As the Cavs season is slated to begin this week I wanted to get something off my chest about Lebron James. As almost everyone around Cleveland knows, TBS' Craig Saiger interviewed Lebron James during an ALDS broadcast, because he was wearing a Yankees hat at a Cleveland Indians Division Series game. In the interview, Saiger discovered that James had been a Yankees fan since youth, and that was why he wore the Yankees hat.
Well a lot of Cleveland Sport fans took offense to James' interest in the Yankees, and felt he betrayed the city of Cleveland for cheering for team from New York. Some of the negative reactions have come in the ways of signs at Cavs' preseason games ripping James, individuals making shirts bashing James' like of the Yankees, and I've even heard some people say that they refused to go to Cavaliers' games because of James' preference.
I personally feel the negative reaction to James' preference is absolutely ridiculous. How DARE anyone in this town think they have the right to say who James can or can not cheer for on the baseball field. He's done more for the Cavaliers franchise and the city of Cleveland than anyone, and you want to get upset because he doesn't cheer for the Tribe? No one has the right to say James shouldn't cheer for the Yankees. Just because he plays for our favorite basketball team, doesn't mean his favorite baseball team has to be the same as yours.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
...
What a breakdown. Pitching went bad, fielding went bad, and we couldnt hit for crap the last 3 games. Bring on the Cavaliers..
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Byrd Escapes Predators?
Yesterday, Baseball Prospectus founder, Gary Huckabay, hosted an online chat that made this claim,
Anyways, Friday should be a fun night of baseball. Go Tribe!
Gary Huckabay: Thanks for stopping by, and enjoy the ceremonial feast upon the flesh of Paul Byrd.And after Paul Byrds escaped the Yankees potent offense with a pretty decent lead he had a very comical BP Unfiltered response. Im guessing because many Indians fans sent him an email saying how wrong he was (one of them was me ).
Anyways, Friday should be a fun night of baseball. Go Tribe!
Monday, October 08, 2007
Playoff Concerns
You know the one thing that bothered me the most in yesterday's loss to the Yankees wasn't how Westbrook pitched, or Trot Nixon's error, but Martinez's decision to throw to third base in the third inning when there was that grounder in front of home plate.
You cant' say, well Todd that only 1 run scored. I realize that part. However, what is the reason behind the decision to throw to third? Getting the out at first base gets you a 2nd out with just a man on third. Therefore, that would allow Garko to play off the bag and scoop up Damon's grounder and keep the score 3-0 going into the fourth. Obviously, Martinez can't know what Damon or the following Yankee hitters would do, but getting the 2nd out and still keeping the score 3-0 seemed like a no brainer to me.
Now don't get me wrong, Trot Nixon's outfield blunder pissed me off quite a bit, but the Indians never should have been in that problem in the first place. I simply don't feel comfortable with Fultz in there against the Yankees lineup. His control is not his strong suit, and the Yankee hitters either waited for a walk or a pitch near the middle of the plate to punish. At this point if the game is within reach I think you cant go with anyone other than Lewis, Perez, or Betancourt.
You cant' say, well Todd that only 1 run scored. I realize that part. However, what is the reason behind the decision to throw to third? Getting the out at first base gets you a 2nd out with just a man on third. Therefore, that would allow Garko to play off the bag and scoop up Damon's grounder and keep the score 3-0 going into the fourth. Obviously, Martinez can't know what Damon or the following Yankee hitters would do, but getting the 2nd out and still keeping the score 3-0 seemed like a no brainer to me.
Now don't get me wrong, Trot Nixon's outfield blunder pissed me off quite a bit, but the Indians never should have been in that problem in the first place. I simply don't feel comfortable with Fultz in there against the Yankees lineup. His control is not his strong suit, and the Yankee hitters either waited for a walk or a pitch near the middle of the plate to punish. At this point if the game is within reach I think you cant go with anyone other than Lewis, Perez, or Betancourt.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
A few points
- I am excited about the Tribe's more consistent offense facing the lack of real star starting power (except maybe besides the Angels) in the upcoming AL playoffs.
- Although the Browns got smoked this past Sunday, I find myself even more interested to find out if the recent quarterback derby will help make this upcoming game against the Bengals anymore competitive.
- I've recently fell in love with this great Football website.
- Baseball Prospectus just recently announced Basketball Prospectus. Although I am a little disappointed that it does not seem to be touching pro basketball, at least at the start. However, with their being recent discussions about how little baseball analysis there is left to do out there (not that I agree with that), it seems like continuing to expand the business into the other main stream sports makes sense. I know I am interested in learning about it.
- Finally, I will be putting up a post soon about the Tribe's playoffs chances, opponents, and how much Wedge can make or break our post season success.
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
JoBo is What?
Last night on Sportstime Ohio and on Indians.com they had polls asking who was the best closer in the AL central this year. The biased answer is JoBo, but the right answer is Joe Nathan. According to BPro's Pitcher's VORP page, Borowski is currently the Indians worst reliever on the roster. Frankly, I agree with them. I do not feel comfortable with:
First off, for any of you unfamiliar with what WXL or LEV mean, check out the definitions at Baseball Prospectus' Glossary.
If you look at the chart you can see that JoBo is used in the Indians highest leverage situations this year, but hes the worst reliever on the chart based up WXL. Now the Indians have had some worse relievers on the roster this year. Cabrera and Hernandez come to mind, but that is no excuse to be putting Borowski in with the game on the line. Luckily, for us Indians fans, when Wedge has been using Perez and Betancourt almost exclusively in the 7th and 8th innings they have been in high leverage situations and it hasn't really cost the Tribe this past week or two.
However, the way Wedge use this trio of relievers last night made me want to scream. He brought Perez in the face ONE batter in the seventh. Why not bring him back out there in the 8th and keep Betancourt ready if needed? If Perez goes through the eighth without any problems than that leaves Betancourt for the ninth. But, with the way the 7th and 8th worked with the way Wedge used them it left the 8th, 9th, and 1 hitters for JoBo in the 9th with a 6-3 lead. Easy save right? Of course not, JoBo instead gave up 2 runs and was left with a showdown with Morneau to decide the game. Not a situation I would ever want to be in again and expect to end up with a Tribe victory.
First off, for any of you unfamiliar with what WXL or LEV mean, check out the definitions at Baseball Prospectus' Glossary.
If you look at the chart you can see that JoBo is used in the Indians highest leverage situations this year, but hes the worst reliever on the chart based up WXL. Now the Indians have had some worse relievers on the roster this year. Cabrera and Hernandez come to mind, but that is no excuse to be putting Borowski in with the game on the line. Luckily, for us Indians fans, when Wedge has been using Perez and Betancourt almost exclusively in the 7th and 8th innings they have been in high leverage situations and it hasn't really cost the Tribe this past week or two.
However, the way Wedge use this trio of relievers last night made me want to scream. He brought Perez in the face ONE batter in the seventh. Why not bring him back out there in the 8th and keep Betancourt ready if needed? If Perez goes through the eighth without any problems than that leaves Betancourt for the ninth. But, with the way the 7th and 8th worked with the way Wedge used them it left the 8th, 9th, and 1 hitters for JoBo in the 9th with a 6-3 lead. Easy save right? Of course not, JoBo instead gave up 2 runs and was left with a showdown with Morneau to decide the game. Not a situation I would ever want to be in again and expect to end up with a Tribe victory.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Cold Weather can't slow Hot Tribe start.
I went to Friday and Saturdays games this weekend, and just finished watching today's game on tv. Here are some observations I saw from this weekend and thus far this season.
- On Friday Carmona's stuff was certainly there, but his lack of control is what led him to give up the home runs to Uribe and Dye. He had to come in with fastballs and they didn't miss em.
- Byrd seems to be an entirely different pitcher from last year. He has been mixing in a splitfinger this year that was really effective Saturday against the Sox. If he can continue to pitch just 75% of what hes show this year on a regular basis the Indians will have one filthy rotation.
-Borowoski started a bit shaky but has thrown strikes and been consistent as of late picking up his 5th save already. Saves really mean very little to me, but it the Indians haven't had a lot of late inning high leverage situations. There was one today, but C.C. Sabathia took care of that 8th inning himself.
-Im not quite sure what kind of opinion i have on wedge's bullpen usage thus far this season. To my recollection there hasn't been a whole lot of high leverage situations late in the game. The couple I recall were either created by the reliever himself ( Hernandez or Davis walking a few), or when Sabathia was still in the game. It will be interesting to see if the heart of the lineup is up with a guy or 2 on in the 8th for the opposition and who Wedge uses in that situation. Im gonna guess a mix between Fultz/Betancourt/Hernandez, but I hope he uses Borowski for the biggest part of the game.
- On Friday Carmona's stuff was certainly there, but his lack of control is what led him to give up the home runs to Uribe and Dye. He had to come in with fastballs and they didn't miss em.
- Byrd seems to be an entirely different pitcher from last year. He has been mixing in a splitfinger this year that was really effective Saturday against the Sox. If he can continue to pitch just 75% of what hes show this year on a regular basis the Indians will have one filthy rotation.
-Borowoski started a bit shaky but has thrown strikes and been consistent as of late picking up his 5th save already. Saves really mean very little to me, but it the Indians haven't had a lot of late inning high leverage situations. There was one today, but C.C. Sabathia took care of that 8th inning himself.
-Im not quite sure what kind of opinion i have on wedge's bullpen usage thus far this season. To my recollection there hasn't been a whole lot of high leverage situations late in the game. The couple I recall were either created by the reliever himself ( Hernandez or Davis walking a few), or when Sabathia was still in the game. It will be interesting to see if the heart of the lineup is up with a guy or 2 on in the 8th for the opposition and who Wedge uses in that situation. Im gonna guess a mix between Fultz/Betancourt/Hernandez, but I hope he uses Borowski for the biggest part of the game.
Friday, April 06, 2007
Snow Delays
Well I finally am home to watch an Indians game this week and we get a snow delay lol, thats NE Ohio for yah. But if they do get to continue on with the game the Indians are leading 4-0.
However, during the game Victor Martinez strained his squad running to first. The Indians have said he is day-to-day, but I would expect Victor not to see action until atleast the weather warms up a bit. Ill have to check with Will Carroll over at BP tomorrow to see if he has a better update.
While searching through the blogs i view daily Viva El Birdos gave this link which i though was a very interesting read.
The gentlemen in that discussion (Tango, N. Silver, MGL, etc are by far among my most respected performance analysts. Check it out.
However, during the game Victor Martinez strained his squad running to first. The Indians have said he is day-to-day, but I would expect Victor not to see action until atleast the weather warms up a bit. Ill have to check with Will Carroll over at BP tomorrow to see if he has a better update.
While searching through the blogs i view daily Viva El Birdos gave this link which i though was a very interesting read.
The gentlemen in that discussion (Tango, N. Silver, MGL, etc are by far among my most respected performance analysts. Check it out.
Monday, April 02, 2007
Just as expected
- The offense shined
- CC was good despite just getting over a bruised forearm
- The WhiteSox pitching isnt as good as last year, and the teams is getting old.
I expect more of the same Wednesday.
- CC was good despite just getting over a bruised forearm
- The WhiteSox pitching isnt as good as last year, and the teams is getting old.
I expect more of the same Wednesday.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Good and the Bad
First off, I just wanted to verbally thank the Twins for this. With a pitcher of Garza's ability you would have to think that regardless of what the Twins' think he needs to work on he'd be better than Ponson and/or Ramon Ortiz with or without AAA seasoning. Terry Ryan always seems to hang with the veteran choice longer than he should, and it seems he hasn't learned a thing from last years mess with Tony Batista.
The pitcher that beat out Garza for the 5th spot, Silva, had a horrific spring and struggled last year as well. Apparently the Twins see his track record and see Silva as having something left. Silva does have amazing control, but his lack of strikeouts mixed with him being very prone to the longball (38 hrs in only 188 IP last year) makes me think it should have been an easy choice for the Twins. But thats why the play the games. For the Tribe's sake I hope Silva is just slightly below average and makes the Twins take longer to realize their mistake and further themselves from the Tribe as we start the season.
3 more days...
The pitcher that beat out Garza for the 5th spot, Silva, had a horrific spring and struggled last year as well. Apparently the Twins see his track record and see Silva as having something left. Silva does have amazing control, but his lack of strikeouts mixed with him being very prone to the longball (38 hrs in only 188 IP last year) makes me think it should have been an easy choice for the Twins. But thats why the play the games. For the Tribe's sake I hope Silva is just slightly below average and makes the Twins take longer to realize their mistake and further themselves from the Tribe as we start the season.
3 more days...
Sunday, March 25, 2007
SuperStar worries
As i mentioned yesterday one of the topics I wanted to focus on was Sizemore, the leadoff spot in the Tribe's lineup , and whats gonna happen when Hafner's contract runs out.
My biggest concern is not for this year or the next, but right now the Indians have a huge lack of star potential as far as position players are concerned in the minor leagues. Baseball Prospectus doesn't show any potential upcoming offensive starts to take the place of when Hafner's contract runs out in 2008. Now the Indians obviously could attempt to resign him, but there are two problems that are associated with that. One is a 32 year old player with a "old-player" skillset is a big risk to take even if it is Hafner. So the Indians will have to decide whether or not they want to take a big risk with a big contract on Hafner, or try and fill that void with someone else. However, Hafner was one of the best offensive players in the league period...his VORP total of 79.7 compared with the likes of Howard and Pujols (both over 80) and he missed the last month of the season. So Shapiro will have a pretty big decision to make when Hafner's contract runs out.
Then lies the next problem, if Hafner goes, where will that missed offensive production come from? I think Sizemore's next couple of years could tell us what we will need. If Sizemore gets even a little bit more power you can envision him being a 3 or 4 hitter in the lineup, however then you need to find someone with a good OBP to top the lineup. Trevor Crowe possibly could have those qualities, but hes a centerfielder( a position we got locked down for quite some time) and unless he starts hitting for more power himself hes not gonna be suited for a corner.
However, if Sizemore's production stays the same then we will need someone with lightower power to take Hafner's spot in the lineup. Where the Indians will find it, I really don't know. It would be pretty easy if Marte turned into the superstar he was thought to be a couple years ago, but his production has yet to match those expectations in the majors.
My biggest concern is not for this year or the next, but right now the Indians have a huge lack of star potential as far as position players are concerned in the minor leagues. Baseball Prospectus doesn't show any potential upcoming offensive starts to take the place of when Hafner's contract runs out in 2008. Now the Indians obviously could attempt to resign him, but there are two problems that are associated with that. One is a 32 year old player with a "old-player" skillset is a big risk to take even if it is Hafner. So the Indians will have to decide whether or not they want to take a big risk with a big contract on Hafner, or try and fill that void with someone else. However, Hafner was one of the best offensive players in the league period...his VORP total of 79.7 compared with the likes of Howard and Pujols (both over 80) and he missed the last month of the season. So Shapiro will have a pretty big decision to make when Hafner's contract runs out.
Then lies the next problem, if Hafner goes, where will that missed offensive production come from? I think Sizemore's next couple of years could tell us what we will need. If Sizemore gets even a little bit more power you can envision him being a 3 or 4 hitter in the lineup, however then you need to find someone with a good OBP to top the lineup. Trevor Crowe possibly could have those qualities, but hes a centerfielder( a position we got locked down for quite some time) and unless he starts hitting for more power himself hes not gonna be suited for a corner.
However, if Sizemore's production stays the same then we will need someone with lightower power to take Hafner's spot in the lineup. Where the Indians will find it, I really don't know. It would be pretty easy if Marte turned into the superstar he was thought to be a couple years ago, but his production has yet to match those expectations in the majors.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Various Wahoo Concerns
This weekend I am going to be looking into a few Tribe concerns for the upcoming season and the ongoing future of our favorite baseball team.
One involves the Indians leadoff hitter "dilemma". If Grady's bat gets any better ( and if doesnt you wont hear any complaints from me) then we will hear even more suggestions/questions about moving Sizemore down to the third spot in the lineup. Do the Indians have a future answer for the leadoff hitter? Do they have one now? If Pronk leaves after his contract expires is moving Grady down inevitable? I'll let you know.
Some of the other concerns I will address are :
- Is Garko going to get a shot at platooning this year? He really doesn't have any upside, but is his bat good enough to stick this year?
- Who should we be rooting for to make this years bullpen?
- Will Eric Wedge still be the manager when the Indians make it to the World Series again?
Stop back later this weekend for answers.
One involves the Indians leadoff hitter "dilemma". If Grady's bat gets any better ( and if doesnt you wont hear any complaints from me) then we will hear even more suggestions/questions about moving Sizemore down to the third spot in the lineup. Do the Indians have a future answer for the leadoff hitter? Do they have one now? If Pronk leaves after his contract expires is moving Grady down inevitable? I'll let you know.
Some of the other concerns I will address are :
- Is Garko going to get a shot at platooning this year? He really doesn't have any upside, but is his bat good enough to stick this year?
- Who should we be rooting for to make this years bullpen?
- Will Eric Wedge still be the manager when the Indians make it to the World Series again?
Stop back later this weekend for answers.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
The Hiatus is Over.
When I first started this blog I was naive and thought that traffice would come easy. As time went on and the traffic never came, so did my desire to write. However, times have changed and now all i can really think about is writing about the Indians and baseball. So as the 2007 baseball season reaches its beginning, I attempt a new beginning at making this a successful blog.
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