Lazy Brady Sunday

In the midst of a positively splendid weekend on the North Coast (Joe Thomas AND Brady Quinn AND Eric Wright?!?), let’s head right into a Lazy Sunday that will not be too lazy at the Wigwam, considering it’s going to be 70 degrees and sunny and my backyard looks like the Amazon:

Paul Hoynes decides that it’s too early to judge the Barfield-Kouzmanoff deal. With 128 at-bats between them, that’s fairly obvious, no? He, of course, fails to mention that Barfield is getting to balls that Ronnie Belliard and Hector Luna couldn’t reach with Inspector Gadget’s arms.

Bud Shaw’s Sunday Spin provides it’s weekly proof that Shaw, among other PD writers, is incapable of adapting to the evolving sports writing medium. I’m not providing a link (that’s how pointless and unfunny it is, that I want no part of it), but it’s attempt to be “fresh”, “hip”, and “funny” to cozy up to that 18 to 34 demographic take a huge hit when one of the “jokes” (term used extremely loosely) involves Columbo, a show that debuted 36 years ago. Very pertinent, Bud…the Sunday readership’s bump HAS to be tied into the introduction of this column.

Resident curmudgeon Sheldon Ocker has found something else to complain about…platoons. He, apparently, didn’t have his “2nd shooter in the grassy knoll” piece done for press time.

Stephanie Storm has a nice minor-league synopsis, pointing out that 3B Wes Hodges (certainly a name to watch this year and going forward) has started out well for the Kinston Indians. Hodges was a 2nd round pick last year out of Georgia Tech who sat out all of last year rehabbing a stress fracture in his leg. He’s 22 and could move quickly through the organization if his line drive stroke plays well at his first few stops.

Jim Ingraham weighs in on the dichotomy of the Tribe being in 1st place, despite not playing their best baseball.

Andy Call believes the Indians have some roster shuffling to do with Cliff Lee and Andy Marte coming off injuries, leaving Carmona and the BLC (Big-League Choo to the uniformed) in limbo. I have to think that Carmona has a car rented for a trip East on I-90 back to Buffalo, but what’s wrong with keeping Choo in Cleveland while Marte figures out whatever he needs to in Buffalo? Blake has filled in admirably at 3B and Choo is playing well. Why mess with what seems to be working if Marte was clearly scuffling in the field and at the plate while with the parent club?

Finally, for some national perspective, Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune is on board with the idea that the Tribe has a legitimate chance at contention this year.

We’ll have to see what happens with the protested game yesterday (which was essentially akin to an umpire saying 3 innings after a ball hit the top of the fence that he had thought about it and changed his mind that it was a HR and not a 2B and would put a run up on the scoreboard…unprecedented), but the Indians are still sitting pretty.

Remember that the formula for success, broken down simply works like this:
Win 2 out of every 3 at home (win every series) to go 54-27
Play .500 ball on the road to go 40-41
Combine those records and you end up at 94-68

Sounds easy, right? Well, obviously it’s not or every team would follow the simple roadmap for making the playoffs.

On this Lazy Sunday, the Tribe sits at 7-3 at home and 6-5 on the road. It’s a simplistic way to follow the W-L record, but it also takes the roller-coaster ride mentality of living and dying with each game out of the equation.

Gotta go…my Brady Quinn Browns’ jersey just arrived.