Lazy Spoiler Sunday

With the Indians’ foot firmly entrenched on the throat of the White Sox’s playoff hopes, it’s time to pull out that Bryan Bullington jersey and cheer on Our Spoilers. What’s that, no Bullington jersey? All right, get that CC jersey out from the back of your closet (where it went when you never thought the opportunity to root for him would come up again) and cheer on those Brewers. If you can’t do it for me (lest anyone forget, The DiaBride is from Milwaukee), do it so the Indians get to choose the PTBNL in the Sabathia deal instead of the Brewers, as Hoynes has reported on numerous occasions.

Ironic that we’re cheering on the Hefty Lefty at the end of September to push his team into the playoffs, but only so we can get better player in return for him. What a wild year it’s been…

And with that, we’re off:
Terry Pluto has a little “what we learned this year” segment that basically echoes all the things he’s been writing for a few weeks/months now. The only real departure from his past columns is that it looks like he’s put down the Jeremy Sowers pom-poms and has given up hope that the 2006 Sowers is ever coming back.

Pluto’s former ABJ compatriot Shelly Ocker lays out what the Indians will be looking to do in the off-season in the sarcastic and condescending tone that we could only expect from the Shocker.

Anthony Castrovince recounts a funny moment from the Tribe locker room on Friday afternoon over at his blog:
The front page of today's Chicago Tribune sports section has the headshots of tonight's starting pitchers. When Scott Lewis took a look at it earlier, he remarked, "Man, did I get ugly." He made sure to make this comment within earshot of Jensen Lewis, whose picture was mistakenly used in place of Scott's.
Well played, young Scott.

Over at the LGT, Jay Levin posted a tremendous farewell to Yankee Stadium that seems apropos after the love fest that we were all subjected to last weekend. The title of it is “Cesspool Scheduled for Demolition”, so that should answer any questions you may have regarding the angle Mr. Levin took in the piece.

Also at the LGT, frequent contributor APV broke down the top hitters and pitchers in the Tribe organization, based purely on the highest numbers for statistical categories. It’s certainly not a “Top Prospect” list, but it’s interesting to see how the years of some of the names we’re becoming familiar with (Huff, LaPorta, Santana, etc.) look up against the rest of the farm.

Ken Rosenthal is looking for an apology from the Indians for him making the team (along with the Braves) his pick for the WS. The linked piece also has a nice backhanded comment about Chicago GM Ken Williams and his (as Rosenthal puts it) “bluster”.

Rosenthal also discloses his year-end voting, giving C.P. Lee his Cy Young vote, putting Grady 9th on his MVP submission, and slotting Lee behind Carlos Quentin in the AL Comeback Player of the Year. Notably, CC is omitted from his NL Cy Young vote, but puts the Hefty Lefty 4th in the NL MVP race (Manny is 6th). Oh, and not to say that these two players weren’t given enough of a chance in Cleveland (because both have been on multiple clubs since leaving the Tribe), but Rosenthal has Ryan Ludwick and Jody Gerut pegged with his #1 and #3 vote for NL Comeback Player of the Year.
You just never know with some of these guys…

Back to the topic of year-end awards, regardless of how arbitrary they generally end up, here’s where Jayson Stark’s ballot comes down. Stark has Lee receiving the Cy for his season and points out that the aCCe is tied for the league lead in shutouts for the season…that is tied for the lead in BOTH the AL and the NL.

Since I haven’t yet changed all of the links for the AAA affiliate moving to Columbus, here’s a piece from the Columbus Dispatch on why the Columbus Clippers should consider changing their name. The piece is a poor attempt at humor by someone who’s not a sports reporter for the Dispatch, verified by the fact that he settles on Sliders to play off of White Castle hamburgers (which, apparently, were first made in Ohio’s capital) and to tie in the Indians’ disgusting amalgamation of pink fur and yellow snot that they call their mascot.

Nevertheless, it would be pretty cool if the team was called something like the Buckeyes (as long as Ohio State didn’t object, which they would) as it is not without precedent. Even if the precedent is over 100 years old (there was also a Negro League team that went by the same name in 1921)…yeah, I’m pretty sure they could sell hats and jerseys in Columbus and throughout Ohio with the name “Buckeyes” on it.

The Buffalo News, by the way, has already transitioned to following the Metropolitans. I can only hope that the Dispatch provides the same terrific coverage of the AAA affiliate that Mike Harrington of the News did for many years, both in print and online.
EDIT - As noted in the comments section, here's Mike's latest piece from this morning on C.P. Lee and his take on Shapiro's recommendation to Omar Minaya regarding Buffalo as an affiliate.

Finally, on a topic that is (for some odd reason) very near and dear to my heart, ESPN The Magazine has decided to create a sort of Jukebox for players’ and their entrance music, which allows you to listen to all of the Tribe’s “walking” music.

Though he’s not a Tribesman anymore, CC’s warm-up song, by the way, is listed incorrectly as Rick Ro$$’s “Millionaire”. Actually, it’s Rick Ro$$’s “Billionaire”…not that anything should be taken from that title, right?

As long as the aCCe’s arm doesn’t fall off today (which would only set the stage for him to be hurt early next season in the first year of his eight year deal), it will be nice to see him attempt to put the ghosts of the end of 2007 to bed.
If only it would be in a Tribe uni…

All over about 4 PM today – it’s been a fun and wild ride and I’m sure I’ll be obsessing about the Tribe all off-season, so thanks for climbing aboard with me and stick around as the real work now begins for the Indians.

My eyes have been almost exclusively on 2009 since about the 4th of July…after today, the next game they play will finally be in 2009, that ubiquitous “next year”.