After several ho-hum offseasons, Cleveland Indians GM Mark Shapiro has finally made a kinda-sorta free agent splash by signing Keith Foulke to a one-year, $5 million deal, which will solve the team's closer issues provided he's healthy. Just keep him away from the Berea Training Facility of Doom (and Staph).
Though it's still mildly frustrating that the Indians are routinely out of the running for major free agent studs thanks to Larry Dolan's refusal/inability to inflate the payroll (which he can get away with now that attendance at the Jake has plummeted from top five in the majors to nearly the bottom five in 2006 as the city of Cleveland has once again become a football town), the lone difference between the very good 2005 team that collapsed in the last week of the season and the 2006 squad that finished six games below .500 in a brutally competitive Central Division was an effective bullpen. With Foulke, Joe Borowski, Roberto Hernandez and Aaron Fultz coming into the fold, this failing has been adequately addressed. While this goes against my hardened Cleveland sports fan cynicism, even if one of these signings is a bust, I think the Indians are a legitimate contender again. Sizemore's due for a monster year, Pronk will be Pronk and Andy Marte should begin to improve (hopefully rapidly) as he competes for a very attainable starting 3B slot.
And I hereby consign The Tribe to another year of .500 ball by clicking "post".
Addendum: Shapiro claims that Mark Mulder is still a possibility. Bring on the damaged goods!
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