OK, so I'm an idiot.........

[Chuckles the Clown]

But I didn't realize just how huge the difference was between our offer and Philadelphia's. If the Plain Dull is correct, with the incentives in the Phillies' offer, it's double what we're offering him. And all Jimmy has to do is wait until December 7th to force the Indians to sweeten the pot in lieu of offering arbitration. You can't blame anyone for going after the money when there's that much of a difference.

Found it interesting that Dolan can't afford to keep the team if they offer him arbitration and he accepts. That might be the bigger story.

Bye bye, Jimbo. I had a great time watching you hit. Good luck.

[UK Tribe]

I think if the Tribe could offer more years at broadly the same basic salary as they are offering now then they would get much closer to Philly's number.

I think Thome would stay for 5 years $60m with vesting options based on performance for years 6 and 7 as well as attendance related bonuses. That could add up to a $90m deal which takes the emotion out of the Philly offer.

I dont see any reason why Tribe can't put a deal like this on the table.

If Thome wants $15m a year period then the Tribe should let him walk. That's too much and in two years time I wouldn't be suprised if it's a contract Philly wants to dump. No DH will really hurt Thome.

[The RotoTribe]

I think it was very significant that Thome wasn't at an awards banquet in Cleveland. The Tribe should guarantee the contract without performance or attendance clauses. On the other hand, how many of us make even $1 million a year?

Thome's obviously going for the money. I'll miss him, but oh well. It's just a game.

[Alex]

I'd rather have Konerko and Rolen for 19 million a year than Thome for 15 million a year. [img]eek.gif[/img]

[Alex]

But getting back to reality. The interesting spin I am hearing is Thome wants the tribe to commit to one more decent power hitter. Does Karim Garcia qualify as the decent power hitter?

A healthy Matt Lawton, Karim Garcia, Ellis Burks, Jim Thome, that's not too shabby a middle of the line-up.

[Chuckles the Clown]

I dunno, Alex. Even if Lawton returns to his pre-Tribe level of play and Garcia turns out to be for real, three out of the four guys you mention hit left. I think you need to balance that out with another right-handed stick.

[ckotyk]

Where did you hear that Thome wants the Tribe to commit to another power hitter? Who does Thome want the Tribe to get and who are the possibilities out there for the Tribe to pick up?

[Alex]

er, um, I heard it on Cleve Live. Someone posted that Jim's fishing buddies claim he doesn't need the maxium amount of money, but that he doesn't want the tribe to just give up for a couple of years.

That sounds very logical to me. Does Karim Garcia qualify?

Perhaps this is about third base.

[Alex]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><table border="0" width="90%" bgcolor="#333333" cellspacing="1" cellpadding="0"><tr><td width="100%"><table border="0" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="2" bgcolor="#FF9900"><tr><td width="100%" bgcolor=""><font size=2 face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by Chuckles the Clown:
I dunno, Alex. Even if Lawton returns to his pre-Tribe level of play and Garcia turns out to be for real, three out of the four guys you mention hit left. I think you need to balance that out with another right-handed stick.</font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></BLOCKQUOTE>

I forgot about that issue. Just how did we end up with so many lefties?

I'm curious how many right-handed batters versus left-handed batters there are in the league. I presume the majority are right-handed.