That was quick.

A four game winning streak before the break, a series win on the road after the break, and taking the first game of a three game series from the best team in baseball. Like Pavlov's dog, we all started salivating, visions of the triumphant return of Fausto Carmona, visions of continued great pitching performances from Paul Byrd, visions of the triumphant return of Victor Martinez, and, of course, the return to form of Rafael Perez. Oh, and don't forget that Masa struck out the side for the save. Have Tribe fans ever been so happy this season?

But a team that just swept the Red Sox isn't going to rollover and die. And 48 hours later, the Tribe had lost two straight, lost the series, and was now back to being 13 games back and 12 games under .500.

Ah, a cold bath of reality for all of us crazy Tribe fans.

So what do we do now? What should our next steps be?

Well, the most obvious is to deal Casey Blake, which seems to be in the works. As much as I've enjoyed watching Casey play lately, it's too little, too late for us. Let's try to get a few prospects in return.

Paul Byrd pitched great against the Angels, but he doesn't have many starts left before the trade deadline, so I don't know how much value he'll have on the market. You also have to wonder, if he's starting to turn a corner, would the Tribe think of bringing him back? I know he's been pretty bad so far this year, but if he can get back to where he was last year, he'd probably be a steal for a one year deal as a fifth starter. And it's pretty clear that we need the depth.

Then again, I suppose we could deal him and re-sign him again next year if he does turn it around.

Tom Mastny needs to be sent back down and I don't like his odds for next year.

The worst part of the Mastny meltdown was that our bullpen had seemed to turn a corner. Rafael Perez, Edward freaking Mujica, and Masa Kobayashi seemed to be working out great. But we quite obviously can't pitch them every day. But at least it's something to build on going forward.

As much as people are clamoring for the Tribe to spend a lot of money in the offseason, we all know it won't happen, not just because we're not that team, but also because we need bullpen help. Bullpen help is expensive. So if we're going to sign a reliever, chances are good we won't have the money to sign a bat. We're going to need our injured guys to come back strong.

I still like our chances for next year. I think we have a solid core. And the rest of the season should be interesting. We have these things to watch for:

1) Who will get traded and for whom?
2) Can Cliff Lee win the Cy Young?
3) Will Andy Marte step up?
4) Will Ryan Garko come back?
5) Will Aaron Laffey get back on track?
6) Will Fausto return to form?
7) Will Victor return to form?
8) Will Pronk return to form?
9) Is Mujica the real deal?
10) Can Masa close regularly?

There are more, of course, but those are the ones I'm watching for. I'd also like to see the Tribe at least hit .500 by the end of the year, but that might be asking a lot.

Why Baseball Is the Devil

A four game winning streak.

A decent outing from Jeremy Sowers.

Thirty-one runs in four games.

Great performance by the new 1-2-3 bullpen of Mujica, Perez, and Masa.

Ryan Garko hitting the ball.

Andy freaking Marte hitting the ball.

Cliff Lee named All-Star starter.

Grady Sizemore leading the AL in home runs.

Jhonny Peralta thriving in the 4 spot.

The possible return of Fausto Carmona.

Six more games against the White Sox this year, including the last weekend of the season.

You see what I'm getting at here, right?

The worst thing about baseball is that it makes you think insane things. It makes you sit around and day dream about an A-esque winning streak that would put the Indians back in contention, even though they currently sit 12 games under .500 and 13 games out of first place. And yet I look at that and I think "well, that's only 7 games they'd have to make up if they sweep the White Sox both times they play them." GAH!

Complain all you want, but injuries really have been the worst thing that happened to this team this year. It informs every other problem. Adam Miller would be in the bullpen by now if he were healthy, because they would need him there and they wouldn't need him in the rotation that was made up of Sabathia, Carmona, Westbrook, Lee, and Laffey, after they traded away Paul Byrd for prospects. David Dellucci would have followed Jason Michaels out the door with the arrival of Shin-Soo Choo because Franklin Gutierrez wouldn't have spent the first half of the season trying to swing through every pitch. Ryan Garko would be hitting like crazy because he wouldn't be doing that, either, both trying to make up for the loss of power because Pronk and Victor are no longer around.

Seriously, just imagine what this season would have been like without the injuries. Just imagine...

The Tribe has 13 games left in July. Let's say they can pick up 2 or 3 games in that span. And then they get Carmona back. Oh, and guess who comes back in the beginning of August? Victor Martinez, that's who.

And in theory we should have Pronk back by the beginning of September.

Crazy talk? Yep. But that's exactly what baseball will do to you.

Until we lose four straight when the season starts up again.

Here We Are Again

Ah, rebuilding, it seems like only yesterday...

Buster Olney had a column up on ESPN.com the other day making the case that the Tribe does not, in fact, have to rebuild completely, simply retool or "reload" as the saying goes these days. The assumption, of course, is that we'll have a core of players to build around, something we didn't have a few years back (or, we had them, they just weren't really that good yet).

It would seem that the core he's looking at would be Grady Sizemore and a healthy Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez. It's hard to see the forest from the trees when your "core" consists of three guys, two of whom are currently on the DL. But I understand the point.

One would have to assume that Asdrubal Cabrera is a part of that core, even if he is in Buffalo at the moment. I think he's proven himself down there, although is AVG has leveled off at the .320 range.

Oh, and a note on Cabrera. I've long maintained that he's hitting better in Buffalo because he has less pressure on him, probably a bogus belief considering how well he performed for the Tribe down the stretch last year. What HAS been different in Buffalo as opposed to Cleveland are these two things: he's playing short stop every day, and he's BATTING LEAD OFF.

You heard me.

Mull that one over. Cabrera is hitting lead off and doing a pretty good job of it.

Grady Sizemore leads the LEAGUE in homers.

The writing is on the wall, Wedge.

You also have to assume that at least ONE of our young outfielders will pan out, be it Ben Francisco or Shin Soo Choo. I'd like to see both of them do well, honestly, but we really do need more runs produced from those spots.

I shake my head at the bullpen. I have no idea what we're going to do there.

Our strength could, again, be our rotation. We'll go 1-3 with Carmona, Lee, and Laffey. If I have to sacrifice live chickens myself to make it happen, Adam Miller will be healthy and we'll finally see all that potential. That would leave us with Sowers in the #5 spot, a prospect that's only barely tolerable the way he's been throwing these days. Still, that's a pretty impressive rotation.

Now, for those complaining about the Sabathia trade along the lines that we didn't get enough in return, let's keep a few things in mind:

1) The Tribe was desperate to move him. We're out of the running, which means the most we have to look forward to at the end of the year is waving good-bye and getting two draft picks, neither of which would be very high in the first round.

2) No team in the Majors was going to give up Major League ready talent for a rental. And that's exactly what CC is.

3) We need to stock up our farm system again. We've gone to the well the last two years and it's time to keep things moving. We're a mid-market team -- we have to thrive on that.

As for what we got specifically, some people are complaining that our big catch, Matt LaPorta, is only hitting .288 (with 20 homers) in AA (in his first year, mind you, which means he's moved up the ranks pretty quickly already).

You think that's bad, at least we didn't take a guy hitting .258 with NO home runs in TWO seasons in advance single A! That would have been a horrible deal, particularly if we traded an ace to get him.

Oh, wait, we already got a guy like that for an ace. We got him for Bartolo Colon. His name is Grady Sizemore.

The lesson? Wait and see, people. Grady looked like chopped liver on paper when we made that trade.

I'd say he's doing pretty well these days.