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.