Ugh

Nice day in Cleveland Sports. The Cavs choke away a third chance at winning a game in Boston and get eliminated while the Indians end up getting swept in Cincinnati and the offense continues to show its true colors. This isn't a slump folks, this is the real thing - The Indians offense stinks. Pure and simple.

This starts from way back too. Trace this back to Eric Wedge's decision to cut Brandon Phillips for Ramon Vazquez four years ago. Watching Phillips destroy Tribe pitching all weekend was quite a sight. Wouldn't he look good in a Tribe uniform right now, playing gold glove defense, going 30-30, and giving this team some edge, which they sorely lack? This current roster SCREAMS for some help, and a guy like Phillips is just what they need. Blame Eric Wedge for being so pig-headed and kicking him off the team when he clearly was the better player. But the true blame goes to GM Mark Shapiro for going along with this decision and making the worst call of his career.

Back to the offense. David Dellucci batting third. CAN THIS PLEASE STOP!!!! My lord! How many more K's does one man have to have before being moved out of the spot he has no business being in. Double-D is now hitting a robust .224. with 4 HR's and 14 RBI. That's the kind of production you want out of your three-hole hitter isn't it? He is so lucky he hit that three-run homer off of Joba Chamberlain three weeks ago. That bought him a few weeks.

Everyone loves to stroke Grady Sizemore, but doesn't he deserve some flack for an average year at best thus far? He's only hitting .268. Saddest story of it all - he's got the third best batting average on the team behind Victor "still searching for his first HR" Martinez and Ben Francisco.

What about Franklin Gutierrez? What has happened to Franky G? .234 batting average and locked in a 4-26 slump while looking real bad doing so. Asdrubal Cabrera is still under .200. Actually, .180 to be exact. Ryan Garko's pinch hit single (he got thrown out trying to stretch it into a double) move him UP to .241. Pronk? He's "raking" at .228. Jhonny Peralta is hitting .225 and Fake is still Fake, a point higher at .226.

Andy Marte? What's he still doing here? I keep hearing "Shin-Soo Choo is coming back soon." Let me ask you this, was he really that good when he was around two years ago? He's a slap hitter. He'll get extensive run when he comes up, but is that going to help? Doubtful. Was it Charles Barkley or Bill Parcells who said "you are what you are?" Well that Tribe is a great pitching team with a sad sack offense that shows no signs of improvement.

The thing of it is, with their pitching, there is zero reason they shouldn't win the AL Central.