White Sox @ Indians, 8/31/07

Well, it's official: we're a team of destiny.

I ask you -- I ASK YOU -- to explain Ryan Garko's hit in the 8th tonight in any other way. The Baseball Gods are smiling upon us, people. And they work in mysterious ways.

How else do you explain that Casey "I never come up big" Blake had the game winning hit? How do explain Aaron "I haven't pitched in days because no one has any faith in me" Fultz shutting the door? How else do you explain SIX walks by Carmona?

Let's go Oakland!

Twins @ Indians, 8/28/07

And suddenly we're winning again -- regularly, at that.

The Tigers lost tonight, which is big, since tomorrow we face Santana. This should be a good test to see if our offense is actually turning it around or not.

All the hype might be on Beckett/Clemens tomorrow night, but Santana/Sabathia is where it's at.

There's lots of speculation on who's going to make the Tribe's expanded roster. One name I haven't heard but that could be interesting is Scott Elarton (yes, Scott Elarton).

He has a 1.29 ERA in seven appearances over 14 innings so far for the Bisons. Considering he used to be a starter and he's had some sucess with the Indians, it will be interesting to see if he could fit in as a middle reliever, where we're sorely lacking.

God bless the Kansas City Royals.

Indians @ Royals, 8/26/07

Well, I still have concerns about our offensive, even if we did manage 5 runs today. But, as Rick Manning pointed out, we went 6-3 on that road trip, winning all three series. That's a good sign.

Now we need to get back to winning at home.

Who would have predicted that Asdrubal Cabrera would have been the big call-up for us? Not I.

I like the new batting order. I think Casey Blake performs better with less pressure on his shoulders.

We got good signs from Hafner today, too. It's not just that he got a big hit, but he drew two walks, which is something he needs to do. Granted, he also struck out twice, but I'll take what I can get at this point.

In come the Twins, having run five straight. Should be a big series.

Post-Series Wrap

Well, what did we learn this week?

We learned that Jake Westbrook -- when he's right -- is fantastic.

We learned that Joe Borowski owns stock in Rolaids.

We learned that our offense still exists, even if it's extremely shy.

We learned that Franklin Gutierrez is our every day right fielder (or should be).

And what SHOULD we have learned?

That Chris Gomez needs to get some starts at third.

Assuming we keep Cabrera at second, our infield batting AVG would be this:

Gomez: .303 (.333 with the Tribe)
Peralta: .274
Cabrera: .290
Garko: .307

That's pretty freaking good, and a VAST improvent over what we had. Or, if we're looking for defense, play Cabrera at short stop every once in a while and either move Gomez to second and plug in Casey or plug in Barfield.

Gomez has been great for us so far. I don't understand why we're not taking advantage of him more.

Indians @ Tigers, 8/22/07

I'm typing this up during the final game of the series. It's 0-0 heading into the sixth and Franklin Gutierrez just made a great catch. The general consensus after yesterday's game was that Gut should be the every day right fielder.

Oh, wait, that's been the general consensus FOR EVER.

While it was sad to see our pitching falter last night, the sheer amazement at seeing the Indians score runs (with two outs, nonetheless!) overshadowed that. Granted, we seem to be unable to string together hits again today, but this seems like a legitimate pitching duel so it's a bit more excusable.

We need to make Robertson throw more pitches, though. He just got out of the top of the sixth only throwing seven pitches.

Man, a win today would be a big, big deal.

Indians @ Tigers, 8/21/07

I could unleash on the pathetic showing the Tribe made tonight. I could talk about how it's not only painful to watch them lose, it's also incredibly boring. I could mention that the only upside to tonight's game (aside from yet another amazing outing by Carmona) was that it only lasted two hours.

Instead, I will make a suggestion.

Tomorrow, Kelly Shoppach will be in the line-up, catching, as he does, for Paul Byrd. I suggest that instead of playing Victor at 1st in place of Garko, we make Victor the DH in place of Hafner.

I also suggest that Gomez starts at third and that Gutierrez should never miss another start for the rest of the season.

That will change 1/3 of the line-up from tonight.

Something's got to give.

Indians @ Devil Rays, 8/19/07

Ah, there's the Tribe we've all grown to know and loathe lately. If I were C.C. Sabathia, I'd really be getting pissed off at this point.

The upside is that the Tigers lost, too. The downside is that the Tigers lost, too. So much for padding our lead.

Cabrera is definitely making a good argument to stay in the Majors. I have to wonder how that's working out for Ryan Garko. He and Barfield are roommates, so I wonder if it's weird for him to play with his replacement.

And how about Guterriez being moved to the two spot just days after I suggested it! I'm psychic. And he managed to move Lofton over in his first at bat. Hope that sticks.

Big series on Tuesday. Fingers crossed.

EDIT:

While I appreciate the desire to add a fifth starter who already has big league experience, I don't know how much that reasoning is going to hold up in the face of Aaron Laffey's performance since he was sent back down. He went six strong today, giving up one earned run and striking out five. Granted, he walked three, but he pitched around those, it would appear.

I know Cliff is making progress down there, but I think Sowers has made just a much progress over a longer period of time -- and Laffey has only gotten better. In the end, I think it might come down to money, as I can't imagine it's sitting too well having to pay Cliff Lee so much money to be a starter in Buffalo.

Indians @ Devil Ray, 8/18/07

Man, is it nice to have Jake back.

It's a thing of beauty to watch Jake Westbrook pitch when he's throwing like we know he can. He's just a smart pitcher. At one point he threw back at Carl Crawford on first something like three or four times and on the next pitch induced a double play. And the only reason the speedy Crawford wasn't able to break it up is because Jake kept him so close to first.

And, hey, nothing like playing the Devil Rays to get the offense going again.

I don't know how much it's helped the rest of the line-up, but clearly batting third works for Grady.

I stand my ground on Cabrera. I need more proof that he can hit at this level before I'm completely on board. I'd love for him to keep it up, though.

And the Tigers lost. So at the very least we'll still be in first when we head to Detroit next week.

Back On Track

That title is a reference to this blog, not the Indians. I wouldn't call a 2-1 win with double digits hits back on track so much. Although it does apply to Paul Byrd, who has done what he's done all year long, which is give us a chance to win. A tip of the hat to Byrdie for his 11th win.

Josh Barfield is out of the line-up again tonight. I understand that he's not hitting the ball, but I have to wonder about using Cabrera as his replacement. Everything I've read about Cabrera is that he's an amazing infielder, the best in the Tribe's system, but that no one knows if he'll be able to hit at the major league level. So why is he getting a test at such a crucial time, particularly when we have Chris Gomez on the bench -- a guy who's hitting .309?

I understand that Cabrera is the future, but is now the time to take that chance on him? Buffalo isn't that far away.

For that matter, someone is going to have to go down when the fifth starter is called up. Do we short our bullpen a reliever? It seems pretty clear that we'll hold on to five outfielders. The only other option is to move an infielder, which means Cabrera or Barfield.

And speaking of our fifth starter, everyone seem to be assuming it will be Cliff Lee who returns. But if you look at the numbers, Sowers has been better in Buffalo over the past month. But Aaron Laffey actually has the edge, as he's made one start in Buffalo since his return and went 8 innings giving up 2 earned runs. Going solely on numbers, Laffey deserves to return.

But I doubt that will happen. I have a feeling the front office really wants Lee to return no matter what, which is understandable considering what they're paying him. I'd be shocked if one of the other two didn't get a call up for the post-season, though.

The upside is that no matter who gets the call, they face the Royals.

There's been a lot of question lately as to who will lead off for the Tribe when Kenny Lofton isn't in the line-up (a possibility that will get less and less likely, I think). There is, as always, also some talk about Casey Blake not being the best guy in the #2 spot.

I have an odd answer to both questions: Franklin Gutierrez.

I'll admit that he strikes out WAY more than you want from a lead off guy, but let's remember who we had up there until recently. An argument could be made that he's the lead off guy of the future for the Tribe and the sooner we move him up in the order, the better off we'll be. So why not move him up to the second spot when Lofton is playing and the lead off spot when he's not?

Hey, if we're going to give Cabrera a tryout now, why not Gutierrez? At least we know he can hit.

Advice

I have some advice to give out.

1) When attempting to convince your ace to re-sign with the only team he's ever been with (and hopefully at a home town discount), try to actually win the games he starts, particularly when he dominates.

2) When playing in front of a capacity ground on a Tuesday night for the first time in a LONG time, try not to suck.

3) Put in players who can actually get the result that you need (aka know how to bunt).

4) If you have a pitcher who does historically awful in certain situations, don't use that pitcher in said situations.

Honestly, it's always bugged me to hear people bad mouth Wedge. I've defended him for as long as I can remember. But tonight was just ridiculous.

The best was the fact that Rick Manning basically went dead silent during Jhonny's at bat. You could just tell that he was BAFFLED by what was going on. You could practically hear him thinking to himself "this isn't how a major league baseball team plays -- this is unbelievable."

And it was. And we lost. Again.

Picking Up the Pieces

So what do you say about a series we lost by a collective score of 22-6?

I don't blame our rotation. Fausto and Jake both gave up four runs in their outings, but against an offense like that it's to be expected. Neither got any support from the offense.

And, honestly, did anyone expect us to get what we've got from Byrd so far? I've got no problems excusing the man for a bad outing against the Yankees.

Our bullpen, as always, is a different issue.

It's probably clear to everyone that Fultz is not back to form. Also, remember that we let Jason Stanford go outright instead of sending Mujica back down. How's that working out for us?

At least Mastny pitched well.

And then there's our offense.

Sweet jesus.

I realize that Wedge was given his extension because of the way he moved guys around in the first half of the season, the way he was able to keep the team on track despite injuries and the like. But this is the third year in a row where this team has fallen into a slump for an extended period of time. It's pretty clear that Wedge has no idea how to get them out of these slumps. This is the team we have and we need someone who can work with that.

The truly sad thing is that we're only a half game out. Hell, if Oakland can actually pull out a win tomorrow, we'll be even with the Tigers for a two game series in Cleveland and then we can see which team really does want the pennant the least.

It's not even fun to watch anymore.

Thank god we have a day off tomorrow. I don't know that I can take another day of this junk.

Indians @ Twins, 8/6/07

And that's how you do that.

What can you say about Paul Byrd? What is there to say?

I've always liked Byrd, even after his rather average year last season. I think veteran pitchers who don't have overpowering stuff are a Godsend in a rotation, particularly when they're fit in with young guys who have raw talent (C.C. and Fausto) or guys who are struggling (Westbrook). His ability and his knowledge can not be understated.

We even managed to score a few runs for him tonight. He said afterwards that he's been waiting to pitch a game like tonight to make up for all the games where he's depended upon the offense to get him the win. He wanted to return the favor. You have to love a guy like that.

As for the offense, we saw a couple of positive things. We saw Hafner hit (he got some good at bats in even before the homer). We saw Peralta hit all over AND deliver timely hitting. We saw Casey deliver timely hitting, even. We even saw a bunt single by the master of the bunt single, Kenny Lofton.

You know, I like Jason Michaels. He's taken advantage of his chances this season. Unfortunately, he's not able to do the little things that a player like Lofton can do to ignite an offense. I have to wonder if we'll start seeing the outfield we had tonight on a regular basis soon (that would be Goot in right as well).

All in all it was a great game for us. Let's not forget that the Twins are a good team. But let's also not forget that we beat Santana and still only came away with a split.

Big things need to come out of the next week.

Indians @ Twins, 8/5/07

Man, we suck.

If they gave out awards for getting players to second, we'd be great.

And yet again we waste a great start by one of our two aces.

I never thought we'd have to be worried about our offense, but this is just getting pathetic. Clearly, those two victories on Thursday and Friday were flukes and we're still in a slump. C'mon, people, Grady can only do so much!

What I think is the most ironic about this is that the only move we made at the trade deadline was to improve our offense. We made no moves to improve our bullpen, but guess what? In this series they've pitched 6 and 2/3 shut out innings, giving up all of TWO hits. Our bullpen's actually looking pretty good these days. And our starting pitching (with Jake stepping up and Laffey giving us a chance) looks better than it has all year.

We are THIS close to having the team we've wanted all year long...and our offense is dropping the ball.

As must be clear to everyone, it's the division or nothing from the Central this year. We are killing each other far too much for anyone to have the kind of record it will take to win the Wild Card.

We desperately need to salvage a split and hope to create some kind of momentum into Chicago because we are ridiculously lucky to be in first place -- and the Twins are playing like a team that smells blood in the water.

The Tigers are injured and reeling. Now is the time.

Stepping Up

People talk about how the great players step up to help their team out of a slump. Clearly, Grady Sizemore is a great player.

The performance Grady has unloaded the last two games has been amazing. Someone was going to have to take this team on their back to get it going again and he did just that. Just when you think he can't be any more impressive, he proves you wrong.

And, of course, let's not forget back to back pitching performances from Jake and C.C. While C.C. wasn't as sharp as normal, he still controlled the game. And while Jake got only his second win of the year, this was yet another step towards where he needs to be.

It's nice to be in first again.

That said, today should be interesting. Garza OWNED us last week, but we were definitely in a hitting slump then as well. Aaron Laffey is making his first start in the Majors, which should be interesting. Looking at the match-up in the rest of this story, I'd say this is the game we should be most concerned about.

How about that bullpen last night? Three innings of no-hit ball, one walk, three K's, and that's without using Perez.

Speaking of which, Kansas City dealt Dotel for Kyle Davies from Atlanta. Davies made his first start today, not just giving up A-Rod's 500 homer, but only lasting three innings and giving up five earned runs.

Yeah, that was a better deal than getting Ben Francisco.

West Coast Conundrum

I had today off. My conundrum? Whether or not to get up to watch the 9 AM Indians game or to sleep in. Given the events of the last week, my desire to watch the Tribe this morning was not exactly overwhelming.

But get up I did (albeit after the start) and I actually go to see a team that resembles the Tribe.

Not only did we get another good outing by Westbrook, but we got a team who actually had productive at bats. They didn't (all) try to swing for the fences every time up. We hit sacs. We hit singles. And we made things happen.

With both Detroit and Seattle off today (and the Yankees losing), we even made some headway.

Not perfect, but it was nice to see the turnaround. Hopefully this means Victor is out of his slump. Hopefully Garko can keep hitting. Hopefully Jhonny realizes that he can't step up there trying to hit a homerun every time. And hopefully a day off will get Pronk back on track (although that song is starting to get old).

Still -- good outing for Westbrook. We have nine guys in a line-up, but only one starting pitcher. I'll take a renewed Westbrook over lots of hits.

Although it would be nice to have both.