Tag Archives: mike napoli

Indians

Indians sign Edwin Encarnacion, and I am dead I think

Leave a comment

dolanz

Heading into this winter, MLB Trade Rumors had Edwin Encarnacion ranked as the 2nd best free agent available, pitcher or hitter.

Yahoo Sports had him 2nd as well.

Jon Heyman of Fanrag Sports, who broke the news of the signing last night on Twitter, also had him 2nd.

Bleacher Report? 2nd.

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports? 2nd.

USA Today had him 1st.

And now the Cleveland Indians have him.

The deal is reportedly worth $60 million over 3 years, with a team option of $20 million for a fourth. That option carries a $5 million buyout if the Indians don’t exercise it, so the Dolans are guaranteed to be on the hook for at least $65 million for Encarnacion’s services.

For the only player in Major League Baseball that hit 30 or more home runs in each of the past 5 seasons, that doesn’t seem too expensive. For the Indians, it most certainly does.

Before last night, Jason Kipnis was the owner of the most expensive contract on the Indians books at $52.5 million. His is spread over 6 years, putting his average annual value at nearly $9 million.

Encarnacion’s AAV is $20 million. Or, in other words, the largest contract in franchise history.

Maybe it was the additional revenue the club made from its World Series run that convinced the Dolans it was time to open up the wallets for the first time since the Brohio incident. Maybe it’s the new minority owner ponying up some cash. Maybe the front office thinks this is our window and it’s time to go for it.

Who knows. And who cares. We’ve got one of the premier power hitters in all of baseball hitting cleanup now.

One thing we do know is that the Indians front office played this whole situation masterfully. Going back to last year when we brought Mike Napoli in on a one year deal, they knew there would be a saturated market for power hitters in 2016 and that they would have the chance to score big on someone like Encarnacion. They waited out the storm and everything shook out exactly like they predicted.

We’ll tell our grand children some day where we were and what we were doing when we saw the 14 characters that changed our lives forever.

What a difference a year makes. This was our Opening Day lineup in 2016:

2016lineup

Compared to what it potentially could be in 2017, barring any other additions:

2017lineup

I just can’t stop staring at it.

The free agent bat didn’t go to the Red Sox. Or Yankees. Or Dodgers. Or Giants.

He went to Cleveland.

I could get used to this.

KEEP THE CHIEF

Indians

The #PartyAtNapolis has found its way to Napoli’s bat, Andrew Miller

Leave a comment

Even with a couple more hours to go until the MLB Trade Deadline, it’s already been a huge 24 hours for the Cleveland Indians.

It’s been an even huger 24 hours for the #PartyAtNapolis.

First, our gracious host left the yard for the 24th time this season in the 3rd inning of an 8-0 rout of the Oakland Athletics yesterday afternoon.

Pretty cool. Even cooler if you take a look at the engraving on the bat he was using to hit it:

Then last night, when our new bullpen buzzsaw arrived to join the team in Cleveland, he immediately noticed the smell of Fireball, Copenhagen straight and ladies perfume:

Lace up the drinking boots, Andrew. It’s gonna be a bender till November.

#BenderTillNovember

PS Just noticed Nap’s header photo on Twitter is Dorn and Lou.

lou

Ask the man what he wants to make in 2017 then double it.

Indians

Jason Kipnis and Mike Napoli made a shrine to Jobu in the Indians locker room

Leave a comment

From Cleveland.com:

“CLEVELAND, Ohio – Jobu is back in the Indians’ locker room.

In the movie Major League, Indians fictional slugger Pedro Cerrano prayed to Jobu, his voodoo statue, so his bats could hit the curveball. It’s unclear what real Indians Jason Kipnis and Mike Napoli do in front of their Jobu shrine, but one has been built in the empty locker empty locker between them in the far corner of the Tribe’s clubhouse.

A sweater with a picture of Jobu and the inscription, “It is very bad to drink Jobu’s rum. Very bad,” hangs in the locker. The also contains two Jobu statues with small bottles of rum placed between them.

Napoli said his agent gave him one of the Jobu statues and the sweater in spring training. Kipnis recently added another Jobu statue to the shrine, that was recently constructed in the Progressive Field locker room.

“We’ve had Jobu there for a little bit,” said Kipnis, after Tuesday’s 6-0 victory over the Rays. “He’s been working. He didn’t like the first airport vodka we left him. So we tried Bacardi (rum) and that seems to be working.

“Right now it’s working so we’re not going to mess with what works.””

VODKA, Kip? We tried giving Jobu friggin vodka before rum? How’d you know he didn’t like it, you whiff a couple times that night or something? Ground balls take a couple rough hops? We’re lucky he didn’t burn the whole park to the damn ground. Messing with Jobu’s rum is a delicate dance that few have ever walked away from. To be 11 games over .500 and have a three game lead over the Royals after dumping a couple bottles of Kamchatka at Jobu’s feet AKA slapping him directly in his face, is nothing short of a miracle.

Don’t be surprised if he sends his regrets to the #PartyAtNapolis now.

Here’s a link to the sweater online.

sweater

Normally I wouldn’t advocate spending 65 bucks on something that has such a specific environment in which you can wear it, but hot damn would I look glorious standing at The Corner in this in October.

They also offer a Ricky Vaughn model.

 

KEEP THE CHIEF