"The only ones I keep are Kipnis, Chizenhall, Pestano."

Welllll, I have to add Cabrera, Choo, Brantley and Santana. Chizenhall is out for 6 weeks with a broken arm. I don't mind starting over but not that much over.

Well buddy here are my thoughts IF you are going to blow it up then do it right.Blow it all up. Shapiro screwed it all up and it will take drastic measures by a baseball GM to get all reworked. Cabrerra and choo are only her a maximum two years. Brantley and Santana I am not sure how long. I don't believe a major rebuild includes them. Chizzy, Kipnis and Pestano should weather the rebuild time and could get an extension. By that time some of the better draft picks should be on the team. Payrol will have been low enough for dolan to have amassed a war chest and be able to spend some money for the players to get us to the series. Those are the lines along which I was thinking. Time line should be a minimum five years.

Well to be fair, internal fixes are going to have a bigger effect on this team than any one player that's available on the market right now outside of a guy like Cole Hamels who is obviously not within our reach. Carlos Santana coming back and hitting like he is capable, McAllister/Carmona/Kluber/etc. replacing guys like Gomez and Tomlin in the rotation, etc. These types of internal moves are going to have a greater effect on this club than adding any one player out there. Even Carlos Quentin, who is being touted as the best bat available, isn't anything that special when it really comes down to it.

Again, I didn't hear the interview, so I can't definitely say one way or another what Antonetti meant...but don't you think it's possible he's just saying what a GM is supposed to say at this time? If you come out and say "we need a bat really bad" you're losing a lot of leverage on the trade market.

do you know the value of Choo and Cabrera right now? We have them both for 2 more full seasons. We could trade both those guys for 4 guys who can start next season. I agree with Brantley and Santana as well though. Lindor should be here by next season so I don't think a-cab would be a huge loss for more than 1 season. And with the Improved production at other spots with younger guys...it's a win for us.

Lindor will not be here next season, he's 18 years old. He'll be here around 2015 if I had to put a timeline on it...

you think Philli would take Lou Marson, jason Knapp, Carlos Carrasco, and Jason Donald for Hamels and Victorino?? lol

I don't buy that because if he really thought we needed a bat, he should have contacted every GM in baseball by now. they know what we need and what we have.

But i agree none of the names out there will help. Thats why i would sell right now. Might suffer for 1 year next season, but we have a market of teams who will have to overpay for a Choo, Jimenez, Perez, and Cabrera.

"I don't buy that because if he really thought we needed a bat, he should have contacted every GM in baseball by now. they know what we need and what we have."

But what's to say he hasn't? Just because he says in an interview "our fixes will come from within" that doesn't mean there aren't talks going on behind the scenes. In reports that I've read, coming from sources that are not at all affiliated with the Indians, it sounds like we're active in talks. You have to remember, just because it's not showing up on MLBTraderumors.com, that doesn't mean there isn't anything going on. Remember last year, most people hadn't heard anything about the Jimenez deal basically until the day it happened.

I hope, but if we are getting someone good, we need a guy who is signed for more than till the end of the season. It doesn't help if the guy is here for a few months because if he is worth getting, he is going to cost something, not just a single A relief pitcher.

I still think if we want to compete the next 3 or 4 seasons we need to trade choo, cabrera, and Jimenez while teams are so desperate for those types.

I'd rather see how the rest of this year plays out honestly. I don't think we're going to make a big splash, I think we're going to add a complimentary player that will help us out for the second half of the season. I always go back to a guy like Hairston from New York. The dude kills left-handed pitching and I can't see the Mets asking for much more than a C level prospect for him. He's just an example of a player that shouldn't cost much but could really help us out. Cody Ross would be another.

We could conceivably add one or two complimentary players like that without damaging the farm system (or the current roster), and if we make it to the playoffs this year, great, if not we might look to move a guy like Choo, Jimenez, Perez, or possibly even Cabrera in an effort to restock the upper levels of the farm system. This is a good year to compete. Detroit has been hit pretty hard with injuries, but they're going to be very strong next season. If we don't make it to the playoffs this year, I think we would be wise to move some of those guys that I mentioned this offseason and target 2014-2015 as our next opportunity to contend. By then, hopefully we'll see Lindor, Naquin, Aguilar, Rodriguez, etc. along with some of the very nice young pitchers we have in A and A+ right now.

I read several MLB team's forums and I swear the Indians forums are the only ones always talking about getting rid of our current best players EVERY year as soon as there is a little tailspin.

How about keeping guys around for awhile.

Shoot, why not trade Kipnis, Chisenall, Asdrubal and Santana for one legitimate star? Not!!!

Who are we going to get if we dump our best players? According to Antonni-whatever, we are going to get better from within. If we have all these great players in AAA - AA THEY WOULD ALREADY BE HERE! How many seasons of 100+ losses are you willing to take. As for me, I'm tired of waiting until next year. The one and ONLY way to make this team better is if Dopelan sells it to somebody else.

A complimentary pkayer wont even get us into the playoffs. We have a team full of those guys already. Chicago is the class of this division . Pitching, pen, vet hitters who can still do the job. It is just me being realistic. Selling now benefits this team next season and for years after. Trading for another utility guy means we missed an opp to get way more value for the guys we have that wont be here for more than another year. It is all stats. We need better whole players not half players for 2 months.

true. You cant win with league minumum contracts and home grown prospect. You need to sign impact players too. The dolans dont allow that, and that is why we never get the opportunity to be good. They dont give the team a chance.

I just can't see how you can really believe that Chicago is a clear cut favorite in this division. We've played pretty poorly for the entire month of June, yet we're still only a game and a half back in the race. This division is wide open. The White Sox have two great SP in Peavy and Sale, but the rest of their rotation is mediocre. Floyd, Humber, Danks, Axelrod, etc. None of them are any better than Tomlin, McAllister, Lowe.

And I know their offense has been good to this point, but to me I see a lot of guys playing over their heads. Maybe it'll last all year, but chances are it wont. Alex Rios has a batting average a good 30 points higher than his career average, and his slugging percentage is almost 60 points higher than his career. He's going to cool off as the season goes. Pierzinsky can probably keep his batting average up, but he's NEVER hit for this kind of power ever before in his career, and color me skeptical that a 35 year old catcher suddenly developed middle of the order power. That's going to cool off as the season goes. Even look at Konerko. The guy has always been a great hitter, but he's never been anywhere close to this good. He's hitting .336/.413/.556 but he has a career line of .284/.360/.502, and again we're talking about a 35 year old.

Like I said, it's possible that Rios, Konerko, and Pierzinsky all miraculously have by far the best year of their careers, that's certainly possible. Is it likely though? I just don't think so, not at their age.

Are you suggesting they may be getting some pharmaceutical assistance??

Not sure where you get the Sox as class of the division. I will remember you said that as the Tigs and the Tribe pass them by. At least one of us will pass the Sox and maybe even before the break.

Nah, I think they've just played above their heads for a half season. It happens all the time where a player or even a whole team will play above their head for a while...but in the game of baseball, veteran players with established track records almost ALWAYS regress toward what they've done for their entire career. The White Sox offense has survived on the shoulders of three players who have played considerably above their career norms, and we are not talking about young players entering their prime (like Asdrubal, Kipnis, etc.), we are talking about guys who are well into their 30's.