The Indians unveil a new uniform, and it is good

The Cleveland Indians have unveiled a new road uniform, and I think it’s pretty spiffy. A gray version of that sweet home alternate they’ve been wearing for the past couple of years. The block lettering and the colors — that deep red and dark blue combo — looks classic without being consciously retro. Just a humdinger of a uniform in my view.

Only complaints: they’re taking the navy block C cap they’ve been wearing with the home alternates and making it the road alternate cap and are introducing a red home alternate version. While there’s a neat St. Louis Cardinals road navy vibe to it all, I think the red cap looks too much like some fashion color cap you’d see at Lids or something. I’d keep the navy block C for both versions.

Oh, and I’d make both alternate versions the full-time uniform, because they’re approximately 100 times cooler than the regular uniforms they’re keeping. Those things look so 90s now. Like pleated khaki pants and three-button suits. Oh well. Maybe they’re just doing a slow transition to the alternates over time and the script-lettering unis will be gone next year.

By the way: a couple of years ago over at my old Shysterball site I ran down the best and worst uniforms each team has ever worn. It was probably the most popular post I ever did back in the day, and I think it’s time for a refresher. It will take a bit of time to put it together, but I think I’ll drop that bad boy — probably on a division-by-division basis — sometime this week.

UPDATE: Quick! Someone get Paul over at The DiaTribe a consulting fee for those new roadies!

Yesterday free agent shortstop Troy Tulowitzki held a workout in California and representatives from at least eleven teams were on hand, reports Tim Brown of Yahoo. Among the clubs present: the Giants — who were said to have a “heavy presence,” including team president Farhan Zaidi and manager Bruce Bochy — the Angels, Red Sox, Cubs, Padres, White Sox, Orioles, Yankees, Phillies, Tigers and Pirates.

Your first reaction to that may be “Um, really? For Tulowitzki?” But a moment’s reflection makes it seem more sensible. We’re so tied up in thinking of a player through the filter of their contract and, when we’ve done that with Tulowitzki over the past several years, it has made him seem like an albatross given the $20 million+ a year he was earning to either not play or play rather poorly due to injuries.

It was just the contract that was the albatross, though, right? An almost free Tulowitzki — which he will be given that the Blue Jays are paying him $38 million over the next two seasons — is a different matter. If you sign him it’ll be for almost no real money and he stands a chance to be an average or maybe better-than-average shortstop, which is pretty darn valuable. You might even get one quirky late career return-to-near-glory season from him, in which case you’ve hit the lottery. If, however, as seems more likely, he just can’t get it done at all, you’re not out anything and you can cut him with little or no pain.

Eleven teams think he’s at least a look-see. I bet one of them will offer him a major league deal. Maybe more than one. He’ll probably have his pick of non-roster invites to spring training. I can’t see the downside to at least doing that much.

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