Tribe Notes 7/5/2008

As Indians fans, we can all feel it coming. The front office is wiping it's ass and getting ready to flush this turd of a season. Borowski and Bauer were part of the courtesy flush, and now with the rumors of Sabathia to the Brewers circling the bowl, I think we can start looking towards next season. Borowski hasn't been the same since last year when he led the AL in saves, and Bauer had a 13.50 ERA in four appearances, so no surprises there.

Buster Olney of ESPN is reporting that the Brewers are leading the race for Sabathia and that the Indians are interested in Matt LaPorta and possibly J.J. Hardy. LaPorta is a hard-hitting right fielder that was taken in the first round of the 2007 draft and now plays for the Double-A Huntsville Stars. This season he has a .291 batting average with a league leading 20 HR's. His addition would be huge for the Indians as they have been looking for a power-hitting outfielder for a couple years now.

While looking up the stats on LaPorta I noticed two things. First, the Brewers farm system is stacked with talent. Second, Mat Gamel. Gamel is batting .381 with 15 round-trippers on the year. And oh yeah, he's a third baseman. A position the Indians haven't had stability at in years. If they could somehow swing things to get LaPorta and Gamel, I would change my underwear and then pack C.C.'s bags.

Of course, these are all rumors. But if this goes through it would be huge for the Tribe. Shapiro did a great job in getting quality talent in return for Bartolo Colon (Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee, and Brandon Phillips) Let's hope lightning strikes twice.