan access area in '10 that will allow fans a chance to get autographs and see the Tribe players up close and personal at the player-development complex.

People complained and the Indians have listened and accommodated them. This was one of the big ones for fans last year and we'll see how it works out this year.

New York still has not granted the Indians their request to talk to Sandy Alomar Jr. about their coaching staff. I find this very rude considering he played the majority of his major league career in Cleveland. Either give us permission or promote him. What if we can offer him advancement and you can't? I doubt he'd be pleased with that.

Anthony Castrovince is back from his Paris trip with a new Indians Inbox and without getting into the Letterman-Conan War he's diving into, we'll see what he has to offer up.

He chimes in on the Belcher hire and like everyone else, was surprised. Like myself and just about everyone else I've read though, it's just a matter of knowing what he brings to the table as a coach. We all know the work he's done so far has been praised and the credentials he brings are all good, but he hasn't coached at the major league level. It will be a test for him, no doubt.

AC is searching for a nickname for the guy.

ACTA = Advancing Cleveland to ALCS.
-- Bob B., Palm Harbor, Fla.

If that's the case, they should have aimed higher and hired a guy named Actw.

We're going to settle with "Actavision". Which was offered up somewhere, but I forget. Actavision works, not just because it's clever, but his vision is different and it's certainly what we're looking for.

The Gold Gloves start coming out today in the AL and if Asdrubal Cabrera doesn't get one today, I think the Indians will be unrepresented this year in the MLB Awards.

The guy certainly deserves the nod at either short or second, because he's clearly one of the best defensive players in the entire game. But he doesn't have the name recognition and the switch mid-season to short may impact that.

Either way... It's unlikely a Tribe player takes home hardware this year.

Fausto Carmona was supposed to continue the run of Indians and their Cy Young Award Winners, but we know how that goes.

Grady Sizemore's run at Gold Glove will most likely take a little bit of a year off after he missed considerable time.

And of course the chance to have two comeback player of the year award winners went away when the Indians traded Carl Pavano, even though he didn't win the award.

And despite all the Rookies the Indians had... You can forget about that, but like I mentioned when we did BBA voting, Tony Sipp should get some votes somewhere.

The options have been picked up Victor Martinez and Cliff Lee, while Colorado has declined theirs on Rafael Betancourt and offered him a two year, seven million dollar deal. He promptly declined, which may or may not be smart for him considering he is a Type B Free Agent. Will anyone give him better than a two year seven million dollar deal? I don't know.

Finally... We need to tackle the latest Hey Hoynsie, because he threw out a Jody Gerut mention.

Hey, Hoynsie: Are you aware of any changes as to how the Indians will evaluate amateur and pro talent? Didn't Albert Einstein say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results? -- Joy Darville, Camden, Ohio.

Hey, Joy: Actually, the first person I ever heard say that was former Tribe outfielder Jody Gerut. He stole it from Colorado manager Clint Hurdle, who must have stolen it from Einstein.

We're all aware that Jody went to Stanford. Those Stanford folk...I can actually see Jody saying this.

Anyway... That had nothing of interest in it, but it's Hoynes, what do you want?