Larry Brown Sports

The New York Yankees have not played a game since Tuesday, as their last two games against the Cleveland Indians have been rained out. Playing baseball in April can be challenging, with unpredictable weather lingering throughout many northern states. Joe Girardi thinks the MLB needs to start accounting for that.

After the Yankees’ second-straight rainout in Cleveland on Thursday, Girardi ripped the league for sending teams to places like Cleveland and Minnesota in April when you are only visiting them once.

“I don’t think you can go to cold-weather cities if you only go there one time,” Girardi told reporters, via the NY Daily News. “I think you have to stay within your division the first month. Or, I know teams want night games, but if we would have had a day game today, it gives you a longer window to play the game.

“I mean, it’s snowing in Minnesota and the Mets are there. I don’t know who can make the best snowman.”

Girardi’s argument is that it is much less of a hassle to make up games when you are going to visit a team at least one more time during the remainder of the season. Now, the Yankees and Indians will likely have to play a doubleheader in Cleveland on a mutual off-day. You can see why that would be annoying, but the problem is impossible to avoid around this time of year. The league wants teams to have division games late in the season to create playoff drama. In order to achieve that goal, they’re willing to risk having to put up with some nasty weather.

The Cleveland Indians have signed the remaining big free agent name left on the market, reportedly agreeing to a four-year, $48 million deal with centerfielder Michael Bourn.

According to CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman, the deal has a vesting option for a fifth year at $12 million if Bourn reaches 550 plate appearances in 2016.

The timing of the signing is noteworthy: Bourn had gone well into the offseason without agreeing to a deal, and he signed for less money than many people expected. The New York Mets were said to be interested in Bourn, but as a rebuilding team they might not have felt the signing was right. The Atlanta Braves also signed BJ Upton and traded for his brother, Justin, so they had little need to bring Bourn back. With a diminishing market, Bourn ended up receiving less money than Nick Swisher, who entered the offseason as a less-desirable player on most free agent lists. Interestingly, Swisher also signed with the Indians. He received a four-year, $56 million deal with a $14 million option for 2017.

The Bourn signing gives the Indians a crowded outfield, but also more roster flexibility and trade possibilities. Michael Brantley is their projected starting left fielder, Swisher is the right fielder, and now Bourn will likely start in center field over Drew Stubbs, who was acquired in a trade with the Cincinnati Reds. Swisher can also play first base or DH. Alternatively, the Indians could platoon Stubbs and Brantley in left. The left-handed Brantley OPSd .785 against right-handers last year and .680 against lefties. Stubbs posted a .788 OPS against lefties and batted .541 against right-handers.

In addition to signing Bourn and Swisher, the Indians signed pitcher Brett Myers to a one-year, $7 million deal and plan to have him start. They signed Mark Reynolds to a one-year, $6 million deal and plan to have him play first. Their most beneficial move may prove to be their acquisition of potential ace pitcher Trevor Bauer in a trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

I don’t care for the Bourn signing because I think his batting and fielding will decline, but the Indians are at least spending money and bringing in some quality players who should improve the team.

Cleveland Indians president Mark Shapiro has been facing some criticism over comments he made on a local TV station recently in response to an angry season ticket holder’s email. The fan asked Shapiro to give him a reason to renew his tickets for 2013, and Shapiro told the fan “don’t come” if his only reason for going to games is to see the team win.

Not exactly the brightest thing a team president can say to a frustrated customer, so Shapiro attempted to clarify his response on Tuesday. He did not do a very good job.

“I told him if the sole reason, the only reason, for renewing is predicated on us winning, then they shouldn’t come,” Shapiro said according to Bruce Hooley of ESPN Cleveland. “I stand by that. Baseball has to mean more than just being a fan when you win.

“No where are we spending more of our time, more of our energy or more money in trying to win. We all understand that the single-most important thing in baseball is winning and losing. But we are always going to have cycles to when we can win.”

Once again, not the brightest thing for a team’s president to say. Some personal seat licenses belong to people with businesses who don’t care about the team or rich people with so much money they need to find ways to spend it. But many season tickets are sold to people whose sole reason for opening up their wallets each season is that “this could be our year.”

Is there more to going to a ballgame than seeing your team win? Of course, and season ticket holders know they are going to see plenty of losses each season no matter how good there team is. That being said, the idea is to win. If you don’t think your team has a shot at the postseason and you aren’t made of money, why not save a few grand?

Fist pound to Hardball Talk

Pitchers Mat Latos and Derek Lowe opposed each other for the second time in a week, and much like their last game, a controversy ensued.

The Indians beat the Reds 10-9 on Monday in the first of a three-game series in Cleveland, and Latos thinks some funny business was going on.

The Reds starter got hammered for seven runs including three home runs over four innings, and he implied after the game that Indians base runners were relaying signs from second to the batter.

“I was a little up in the zone. I thought I made some good pitches that they spit on with a runner on second base. I suppose it was kind of ironic. We changed up the signs, for the last hitter unfortunately,” Latos told the media, unprompted, according to Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. “The outcome changed when we changed up the signs today.

“I’m going to go back and look at video. A couple [times with] runners on second base, they put better swings on the ball than they did most of the time without a runner on second base. [Shin-Soo] Choo hit that double and then [Asdrubal] Cabrera was up [in the fourth]. Me and [catcher Ryan] Hanigan changed the signs up. He called for a slider. We were going with a certain call. That certain call we were going with beforehand was a curveball. I threw a slider and he was looking breaking ball and was jammed on a slider. That to me shows me a little something. Other than that, I was up in the zone. I made a couple of bad mistakes and they hit them.”

When pressed about his implication that the Indians were relaying signs from second, Latos didn’t back down.

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When we see guys like Carlos Zambrano walking out on teammates and David Ortiz throwing a fit because an RBI was taken away from him, it becomes tough not to stereotype pro athletes as selfish people.  Moments like those can make us lose sight of the selfless acts that players commit. What the Indians did for teammate Jack Hannahan earlier this month deserves recognition.

With the Indians stuck in Boston on a road trip, Hannahan received a call from his agent that his wife, Jenny, was having contractions and was possibly going to go into labor in a few hours.  Jenny had already been having some complications with her pregnancy and was told her baby could be born anytime, despite the fact that she was in her third trimester.  The earliest flight Hannahan’s agent, Joe Speed, could book for him back to Cleveland was the following morning.  The only other option was to book a private jet, which would cost $35,000.  Spending that much wasn’t an option for Hannahan whose salary is $500,000.

When teammate Justin Masterson overheard what was going on, he ordered Hannahan to have his agent book the flight.  According to the Pioneer Press, Jack was hesitant but Masterson insisted.  After the game the entire team chipped in and quickly came up with $35,000 and sent Hannahan on his way to the airport.

Hannahan arrived at the hospital in Cleveland at 3 a.m. and his son was born just 15 minutes later.  The birth was premature but Speed says Hannahans wife and son, John, are both doing fine.  Don’t worry — stories like that are supposed to give you goosebumps.

What will Cleveland Indians closer Chris Perez do the next time he blows a save if this is how he feels about giving up a run during a 7-3 victory?  Maybe we should just assume that Perez was embarrassed to give up a run Tuesday night to a team the Indians beat 19-1 on Monday.  Yeah, we’ll go with that.  Check out the video of Chris Perez throwing the ball over center field, courtesy of The Dugout Sports Show via Deadspin:

Easy, killer — you’ll throw your arm out.

The Cleveland Indians haven’t done too many things right this year on the field. Credit them for getting something right off of it.

Even though their latest project could upset the purists who don’t like seeing mounds destroyed for soccer games and the like, the Indians are getting innovative by unveiling plans to run a winter amusement park at Progressive Field during the offseason. The team is calling the new plan “SnowDays” and beginning it on November 26th, and running it through January, 2011 at the least.

They’ll be offering a snow tubing hill, a quarter mile ice skating track, a skating rink, and a snow mountain as part of their activities. Basic admission will be $5 while a full access pass is $25. I don’t know about you, but this seems pretty darn cool and exactly like the type of thing I would have loved to do as a kid.

Cleveland Indians: last in the AL Central, first in innovation and creativity.