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.

No offense

No offense at all this week against chicago, sure we scored 4 runs tonight, but Contreras' earlier control problems should have led to more. It was nice to see Sizemore go yard, and hafner finally hit the ball hard at the end of the game, but what was Victor Martinez doing swining at the first pitch, after he just saw Hafner work the count and get a ptich he can take left-center to right center? Lets hope Martiniez is still just anxious from the new season.
I liked what I saw from Lee pitching wise, but his throw to first base tonight resembled little-league. We would have saved a run if he just would have ate it and held onto the ball.

First Week Finished

My observations from the Indians first week of baseball:

1.) Kevin Millwood certainly seems to be worth every penny we spent on him so far this season. If the Tribe could simply just score around three runs for him while he starts he probably be alot happier right now. Also, Westbrook had a great start and a horriffic start, so its too soon to see what kind of season he will have. Finally, Jason Davis had a great start tieing hs career high in K's with 7, while Cliff Lee bombed like he did during the 2nd half of last season.

2.) I am one of the many who expects the Indians offense to regress a little this year, but not this much. They have had some big innings, but there has already been a couple of games where the offense has been anemic (like Chicago's and yesterdays home openers), as well as the 11-2 routing we had as well.

3.) Finally, the bullpen has been great other than Wickman's explosion the 2nd game of the yr., and the bad game against Detroit. Betancourt, Rhodes, and Riske have been great.

So if the Indians can bump up their run scoring up a about 2-3 runs, and they get similar pitching they could atleast be 4-3 this week.

The New Florida

What is with all this rain in Florida? Doesn't mother nature understand the importance of getting ur baseball fix Spring Training provides us all?

There are certainly a lot of bloggers and baseball writes who are giving the Indians a decent chance to win the division this year. I certainly think its possible, but not without some amount of uncertainty. There are some factors I will keep an eye as Spring Training moves along and as we run into the beginning of the season here shortly.

1.) Will the Tribe's young hitters maintain their gaines from last year?
The young trio of Hafner, Martinez, and Broussard certainly impressed the Indians brass for a good amount of time the previous season, but the Tribe's offense will rely upon them mainting those types of perfomances. If they were to slide back to the mean a bit, that will put more pressure on the Tribe's pitching staff...

2.) Can the pitching staff keep it together for an entire season?
I think most of us can agree to assume that the Indians' bullpen should be alot more consistent than last year, and do they ever need it. Even if Wickman's age were to throw him out of the equation, I still think the bullpen is improved with Howry the entire year, Rhodes, Riske, and the rest returning ot the Tribe's bullpen. The starters are what worries me the most. Sure we added Millwood, who could possibly be a better-than-average innings eater, but his health will be a concern until he proves us all wrong. Sabathia had a couple of arm scares last season, and his injury in Spring Training certainly has to push us on the concerned side for him. However, I see Lee, Westbrook, and Elarton going both ways. Westbrook certainly had a breakout year last year, and the key will be to see if he can maintain that level of performance with such a low K/9 rate. Lee started the season off well last year, but seemed to tire as the season went along as his HR rate skyrocketed as the season came to an end. FInally, Elarton isnt the worst number 5 starter a team could as he could prove to be a sleeper this year for the Tribe's rotation.

Id love to see the Tribe's offense keep its ground, while the pitching staff allows about 100 fewer runs and see what happens. I think if that happens, the Indians will win another AL Central division title. It will be interesting to see if the Twins continue to just be happy to win the division, or get serious and start using their roster more efficiently and challenge the Tribe long past 2005.

Wickman's Back

What do you guys think of us resigning IWckman for a one yr deal? Me? I persoanlly felt he was the choice all along..i havent seen the money, but I knew the Indians wouldnt have signed him for more than on yr, and if hes healthy there is noone that much better out that that was available. Besides, Id rather see them use their money on a starter (preferably clement if they feel they can fix his mechanics.

Props for Todd

Check out this, I got my questioned answered at an awesome baseball website: (look for Todd from Cleveland

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/chat/chat.php?chatId=77

Almost a First Rate Weekend

What a weekend it was at Jacobs Field. We almost caught the Twins, there was a sellout, and most importantly, the Tribe is head deep in a playoff race. The race should get even more exciting with the Twins coming up this following weekend. Broussard's hitting had been phenominal, and he certainly isnt scared of having Josh Phelps around just in case. I read a great article today about the Indians and the playoff race: http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/disorder-in-the-house/

Winning when it counts

Wow, what a way to pull off the victory tonight! Lawton came through, Lee wasn't horrific, and the bullpen held the opponents scoreless! As most of you know this win puts the Tribe in second place in the Central Division, and hears hoping the White Sox never catch up.
Look for Josh Phelps to play either Sunday or Monday as he makes his Indians debut, I think Shapiro made a good trade because the Indians have so many guys like Crozier already in the system, why not take a flier on a Major League quality bat with some desperately needed Right handed pop. Not to mention it could become very vital to have him, if Martinez has to go on the DL. Laker playing everyday wont cut it, and Phelps has some experience behind the plate. So keep your eyes open for some roster moves the next couple of days.

White Sox here we come

With the White Sox losing yet another game to the Tigers tonight the Tribe has moved within 1.5 games back of the White Sox. If this keeps up, that Freddy Garcia trade is gonna look worse and worse, because it was a dumb move in the first place, and it will become even dumber if they continue to slide (although I know they have key injuries right now).
With Westbrook pitching later tonight, especially against the lowely Royals, things could really start getting interesting for Tribe fans.

Also, with the way Sizemore is playing, and Crisp has heated up...does anyone even remember Milton "Boardgame" Bradley?

What A weekend!

Not only was it exciting to see Grady Sizemore get called up period, he made a big contribution the this past weekends whomping of the Royals. I'll say another thing, Hafner and Martinez seem to have become everything the Indians' front office excpected them to be. It has been great to see this team contend for more than half a season.

Unfortunately, we are losing 13-2 right now to the Tigers (who we cant quite seem to beat this yr), and Cliff Lee has his second consecutive horrendous outing. Thank goodness we had great pitching over the weekend, especially Chad Durbin...Elarton better be out of the rotation or im gonna scream!

Second Half Start Anew

With the Indians second half beginning today In Seattle I could not be happier. Well first of all, they r playing Seattle (enough said). Secondly the bullpen finally seems to have all the pieces together, and if they can pitch they are capable of then we might surprise more more people. Secondly, the biggest things to watch in the second half besides the bullpen are as follows:
1.) How Tadano fairs in the rotation.
-its been no secret that Tadano's last few outings have been stellar, and if he can make our number 5 starter slot more than bearable, that would signifigantly help the pitching staff.
2.) Kepp an eye out for Gerut.
-After Jody Gerut's rookie year, many Indians fans would have been pretty excited about him, but this year he simply just been a decent right fielder with the bat..his defense is always good I might note though. If Jody can pick it up this half, it would certainly help the offense, and he better cause Ryan Ludwick is going to be taking some at-bats away this half..let alone even more will be needed when Sizemore gets called up.

Anyways, the second half is about to begin, its sad because we only have half the baseball season left, but whats great about it is the Indians games are still playing meaningful games this time of year.

Early Holiday BBQ

Wow, now that was as good a win tonight as any. An absolute great performance all around for the Indians. Tadano looked extremely impressive, and his strikeouts are a good sign of future success. It was good to see, because he can replace Elarton if he flops (which certianly would be a surprise to few), and if Sabathia is back and as good as he has been, our rotation should be even better than before, and if Elarton pitches decently, maybe we can make Tadano into the next Ramiro Mendoza type, which would really boost our bullpen. Another sweep of the Reds would certainty make this a great holiday weekend, and really put us in position to make a run after the ASB.

Going in Circles Part II

Well now our bullpen is back where it started, blowing leades or chances at wins again and again, and Riske is back as our closer.
The idea of a "closer" is just ridiculous, I would like to see Wedge put our best reliever (and I guess Riske is that right now) in high leverage situations for example:
1.) If the oppsoing team's heart of the order is up in the eight, put Riske in then, dont waste him on 7-8-9, in the ninth innning because with our bullpen, if we let someone else face an opposing teams heart of the order Riske wont ever get in the game...thats not an effective way to use your best reliever.
2.) Also, if our bullpen gets in a jam in a close game, in the sixth inning and Wedge is looking for someone to put in the game..put in your BEST reliever to get out of the jam, keep the game close, and pitch him in the next inning to hopefully give us a chance to tie or take the lead.