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by **Clevelander** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 7:15 pm

If Urbina does sign with the Indians, he will step into a bullpen hole that opened when Wickman strained a ligament in his right elbow last week.

Wickman's closer's job, however, has been given to David Riske, but Urbina will go into the backend mix with Jose Jimenez, Scott Stewart and Rafael Betancourt.

Since last season ended, Shapiro had made shoring up the Tribe's bullpen a priority. He signed Stewart and Jimenez as free agents, and he was counting on getting back the 34-year-old Wickman, who missed the '03 season after having Tommy John surgery.

In whatever bullpen role Urbina -- if he signs -- will have with the Indians, their bullpen will have an additional option in the late innings, where he has had a long, successful career.

http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/cle/news/cle_news.jsp?ymd=20040322&content_id=667216&vkey=spt2004news&fext=.jsp

granted i know a few will follow when and if he signs tomorrow prob. but this should resolve all the urbina solid closer role rumors...stick to riske....

by **Jonathan** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 7:31 pm

My favorite quote in this article is referring to Jason Stanford's outing yesterday. The sentence reads:
"He came on first baseman Javier Valentin's homer in the second."
This is an interesting quote because I saw that homer and it was nothing special.

by **KolbSaves** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 7:35 pm

So you're saying that they're bringing in Urbina for millions of dollars to be "somewhere in the mix" in the bullpen? There's no limit to the stupidity of the Indians if they brought this guy in to just take a bullpen spot and not close.

He will close.

by **9er Fan** » Tue Mar 23, 2004 7:41 pm

KolbSaves wrote:So you're saying that they're bringing in Urbina for millions of dollars to be "somewhere in the mix" in the bullpen? There's no limit to the stupidity of the Indians if they brought this guy in to just take a bullpen spot and not close.

He will close.

Agreed. If the Indians are spinning it this way, its probably in an effort not to lower Riske's confidence in case they don't end up getting Urbina.