Baseball Playoffs at its Best.

As i think about what to write about the previous 2 games this Wednesday, I feel as upset as if the Indians were playing tonight about the rain delay at Yankees stadium. Its not because I have a soft spot for the Yankees like many think I do, but because there is simply nothing more exciting that watching playoff baseball in New York. From a TV perspective the atmosphere just cannot be emmulated. I remember the atmosphere during the Indians playoff runs in the 90's and it certainly was amazing, and it would be amazing to see how that compares to Yankees stadium in person. Jeters performance last night was simply amazing...he earns all the praise he recieves.

As for the previous two games, they both had two crazy plays that had effects on the outcome of the game. During the Twins/A's game Tori Hunter made an unexpected outfielder blunder that led to Kotsay hit a 2-run inside-the-park homerun. If Hunter hadnt dove at an uncatchable ball The A's coulda had 1st and 3rd and tied at 2-2 instead of being at 4-2.

In the Dodgers and Mets game the Dodgers ran themselves out of a atleast a run by getting two runners thrown out at first in the same inning. Jeff kent ran right through a stop sign and JD Drew didnt watch the play in front of him and possibly cost the Dodgers a chance at an extra run they desperately needed.

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Well the Yankees and Tigers played the afternoon game i desperalely wanted to see last night, and the Tigers pulled out a close game with some great pitching from the bullpen. Todd Jones pitched the 9th for the save, but if i was manager i would have loved to see Zumaya finish the game off because he was dominating the Yankee hitters and shoulda been there for the final inning.

Why the wait?

I went to the game on Friday and noticed that the Indians had recalled Ramon Vazquez. But what really caught my eye was that he was starting at third base the day after Boone's 3 error performance against the Yankees. It just seems to me that Shapiro is thinking Boone is all of a sudden outhit Marte by a wide margin sometime this season. Marte may have 18 errors in Buffalo, but Boone has yet to impress me defensively either. Three errors in one game shoulda been the hurdle Shapiro needed to use to call up Marte and do what is best for the club...release Aaron Boone.

Atleast the game on Friday was the one worth going to over the weekend with excellent performances from the offense (nice to see Guitierez get 3 hits) and the complete game shutout from Sabathia.

Some good things?

Despite Sabathia's disapointing performance (although his defense didn't help him whatsoever) put a damper on my mood of the Tribe, there still are some things to be hopeful for. It was great to see the Indians FINALLY send Johnson packing and call up Sowers. And with Marte starting to hit like everyone knew he could, lets hope to see Boone get the next ticket to Buffalo. It was nice to see the Indians call up Mujica because hes been nothing but phenominal in the Minors and our bullpen has been a problem all year.

More Indians Goodness

After that11-0 crushing loss to the WhiteSox things werent looking that good for the Tribe. But after a 4-3 win yesterday they followed it up with a 5-0 victory. The first time the Sox were shutout all year! Westbrook pitched like he did in 2004 and Grady continued to sizzle. A lot has been made of the big change in the Indians' defensive efficiency this year and it certainly is a concern. However, the defense hasn't had much of an effect on his performance when compared to last year. Westbrook is basically averaging the same numbers as last year, and the defense is much much worse this year. Therefore, the encouraging thing is if the Indians offense can get near the level they were last year Westbrook could fit nicely somewhere between 04 and 05.

Questions of the Week

The Tigers have lost their first two games against the Yankees in their current series.

Is it just 2 well played games by the Yankees or are the Tigers' pitchers finally starting to come down back to earth?

What recent rookie callups will have the biggest impact on their team? Jered Weaver of the Angels? Lastings Milledge of the Mets? Or Liriano of the Twins?

Of course it will depend upon how long each rookie stays on the major league team, but just to highly touted prospects to keep an eye on. Weaver will be facing the Indians this friday so I should be able to get a good look at him then. I think Liriano could have a great year, but the Twins might be so out of whack that very few will notice. However, atleast the Twins are being agressive with a prospect this time instead of babying many of their past prospects.

Questions of the Week

Last week i asked several questions about baseball and the sporting world....

Would Sabathia continue his strong performance? Yes, he pitched well against the Tigers only giving up 3 runs and striking out 10 in 8 innings.

Are the Detroit Pistons that much better than the Cavaliers?

Happily no where near it. Cavs have won 3 straight and look to close out the series tomorrow night.

Between the Reds and Tigers, which teams' starting pitching would fade first?

The Reds went 2-4 on the week, and their pitching certainly wasn't great, but in the games the pitching was good..they got very little if any run support. The Tigers haven't fallen off one bit and are tied with the Whitesox for first in the Central.

Next Monday i will have a new set of questions up to look at.

Payback is a ...

Last week when the Tribe got swept by the Royals, it seemed as like the Indians couldn't get any worse. Well, it got even a bit more worse after being swept by the Sox afterwards.

But after a losing streak of 6 games, the Indians responded by sweeping the Royals back to Kansas City. Hafner has started to really heat up, Sizemore has continued to get on base and hit with power. Blake has yet to cool down, and the Indians got good or decent starting pitching for 2 games, and got a complete game shutout from Westbrook Teusday night.

As the Pirates come to town, the Indians need to get these three games to make up for their recent struggles.

Another One

The Indians have been swept 2 consecutive series after losing 3-2 to the Tigers. The Indians led 1-0, until a critical defensive miscue by Eduardo Perez broke the door open for the Tigers to score 3 runs in the seventh. Jason Davis pitched well and Cabrerea pitched well after allowing his inherited runners to score.

Rafael Betancourt should come off the DL tomorrow, and I am not sure who would be sent down to replace him. Carmona, who was just called up to replace Graves, should be safe because I can't imagine the Indians' wanting to be jerking him around. I would find it fun to watch Carmona work on his game in the bullpen and eventually work his way back to the starter the Indians expect him to be.

Indians drop another.

Apparently, someone is taking the Tribe's losing streak pretty hard.

At Rick's Tribe Report yesterday, Rick made some comments about the Indians' 3-0 loss to the Tigers. Read his latest column and check out our discussion afterwards in the comments section.

For anyone that has read my posts on this site they would know I am an avid Indians fan. This losing streak is bothering me as much as anyone, but I still find time to point out some positives or still find some hope in a loss. Blaming Sizemore's baserunning yesterday is not an option in my opinion. The Indians' defense and inability to have good AB's against Bonderman were the issue.

Tribe Struggles Again

Another loss by the Tribe tonight, this time to the Tigers 5-4. Lee didn't have one of his best starts, but the bullpen looked a lot like last years atleast. The offense only scored four runs, but with the amount of runs we scored in the KC series and got nothing from it, you can't be upset at them for ONLY scoring 4 runs. Carmona was brought up after the Indians' finally released Graves, but they still intend to make him a starter in the future. A few years back the Twins did the same thing with Johan Santana, and we all know how succesful that turned out to be. I think a similar outcome is possible with Carmona, and it will be interesting to see.

Indians' Bullpen Needs Soon to be Adressed

I was going to comment on what kind of bullpen changes could possibly be made in the next couple of days, but Shapiro beat me to it.

As the Indians' open their series with Detroit later today I hope that with both Lee and Sabathia starting our current bullpen flaws can be put aside for atleast 2 games of the series.

Pitching spoils good offense

The Tribe lost a 2nd game in a row to the Royals. This time they lost 10-7, but they blew leads of 2-0, 4-2, and 6-4. Johnson, Graves, Sauerbeck, and Davis all contributed to the Royals looking like the RedSox. I don't have a lot of anaylsis in relation to the lost, but I can only guess how concerned Shapiro is with the pitching staff giving away as many games as they have already.

My guess is that Sowers might see some action relatively soon, because we need to stay within a reasonable range of the WhiteSox and Johnson and Byrd don't appear to be the answer. Im sure Boone and Michaels are a concern to Shapiro as well, but the offense is still way above average even with two starters struggling.

Productive Out?

I said last night I would find articles discussing the productive out, this link encompasses about every avenue you can imagine.

Indians failed after getting what they wanted...

In the 7th inning of the Tribe game last night they were trailing 4-2. Blake led off the inning with a double. Sizemore then got him to third. Right there most if you are thinking, Sizemore did his job and got Blake to third with one out. Because Michaels should have gotten him in the run in his at bat. Here lies the problem with this theory.

First of all, never is it just Sizemore or any other hitters job just to get a man to third when you are trailing by two runs. Sizemore is one of the leading OBP guys for the Indians. His job is always to get on base, period. The Indians have one of the best offenses in baseball, their job is to get guys on base as often as possible so Hafner and Martinez get as many as at bats as possible. Michaels lining out to first with Blake on first isn't poor execution. He got unlucky. He was trying to push a single to right and instead hit the ball too hard. However, you can't get mad at him for that, you want all of your hitters to hit line drives...it leads to the most hits.

The bottom of the seventh was finished by Paul Byrd which was mostly uneventful, but it was nice not to have to use the bullpen an extra inning.

In the eigth, Hafner led of with a double against Wood, Martinez flied out deep to left getting Hafner to third base. So same situation as last inning. One out and a man on third. At this point the Royals bring in Andy Sisco (L) to face Broussard, but the Indians counter with Perez who strikes out in the at bat. At this point most fans are thinking, thats 2 opportunities the Indians blew to score a run and possibly tie the game. As hard as it is not to be upset, let me tell you why you shouldnt be.

Their is no statistical proof that says a "productive out" exists. It's nothing more than a media created waste of on out. Basically if the batter didn't reach base..he failed. Its too late of an hour for me to research articles that prove what I am saying but I will find them later today and provide you links so you can make your own conclusions.

However, at this point in the game I told myself in the order for the Indians to win they need to do two things.
1. Get as many people on base as we can to possibly get through the top of our order and get Hafner and Martinez one more shot.
2. Keep the Royals at 4 runs.

Well the Indians did both of those things. In the 8th inning after Perez's strikeout, the Royals brought in their "closer" Burgos, who went on to walk Belliard before he stuck out Boone on a splitter. (Burgos hadn't thrown anything but a fastball for a strike, but Boone still swung at that crap down and low. ) Anyways with Belliard's walk you got close to what we wanted. We were guaranteed that Michaels would be up in the 9th inning.

Secondly, Cabrera came in and faced the minimum in the bottom of the 8th.

So we got what we wanted for the most part. We kept the game at 4-2, and we weren't too far from getting Hafner and Martinez one last opportunity to get us a win/tie. What happened in the ninth was almost picture perfect. Although Blake began the inning with an out, Sizemore followed with a solo HR. After a Michaels strikeout, Peralta set the table for Hafner with a single to left. Hafner then walked, leaving it up to Martinez who swung at the first pitch and popped foul to third. Almost got what we wanted.

We all know the Tribe lost 4-3 , but they did some positive things near the end of the game. I would have preferred Martinez to take a pitch or two seeing that Burgos didn't seem very confident against Hafner, but hopefully they will execute better tomorrow.

Questions of the Week

Every Monday I am going to start asking a few questions about the sports world, and I will answer them and give comments as they get answered.

Are we going to see the Sabathia we saw Sunday against the Mariners more often this year?
Meaning similar performances of 105 pitches and no walks through 8 innings.


Are the Pistons that much better than the Cavaliers? Or was it a combination of the extra days off/time to prepare, and the Cavs having a let down after their first playoff series win?
Basketball isn't my strong suit, but as a die-hard Cleveland fan I hope they make it a series.


Between the Reds and Tigers, what surprising MLB team's pitching is gonna fade first?


If you look at each teams expected W-L record (XWL) you can see that the Reds are overperforming their RS/RA ratio, while the Tigers are actually a game worse than expected based on those two components. Detroit has allowed the fewest runs in the league, I can't think of anyone who would actually think they could maintain that for another month, let alone the rest of the season.

Just some things catching my eye

When C.C. Sabathia went down with the abdominal injury on Opening Day the Indians called up Jason Davis to replace him on the roster. One thing bothered me about this when he was sent to the DL. And now it bothers me even more now that the Indians have announced that Fausto Carmona will be called upon to start this Saturday. Im assuming Davis was called up simply to be an emergency long man in case something happened to one of the starters, but if he was that ready to take the next available bullpen spot why keep Graves on the roster? By ready I mean ready to be a viable reliever in the bullpen instead of the tangle he was stuck in between starting and relieving. It seems the Indians have made a commitment to keep him strictly as a reliever, but having him sit on the bench for over a week isnt going to help him get better. Why not call up someone like Jason Dubois who doesn't have many chances left to show something, and only keep 11 pitchers? Since Buffalo is so close by, an emergency reliever could have easily made it to Cleveland for the following game.
Now don't get me wrong, the Indians start has been picture perfect other than this. The Offense has been amazing, and Cliff Lee keeps getting better and better. Carmona should be something to watch so make sure I find time to watch the game on Saturday against Detroit.

Glad i waited....

So last night was obviously not a good night for the Tribe. The bullpen was terrible, Sabathia hurt his abdomen, and we let the Whitesox hurt us like they did all last year.

Bullpen

On atleast two occasion the Indians' relievers walked the first two batters to start an inning and it came back to pay each and everytime. Hopefully it is just a fluke, but I can't imagine Graves having too many bad outings left before Wedge decides Andrew Brown is a better option.

Sabathia

You can't know for sure whether Sabathia's control was influenced by his injury, but I certainly hope so. C.C. isn't scheduled to start for another week, so the Indians can take their time to determine whether his stomach injury beckons an early visit to the D.L. Be grateful there is a day off for the Indians today because the bullpen is gonna need some rest.

WhiteSox

I really don't want to get into the whole "smartball" discussion because thats been done already. But it was impressive to see them be so successful getting guys in after they put them on (like all those walks.)

Interesting Article from BA

I was scrolling through my favorite blogs and found this very interesting article.
To me, most of the signings shown had results I expected. Anytime you sign a pitcher over 30 to a multi-year deal you are asking for trouble. The major reason I was glad the Indians didn't sign Kevin Millwood. Signing them to a one year deal is safe, but extended contracts for pitchers for small market teams are a no-no. Just look at A.J. Burnett, the BlueJays took a big risk signing him to the deal they did. He may be 28, so relatively younger than the pitchers in the study, but we are talking about a pithcer with a history of injuries.

The guys at Baseball Analysts always do a great job of giving sabermetric orienteted information, and they give great insight on college baseball and prospects. I would recommend adding their blog to your bookmarks.

Random thoughts...

-Nothing exciting really on the front for the Tribe. They've been fairly successful this spring. Not a whole to say until the first cuts when ST gets a little furthur in. I guess the good thing is that there arent any serious injuries or no shows. Marte and Garko have done pretty well respectively.

-Something I learned while reading yesterday was that the preconceived notion where walks/patience equivocates to power is wrong. Instead it is reversed. Power leads to walks. I can't link the article because its a Baseball Prospectus Premium article. However, if you have a subscription and have yet to see the article let me know. You might be thinking to yourself, why does power lead to walks...here's an excerpt

One stathead cliché is that walks produce power. Although there is an important relationship between the two, I believe it is actually the other way around: power produces walks. In the very rigorous, multivariate regressions that I’ve done as part of PECOTA, I have found that isolated power and batting average are both favorable predictors of walk rate, but the reverse isn’t true: walk rate doesn’t predict power.

The article had graphs and statistics showing what he believed to be true, and it is certainly something I will look into as the season begins.

Can't Get Enough

Yesterday, the Tribe lost to the Mets 6-3. However, Sizemore had almost a perfect day going 3-for-3 with a homerun, and 2 rbi's. Also, Garko and Marte both got a couple of hits as well.




After just receiving Baseball Prospectus's new book in the mail, along with the three other baseball books I have recieivd the past two months, I cannot wait to see how this upcoming season unfolds. This could possibly be Barry Bonds last chance to be baseball's all-time homerun leader. This could be the year where the Indians finally give Cleveland its first championship since before the SuperBowl Existed. What rookies will take center stage this year? Will managers learn to use their ace relievers when there is a jam in the seventh or eight innings? Or will they keep their best reliever on the pine while their third best reliever is going through the heart of the order with two men on in the seventh inning? There is a lot im looking forward to this season, and I hope it will make for some exciting comments and analysis.

Major leagues?

What is with MLB not having boxscores for the spring training games. Its not like they publish them an hour or two following the game, they dont publish them at all. Therefore , i am forced to visit ESPN or CBSSportsline's websites to get a boxscore. You cant tell me MLB wouldnt mind having the visits to their webpage having these boxscores would bring.

As for the Indians, a 6-3 lost to the Mets so far, I will talk more about the game later as I have yet to find a boxscore, and it wasnt on the radio today.

Undefeated in '06

There isnt much to say about the Tribe's opening ST win today because well it wasnt televised or on the radio. Talk about torture. Although, looking at the box score it seems Andrew Brown had a good start wtih 3ks in 2 innings.

Number 2 of my questions for the Indians is their starting pitching.
Paul Byrd: He certainly pitched well last year for the Angels, and if he can repeat it this year he will certainly be a better than average innings eater for the Tribe.
My concern is with Jason Johnson. Unless he can be better than Elarton was last year the Indians are probably gonna allow more runs than they did last year. This makes me think either Shapiro is expecting a better offense, or hoping Carmona makes a strong Spring Training push.

First Spring Training Game

With the Indians' first ST game coming tomorrow, there are a few things I will be looking for while they are in Florida and early on in the season.
1.) Will Boone and Broussard be on the team by the end of the season?
Grabbing Andy Marte from the RedSox for Coco Crisp was a great deal by Shapiro. They adressed a critical weakness in the farm system, and brought in one the best (if not the best) 3rd base prospects in the game. I just cant see Shapiro being happy with the production from the corners, and eventually something is gonna have to be done. How far is Garko from being ready at First base? Broussard has alot to prove this year, or he could run the same fate as Boone. Credit Shapiro for having other alternatives at first in case Broussard flops as well.

number 2 will be coming tomorrow.