Not a Foregone Conclusion

After Jeremy Sowers’ impressive outing last night to avoid the series sweep in Kansas City (and hopefully get some momentum going into a big series in Motown), consider these numbers:
Jeremy Sowers – 9 games started
5 “Good Starts” – vs. CWS, LAA, MIN, BAL, KC
33 IP, 2.45 ERA, 1.12 WHIP

4 “Bad Starts” – vs. NYY, BAL, LAA, CIN
15.2 IP, 14.36 ERA, 2.43 WHIP

Cliff Lee – 5 games started
2 “Good Starts” – vs. LAA, CIN
15 IP, 1.80 ERA, 0.87 WHIP

3 “Bad Starts” – vs. TOR, OAK, KC
15.1 IP, 9.98 ERA, 2.02 WHIP

Essentially, you never know if you’re going to get Buddy Love or Professor Klump (or Professor Julius Kelp, it you’re a big Jerry Lewis fan) when these two take the hill, so it’s going to be up to the Indians’ deep thinkers to decide who the better option is to take the bump for the parent club every 5th day to give them a chance to win.

Throw into the mix that Cliff Lee retains an option (and that Wedge completely destroyed him in the post-game interviews on Wednesday night) and this whole “When Jake comes back, Sowers goes to Buffalo” thing could get a lot more interesting.

If Sowers strings together some solid starts and Lee can’t gain command of his pitches while coming out unprepared to start and “brain-cramping” in the field, it’s very possible that Lee is the one that gets the “wake-up call” on the ride to Buffalo. Of course, Sowers could put a few more “Bad Starts” on his stat sheet and make the fact that Lee has not shown any consistency a moot point.

“But Lee signed a long-term deal”, you say. True, but this year he’s scheduled to make $750,000 or about $400,000 more than Sowers. While it’s true that Lee is owed $12.25M through the end of 2009, if the Indians are truly serious about putting the best players on the field, regardless of salary, this could be interesting to watch as the two LHP with a penchant for fly balls stake their claim to what has become the 5th spot in the rotation.

Off to Wisconsin for the holiday weekend, where I’ll thankfully be able to see the Saturday game on FOX and the Sunday game on ESPN (unless ESPN decides to break in with coverage of Roger Clemens going to a New York steakhouse for dinner, then dissecting his ability to order food, cut food, eat, etc.).

Monday includes a trip to Miller Park to see the NL Central leaders, drink some Miller products, and watch some sausages run around.

The satellite office in Milwaukee should be set for a Lazy Sunday (and maybe Monday), but feel free to go nuts in the comments.