Little by Little

Tough loss today for the Crooked Cap and the Tribe as they ran into a buzzsaw in Roy Halladay. Though it would be nice to rip off 10-12 in a row and get right into the thick of things in the Central, let's be a little more realistic. A VERY good sign is that the Indians have won 3 of their last 4 series, most against playoff caliber teams (MIN, LAA) while the team seems to be hitting its stride.

Interesting that the players getting hot and carrying this team recently are Coco, Sizemore, Jhonny, and Broussard. With the exception of Broussard (who has 2 years 33 days in the majors), all have less than 2 years ML experience. With the young guns seemingly adjusted to pitching, all we need is for The Stick and Pronk to find their strokes and we'll be rolling. The interesting thing is that these young guys seem to have said, "well, the veterans haven't exactly shown us the way, let's figure it out for ourselves."

The lineup is still in flux and the White Sox are still steamrolling through the AL, but my confidence is much higher than it was after the KC series.

With a work trip to Chicago this week in the works (where I will catch a White Sox game at the Cell on Tuesday, accompanied by a work associate from Minneapolis, who happened to coach Joe Mauer in Little League - so I should be up on our Central rivals), I thought that I should do a little comparison of players signed by the Tribe in the off-season, compared to players on their radar, who signed elsewhere. I've narrowed it down to a starter (Millwood), a closer (Wickman), and an outfield bat (should be Gonzalez, but I'll compare Sizemore and Ludwick to the FA crop, as they're the ones who have benefited from the Hamstring from Hell). Also, I'll take a look at Vizquel vs. Peralta. I won't get into your boy A. Boone.

Player W-L ERA WHIP BAA
Millwood 1-3 3.54 1.30 .313
Clement 4-0 3.06 1.40 .338
Lieber 5-2 3.31 1.18 .291

So, what does this tell us? Other than that the Tribe brass targeted the right FA pitchers, Millwood and his salary represent the best bargain. While both Clement and Lieber would be nice in the rotation, not a bad call by Shapiro.

Player S ERA WHIP BAA
Wickman 11 3.77 1.26 .310
Benitez 4 5.79 1.61 .366
Percival 3 3.65 1.14 .308
Hermanson 8 0.00 0.76 .222

Given that Benitez and Percival are both on the DL, not a bad call to take the Sticky One. Even though the appearances are wet and wild, hyperventilating seems to help him with the last 3 outs of the game.

Player BA HR RBI OPS
Sizemore .269 3 14 .724
Ludwick 200 3 4 .774
Alou .271 3 12 .865
Burnitz .287 6 21 .848

This is a tough one to call, though who really expected Juan Gone to play this year. Keep in mind that Grady is 22 and plays center field like he's covering a kick-off. Giving Sizemore at-bats is a plus for the maturation of this club. I could take or leave Ludwick.

Player BA HR RBI OPS Fielding
Peralta .268 5 10 .886 .950
Omar .283 0 14 .748 .983

Keep the Thome Rule in mind here (broken down early with a long-term contract) and I like the way that Jhonny has settled into the lineup. Omar was and is a great player, but Peralta still is only 22 years old, so I'll take the Honey P.

Call me the Eternal Optimist, but I think that the Tribe made some good choices. Sure there are better ones out there, or else they wouldn't be 10 games back in mid-May, but we have to be patient. Victor and Pronk haven't yet hit their strides and Boone HAS to start hitting (doesn't he?)

I'll see you in Comiskey on Tuesday night. I'll be the one encouraging the shirtless drunk onto the field.

Back on Track?

As has been noted in the comments section, it’s been a while since a post (I was waiting for something positive to happen), but after a long weekend in Milwaukee and a day at the Clinic, it is on.

Last night’s game kept me stressed after my bedtime as Wickman (as he always seems to) made it interesting until the very last strike. Wick striking out LeCroy to win the game was like Tiki Barber running over Ronde Barber at the goal line to win the game. Despite the win, the offense still baffles in its inability to get a clutch hit.

Westbrook looked tentative and worked slower than his normal frenetic pace at first, but hit his groove in the 6th and cruised. I hope that it’s a sign of things to come. With C.C. fully operational, the rest of the rotation needs to take his lead and go after it. We’ll see how Millwood looks tonight against the Twins.

Watching the Twins lineup last night got me worried. I think that they’re deeper and have better hitters than the Tribe. Maybe it’s the Tribe’s slow start, or the amazing fact that Mauer is 21 and Morneau is 24, but I’m officially getting worried. Combine that deep lineup with Santana, Radke, J.C. Romero (mini-Johan), and Joe Nathan, and the Indians are really going to have to get hot for a long period of time to turn it around (not to mention the Amazin' Sox).

While in Milwaukee, I hit a Brewers game vs. the Reds. Seeing a game in a domed stadium (the roof was closed) is a weird feeling. You feel like you’re at the IX Center. The sausage race was a pleasure (as usual) and they have PBR on tap (also a pleasure).

Also, while there, I spent one night at a local establishment that was full of plasma TV’s. The NBA Playoffs were on, but at the end of the game, they put on “Back to School” with Rodney Dangerfield on all of the screens (no sound). I glanced over when the better parts of the movie (Kinison, Robert Downey Jr. in full drug stage, Johnny from The Karate Kid as the rival diver) were on, but made sure to catch the final diving meet. As Dangerfield completed his famous dive, I scanned the bar to see if anyone else had just caught the classic moment. Some guy from across the bar saw me and mouthed “Triple Lindy”. I love it. When I mentioned to my brother-in-law the next day that the bar showed “Back to School”, the first thing he said was “Triple Lindy, right?”. Is there anything else like that, where everyone in the world immediately thinks the same thing about some obscure movie?