A Mess

Since the conclusion of Tuesday night's game, I've run the gamut of emotions. After the crushing HR by Crede, I sat there asking myself all the questions in the world:

• Is our weakness at 1B and RF going to be our ultimate downfall? Despite Blake's HR on Tuesday, those two positions have batted .235 with 2 RBI in the first 2 games, leaving a staggering 10 men on base (including Broussard leaving 6 on Monday). Throw in that 2B is 0 for 8 for the series and you see that everything is magnified in October...I mean September.

• Why is Wedge messing with the bullpen? All year long, all I've heard is how Wickman allows everyone to settle into their "role". Why then did Sauerbeck start the 8th on Monday and Howry pitched the 7th on Tuesday, while Rocky B-Court pitched the 8th?

• How much do I wish that Bobby Jenks pitched every game? This guy's going Donnie Moore on us. He is a basket case, blowing 2 saves in 2 nights. For comparison, the Robot (Howry) blew his first save in 70 odd games last night. Despite the fact that he's not the closer, that's incredible.

When I woke up and read the doom and gloom of the PD ("All is lost, let's turn our attention to the Browns"), I was on suicide watch. My shoelaces were taken out.

Then I realized something:
The Indians aren't going to win every game. This is a marathon, not a 100-yard dash. Losing one game to the White Sox isn't the end of the world. It's just the law of averages.

Confidence is still very high heading into the balance of the schedule, realizing that the Royals are still 4 of the last 12 games, while the Sox have the Twins to tangle with and the Yankees and Red Sox will finish their seasons beating each other up. The Indians magic number is 12, meaning that any combination of Tribe wins or Yankees losses to add up to 12 puts us in the playoffs.

I have a spy (the wife) in attendance tonight to put a hex on the Yankees. I just hope she makes it out of the Bronx in one piece. I told her to pull an Elaine Benes and wear an Orioles cap, and refuse to take it off. We both decided with the animals that call themselves Yankee fans liable to do anything, she'll just quietly root for the O's.

I'm hoping that these types of games don't continue and that we just roll everybody by a 10-2 margin for the rest of the year, but I realize that just isn't going to happen. In the meantime, I'm going to have to walk around like a zombie at work and try not to lie awake thinking about pinch runners until the alarm goes off.

Playoff baseball is in full swing, and I'm loving it!

1994 vs. 2005

Despite taking the series (2 of 3) from the Jays, the Tribe finds itself behind the Yankees, who took advantage of playing the Royals to stake a lead in the Wild Card. Interestingly, the A's have pulled ahead of the Angels, who were swept by the Rays in St. Pete, in the West. That's right, those same Rays, that the Tribe took 3 of 4 from, knocked the "mighty" Halos off of their perch in the AL West.

Elarton will lead the Tribe into the Jake tomorrow to face Jeremy Bonderman. I'm hoping that a crowd of more than 20,000 show up; we ARE in a playoff race at the end of August. I guess that taste of letting Sandy Alomar go is still bitter in a lot of mouths.

Speaking of Sandy, I was thinking about how this year's Tribe reminds me of the 1994 team, with young talent sparking the way to meaningful games late in the season (strike notwithstanding). This team, however, seems to be made up of more players that fit into the "Cleveland" profile of hard-workers, accessible players, and overachievers.

The teams of the late '90s had players that, while immensely talented, never embraced the city the way that Cleveland begged to be embraced, particularly after the Browns left. In addition to the obviousness surliness of Albert Belle, Kenny Lofton always carried himself with an arrogance (remember how he dropped his bat on home after ball 4?) that Cleveland fans believed was a "swagger" that set the tone. In fact, I think that most of those players were out for themselves and their stats while subscribing more readily to the old "25 players, 25 cabs" relationship, allowing their unbelievable talent to make up for shortcomings in chemistry. How many of those players were genuinely likable? Carlos Baerga was, as was Alvaro Espinoza. The argument can be made that Manny, Thome, and Omar were likable; or was it that we wanted SO badly to have that one true hero that we threw the mantle of "Cleveland's Best" on those three, in that order, until they ultimately left town for greener (pun intended) pastures.

Those teams were likable for the brand of baseball that they played (pummel opponents into submission) and because of the improbable 1995 season, when it seemed like they won every other game in the bottom of the 9th. That season is what truly captured the city's attention. You feared to miss a game, lest you miss Belle's bomb off of Lee Smith or Eckersley walking off the mound saying,"WOW" after Manny did what he does. The players became heros because of what they did individually, not how they played as a team.

The 2005 team, however, seems to have players that play well together, often conveying a chemistry that probably isn't seen too often in an MLB clubhouse. Between Victor's ridiculous handshakes, Grady's almost otherworldly confidence (not to be confused with Lofton's arrogance), and Pronk's quotability (he said that he finished in the top 10 academically in his high school class, later chiming in that it was a class of 8), I cannot help but root for this team.

Since 2001, I've been determined to live by the idea that you cheer for the name of the front of the uniform, not the back. As the end of the '90s showed, becoming emotionally attached to individual players only leads to resementment towards the modern professional athlete.

However, I'm on board of this talented group of players, who seem to play their guts out every game (to use a Butch Davis term), never giving up.

Let's look at this weekend. Grady had a straight steal of home with 2 strikes on the player with the 3rd highest Average in the AL! Hafner hit two MONSTER bombs! The Stick had 7 straight hits! Millwood responds to the fact that he gets ZERO run support by saying, what's he going to do cry about it? He'd rather have a beer.

How is this town NOT embracing this team?!?

Off of the soapbox, with Miller and Rhodes on the DL, the bullpen remains lights-out as Bobby Howry seems to have hit another level as a set-up man. Seeing as how Wickman, Howry, and Sauerbeck are the only relievers not under contract next year, I see the 2006 bullpen shaking out like this:
Howry, assuming we sign him to close
Riske
Rhodes (not a true match-up lefty)
Cabrera
Betancourt
Miller/Brown
A Match-Up LH (either a FA or Tallet, Stanford, Traber, etc.)

Now, assuming that Scott Elarton signs a deal with the team (he apparently realized after Colorado that being in a comfortable situation is more important to him than counting every last dollar, which Millwood and Boras will certainly do this off-season), the Tribe has 4 starters in line:
Lee
Westbrook
C.C.
Elarton
The fifth spot could go to a FA, though the names out there aren't going to set the Cuyahoga on fire, or giving Fausto Carmona a shot at the fifth spot, with more young stud starters (Sowers, Miller, etc.) in the pipeline. I'd like to see what Carmona could do, though I'd like to see it as an open competition to force him to earn a spot, as C.C. memorably did a few years back.

Who's noticeably absent from this list? Jason Davis, who I believe will be part of a trade to land either a 1B or RF for next year. I would guess a RF because Ryan Garko (the top 1B prospect) seems a lot closer to being major league ready than the outfield prospects (Gutierrez, Snyder, and Cooper, to a lesser degree). Davis is still young and has a live arm, but as has happened to Tallet, Traber, and Cruceta (claimed off of waivers by Seattle), more talented arms have emerged and staked their claims into figuring into the future of the organization, perhaps more than Jason Dangerously.

With all of the thoughts and options on my mind about next year, I'll touch on building through Free Agency (a la the Yankees and the Cardinals) vs. building from within (a la the A's and the Braves) in the next post.

In the meantime, if you're anywhere near the Jake in the next three days, head to the game. I'll be there on Wednesday, which coincidentally is my anniversary. The Bride's comment after sweeping the Orioles, "If they're hot when they get back to town, we'll skip dinner and hit the game". That date will also be the year anniversary of the 22-0 drubbing of the Yankees in the Bronx.

Damn Yankees

Why is it that it's much more painful to watch Yankees cross home plate more so than any other team? I cringe every time I see anybody in that lineup (which is truly incredible) trot up to the box. It's funny though how to Indians' fans this is one of our big "rivalries", while to the Yankees, this is like a series against the Royals.

Who is the Indians big rival? The Twins? The White Sox? Let me know what you think.

I was at a wedding last night, where I had a conversation with a guy who thinks that the Indians are on the cusp of being a great team. The way that they play the "elite" of the AL (Chicago, Twins, Yankees, Red Sox) shows that they're close, but not there yet. The always play those teams tough, but always seem to get eked out in the end (usually in one-run games).

What is VERY encouraging is the fact that they beat up on bad teams. Looking at their second half schedule (as has been noted by ESPN's Buster Olney), the Tribe faces Kansas City, Tampa Bay, and Seattle 31 times in their last 74 games! One can only hope while the AL East beats each other up, the Indians can quietly take care of business against the dregs of the AL.

I don't want to dwell too much on the Yankees series, but I did have a lousy husband moment over the weekend (due to Tribe Fever). Between the wedding and the reception, I forced my bride to sit in a smoky, hole-in-the-wall bar to catch the game, then sit in the car in the parking lot outside the reception until the end of an inning.

It was reminiscent of the Simpsons episode when Homer sues the Seafood Restaurant on their "All You Can Eat" Policy. What reminded me of the situation is Marge on the stand, testifying that after being kicked out of the restaurant, Homer had taken her to the dock to go fishing. As we sat with the Saturday afternoon crowd at this awful bar, pounding down Miller Lites, I felt a little like Homer at the end of the dock, fishing pole in hand.

Pending the result of today's game (it's currently 6-3 bad guys), it looks like the Tribe will hit the All Star Break at 47-41, just as I had hoped for (after going 8-7 in the last 15) on June 26th. Though the record certainly could've been higher, considering the way they started in Boston and Baltimore, I'm pleased with the record. This team needs the break too.

Watching Brandon Phillips last night reminded me why I didn't like him the last time he was up. He's cocky with no real good reason to be cocky. He was hitting .250 in Buffalo, yet walks around the dugout like a first-ballot Hall of Famer. I have no problem using him as trade bait (to the Reds, who need a 2B?) as part of a package. I'll take Jhonny P., with his even demeanor and solid, if unspectacular, play any day over B-Phil. Is Peralta the second best hitter on this team?

The suspension of Rocky Betancourt should surprise nobody. How a former SS, cut by the Red Sox, suddenly pulls off a mid-90s fastball is eerily reminiscent of the Juan Rincon "Rags to Riches" story. I still hope that Rocky is a part of the pen, but Shapiro's written statement didn't sound like he was too happy with the Rock. The pen in Buffalo is stacked (with Cabrera, since called up, Tadano, Robbins, Diaz, and even Cruceta and Brown) and all are a quick trip westbound on I-90 from helping out the parent club.

I'll work up some statistical analysis for the All Star Break, along with getting up an updated Depth Chart.

Ohio is, Apparently, Ours

The Tribe completed a series win against those lowly Reds today to move to 39-34 heading into a tough stretch of games (Boston, Baltimore, NY) before the All Star Break (with at home series vs. Detroit mixed in). The Tribe used the homestand to its favor moving to within 1 1/2 games of the Twins and staying in the midst of the Wild Card (though it still isn't even the All Star Break).

I heard something on the radio the other day that I thought was interesting. They were talking about how 2005 was the target year when the rebuilding project began. A caller said that this is a farce because of the way the White Sox are running away with the Central. But, let's look at where the team is, almost to the halfway point: 5 games over .500. Nobody said that the Indians were going to win the World Series in 2005, just that they would be in contention, and that's exactly where they are. The Indians can't control that the White Sox are on fire, they can't make other teams beat the White Sox. They can only control the games that they play, and recently, have been doing a great job at it. I'm cautiously optimistic about this East Coast trip. I think they will win one of the series against the AL East, but not get swept in any of the series. I'd like to see them go 8-7 leading up to the All Star Break, which would leave them at 47-41 to start the second half. I'd take that.

Some thoughts over the weekend:

• Is there a difference between what Alex Cora is doing for us and what Brandon Phillips could do for us? Cora can't seem to hit but seems to play good defense when called upon. I realize the argument is to have a veteran to help out Peralta, but Phillips seems to have finally turned a corner in Buffalo (named to the IL All Star Team).
• With so many teams looking for relievers and Fernando Cabrera tearing it up in Buffalo, is anyone expendable? What about moving Howry (who's a FA after this year), and bumping Riske into the Howry role, Betancourt into the Riske role, and Cabrera into the Betancourt role? If Cabrera continues to dominate at the ML level, you move him accordingly in the pen. I know that you're not supposed to mess with a good thing, but Cabrera is becoming impossible to ignore.
• Couldn't Casey Blake fill the Jose Hernandez role (1B, 3B, occasional OF) better than Hernandez. The 2 HR night notwithstanding, Hernandez does nothing for me on this team.
• With all of those thoughts, what is the problem with moving 2 of those guys for a RH stick (Kearns) or even throwing in a AAA starter (Cruceta, or even Tallet/Traber) to get a Wily Mo Pena? RF needs to become a productive position, and its not happening with the Gerut/Blake platoon.
• Other possible trade partners could be the Dodgers (they would love Howry, but have little to offer), the Rangers (who would eat up Cruceta or Traber/Tallet, but again have only Kevin Mench to offer) or the Orioles.
• I would like to see Moises Alou added to this lineup (we can black out the 1997 Series from our memory banks, if we haven't already), but I don't know what the Giants would want.
• Nice to see a sellout on Saturday. A 12-7 game in front of 42,000? Did Assenmacher pitch?

As you can see, I've taken a much more optimistic approach to the season. After a conversation with a non-Clevelander who goes to a lot of games (my bride), I realized that I was getting too high and too low as each game was played.

After Thursday's game I was told that, "It's a long season, and it's not even July. The Red Sox are World Champs for a reason, they were better than anyone last year. The Tribe played 2 close games against them and you come home, freak out, say that everyone stinks, and that Hernandez couldn't play in a rec league softball game (I'll stand behind that comment). Just relax. That's what's wrong with Cleveland fans, you WAIT for things to go bad almost like you want them to, rather than focusing on the positive and just saying, 'Oh, well that was a great game. We'll get 'em next time'."

Good advice.

Tribe Record on the homestand with me there: 1-4

Tribe Record on the homestand without me there: 7-0

Anybody want seats in the Mezzanine for the rest of the year?

What Have I Done?

After witnessing all 4 games of the current 4 game losing streak, I am seriously banned from the Jake for a while. I was so upset at my role in the losses, I spent the drive home figuring out what I have been doing differently or what I can do to change the luck. The decision was made that the new belt that I had gotten last Sunday and had worn to all the games was the culprit. As I held the belt over the trash can last night, I said, "what the hell am I doing?" Had I become that superstitious that I truly think that I can change the outcome of the game?

I wondered where this philosophy could have come from. It couldn't be those countless Browns games when nobody could change seats if the Browns were winning and HAD to change seats after an interception or a fumble, could it? During the Browns-Jets OT playoff game, my father didn't let my friend's mother (who was at the house watching the game) leave our downstairs bathroom for the whole OT, because "it would ruin the momentum that we had going". In retrospect, how insane is that? But it made perfect sense to everyone there at the time. During the Tribe-BoSox Game 5 in 1999, me and my buddy C-Badd changed seats 3 times during Pedro's pitching performance to see if we could "change things up a little bit". My buddy Dozer's family are big Illinois fans and he said they switched seats over 10 times during the Final Four games. Maybe it just makes us feel like we're doing our part to bring home the W.

I think that in Cleveland (where the only "luck" we've ever had is bad), it's amplified. I hear conversations of people that say that LeBron is certain to leave, but maybe if they get a LeBron jersey, it'll change the mojo to make him stay. As if, one Saturday as the cashier is bagging a 23 jersey in Great Northern, LeBron (sitting at home in Bath) will have this revelation come over him that he should stay in Cleveland. It's such an insane premise, but normal, intelligent people subscribe to these superstitions every single day.

I remember this one TV movie when I was a kid called Tiger Town, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086439/, with Roy Scheider (the guy from Jaws), with the premise being that this little kid's favorite player was this washed up vet (Scheider). When the kid went to the games, and prayed real hard when Billy Young (Scheider) came up, Young would always go yard. The movie ends with the player finding out about it, and the kid not making it to the big playoff game in time, but the player hits a homer to win it at the end, without the kid's help.

It's a ridiculous movie, but there I was, about 7 years old, whenever the Tribe was up at old Municipal, head in my hands, deep in prayer. Never worked for the Indians teams of those days though.

What's wrong with us?

On a Tribe note: Let's be patient and see how they close out the homestand. They should've touched Milton up for a ton more runs and it should not have been that close at the end. There is no production coming from the corners.

On a Cavs note: The draft is rapidly approaching, they've cut ties with Traylor and Harris (no argument here), reportedly almost traded Gooden for Kurt Thomas, and are trying to deal Jiri Welsch to get into the draft. One question: WHO'S MAKING THESE DECISIONS? Wouldn't it make sense to have someone in place WELL before the draft and the Free Agency period begins?

Interestingly, they showed on the scoreboard that yesterday were birthdays for George Vuckovich (remember how he always made his hat fall off?) and Doug "Special Delivery" Jones (what a horrible nickname).

I'll recount the conversation between me and my wife about what's wrong with Cleveland sports fans tomorrow. I promise to be nowhere near the Jake tonight.