Tribe Talk: The Perils of Playing In The Worst Division In Baseball

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Dave Wiley: Man, I hope not, but I can see it happening. Shoppach is a good catcher and can take on that role. The Indians don't need Martinez in the first base platoon necessarily. I have no idea how you'd replace his hitting though. I guess you'd have to take a look at the pile of other guys at first and possibly shop them if people are interested.

 Martinez and Sizemore are the face of the team. Ultimately Sizemore will command a premium and most likely Cleveland won't be able to pay it, similar to what happened with Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, and C.C. Sabathia. I'd say they have a higher likelihood of holding onto Martinez for the balance of his career. I vote keep Victor in house.

The Coop: Trust me, if the Indians trade Victor, there will be a riot. I live in Pittsburgh and you should see the reaction of Pirates fans simply because the team traded Nate McClouth, and McClouth isn’t close to being even half the player Martinez is.

I think that trading Martinez would mean that the Indians are in a seller’s position, not a buyer’s position. There is no way that they would get equal value for Martinez which would get them over the top and still fill the void left by Victor’s absence. So, in a seller’s position, the Tribe would be getting nothing more than prospects with unknown value. Trading Martinez would officially make them the American League’s version of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

If the best way to get pitching is by trading the team’s best player, then Mark Shapiro and the entire scouting department should be fired on the spot. Why aren’t the Indians drafting and developing solid pitchers in our farm system? Why aren’t the Indians trying to make moves in the free agent market? And why do the Indians even draft/sign guys if they just plan on trading them once they have some trade value? Trading Martinez would be nothing more than a cop-out.

5. The death of former Indians owner Dick Jacobs last week was a tremendously sad loss for the Indians organization, Tribe fans, and the city of Cleveland as a whole. We are all indebted to Mr. Jacobs for what he did for our team and our city. Please briefly share your thoughts on this topic.

Nino Colla:

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