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October 18, 2007
BY SEAN McADAM
Journal Sports Writer
CLEVELAND -- If the Indians beat the Red Sox for American League pennant, the World Series will feature two teams -- the Indians and Colorado Rockies -- who hardly qualify as big-market teams.
The Rockies are ranked 20th in payroll among baseball's 30 teams and the Indians are No. 22.
''What that says,'' said Indians general manager Mark Shapiro, ''is it's possible to win with a payroll in the bottom third. But for both Colorado and Cleveland, we also have to make good player development decisions, scout well, have a productive Latin American operations and make consistently good decisions.''
A handful of Indians -- Trot Nixon, David Delluci, Joe Borowski -- were free agent adidtions, but because of their small-market status, Shapiro said the Indians can't focus on the free agent market solely.
''Free agency is by nature inefficient,'' he said, ''because players are either declining in performance (by the time they're eligible) or we're competing for those players with big market teams who have more resources.
''To use free agency to supplement, or go where value lies or if we have one need -- that's fine. But we can't rely on it too much.''
Posted by Sean McAdam 
at 7:17 PM | Permalink
