Good For Wedge

Nothing seems to be working, so now Eric Wedge has gone to ripping a player directly, by name, to the media. Said Player: Rafael Betancourt. The best set up man in baseball in '07 has been the polar opposite this year and it is killing the Tribe the same way the lack of clutch hitting is.

Great stuff from Wedge:

"It's nothing I haven't said to him, or Carl [Willis, pitching coach] hasn't said to him, 100 times," said Wedge. "So I'm saying it to you. The bottom line is until he has enough trust and passion about throwing the ball inside, they're going to go out there and hit it.

"That ball was four or five inches off the plate with two strikes. Granted it was up a little bit, but Pierzynski just leaned over and punched it the other way. We've seen right-handers do it to him, we've seen left-handers do it to him."

The Realtor's Response:

"No, not really," said Betancourt, when asked if he's been throwing inside. "It's something they told me to do, I can't say I always pitch like that. When things go wrong, you have to change something. I have to do that . . . especially when you give up a hit like that."

"Maybe last year, no one asked me that question," said Betancourt. "All I have to do is pitch and do my job. If I have to pitch inside, I have to do it. If I have to pitch to the outside corner, I have to do it."

Betancourt is killing us. The guy who was so dominant last year has vanished. Why is it that every other year, the Tribe bullpen turns from Gold to Gas Can? The bottom line here is the Tribe bullpen blew a lead in as meaningful of a game in late May as you are going to find. This was a huge two game swing. The Indians now sit 5.5 games out of first place instead of 3.5. The bats actually rallied for a 5-3 lead thanks to Jhonny Peralta's team-high 11th pizza, yet Rafael Perez and The Realtor failed to do their jobs.

To make matters worse, the Tribe again had a shot to tie or win in the 9th. With runners on second and third and one out for their #3 and #4 hitters, nothing happened....again. Ben Francisco and Victor Martinez both popped out weakly.

To quote Yogi Berra "its getting late, real early." This team's lack of talent offensively and the bullpen struggles continue to waste the best starting pitching in the league. C.C. will be gone at the end of the year, most likely Paul Byrd will be as well. Pitching like this doesn't come around too often and when it does, you MUST capitalize. The Indians flat out aren't doing so.

Now comes word that prized prospect Adam Miller needs surgery on his finger and will most likely be out for the season, wasting another year of development. I'm starting to think this kid will never see his potential as injuries continue to derail him.

The season of dreams has turned into a nightmare.

Shapiro Is To Blame

Another night, another brutal close loss. The Indians find new ways to strand baserunners and now find themselves in a huge hole in the AL Central, five games back of the White Sox. The Tribe looks very soft and its best players just do not deliver in the clutch, they don't. And the guy to point the finger at is GM Mark Shapiro.

His counterpart with the White Sox made some very bold moves this offseason and knew he had to upgrade his club. Heck, Kenny Williams did that in 2006 even after his team won the World Series. Shapiro? This offseason he did squat! Baseball is a game that can fool you. Certain players have "career years" and as a GM you have to identify which of the crop has hit its ceiling. In 2006 the Detroit Tigers reached the World Series and Dave Dombrowski stuck with average players like Brandon Inge and Craig Monroe and it came back to haunt him the following season. This winter, Shapiro needed to address the LF and 3B spots and failed to. He did add a reliever in Masa Kobayashi, which was a nice manuever, but not enough to counter what Chicago did. With a bevy of arms in the system, you can't tell me Arizona would not have dealt the Tribe Carlos Quentin? Do you know what the D-Backs got for Quentin? A minor league FIRST BASEMAN!!! I think the Tribe leads the planet in First Base prospects.

Bottom line is Grady Sizemore is not a leadoff hitter and he still leads off. Victor Martinez is not a cleanup hitter, yet he hits fourth. Travis Hafner now says his shoulder hurts, so he is a waste of a roster spot on a team that only carries 24 players anyways (Andy Marte is 25th but Shappy is so scared to death to lose him for some reason so he is just stashed away in moth balls). Tribe got fat and sassy after getting to the ALCS and if you don't get better, you get worse. And that is where they are today thanks to Shapiro.

TGIB

Thank God It's Benny. Ben Francisco's arrival and subsequent insertion into the lineup every day is vital. This organization screwed up majorly by not having him in LF on opening day. Now Benny is swinging the bat in a big way and thank god for Number 12.

Benny was robbed of a HR by the umps on Friday, so what does he do on Saturday against the Rangers? He hits a no-doubt-about-it three run slice of heaven off Scott "Hello" Feldman to help pace the Tribe to a 5-2 win.

“It was nice to get it over the rail and make it no doubt,” said Francisco, who has hit safely in 14 of his last 18 games, going 23-for-62 (.371) with 11 RBI.
“We definitely needed a win,” Francisco continued. “They got the lead on us, but Cliff pitched great, we got some hits and came back."

When Victor comes back from his finger injury, Benny should be hitting 3rd, Martinez 4th and Travis Half-ner fifth. Period. End of story.

Stop Laughing Cuz It Aint Funny

Anyone catch last night's Tribe game? Another lackluster performance at the plate and this time the starting pitcher cannot hold the slim lead as the White Sox pound the Indians 7-2. That is now five straight losses and tonight Chicago goes for the back to back sweep. First the Reds and now the slo-pitch Sox. Who would bet against Chicago tonight? Seriously. The Tribe at-bats are feeble, I cannot recall the last time I saw a guy not named Francisco or Aubrey drive a baseball to the gap, and they seem to be okay with it.

Last night Victor Martinez kicked a bucket of sunflower seeds in the dugout and his foot got stuck. It became a comedy show in the dugout and guys were laughing. Fine. have some fun. But, what the beatwriters and reporters did not see was the laughing and smiling from the face of Grady Sizemore after the final out of the 8th inning when he and Francisco were running back to the dugout.

What is so funny Grady? You havin fun losin? Sizemore should be sprinting his 254 hitting ass into the dugout with no grin at all. This team lacks leadership on the field and if a guy like Trot Nixon was still around, I doubt he would have allowed for "the greatest player of our generation" to be hamming it up down 7-2 to a rival. Travis Hafner has taken some heat and well he should, but, it is time for the "great" Grady Sizemore to get his act together. His numbers have also been in decline the last couple of years and his weak ground outs to the right side and constant K's cannot keep happening. "Krady" has 38 strikeouts to his 43 hits! That is pathetic.

It is not funny. This division sucks. Get your act together and go win a ballgame or two. Shin Soo-Choo is hitting 353 at Buffalo and will be in the state of Ohio this weekend playing against Columbus. Hopefully soon he will be making the trek up I-71.

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.

Never Thought I'd Say This.....

Where's Joe Borowski when you need him?

All of a sudden the Indians have two issues - the on-going struggles offensively and now the inability to close out games. Rafael Betancourt wasn't the answer, Masa Kobayashi gave up the three-run pizza to Adam Dunn in his first real shot as closer yesterday, and the Tribe has lost two games in a row they probably should have won, both because of their bullpen.

JoBo cannot come back fast enough. Did I really just say that?

What's Eric Wedge to do? Stick with Masa until Borowski comes back and see what happens after that. If Jo-Blow returns to his old form, then Mark Shapiro has to look into dealing for the A's Huston Street, who is rumored to be available.

Then there's the offense, which seemingly hits homers or singles. Ben Francisco is by far and away the team's best and hottest hitter not named Victor Martinez. Don't besurprised to see hit hitting third for a while, though he is doing a nice job in the five hole. The David Dellucci in the third spot experiment has run its course needs to be put down for good. Once we get past this Interleague crap, here is the lineup I'd like to see:

1. Sizemore - no brainer
2. Peralta - seems to have taken a liking to this spot
3. Francisco - why? why not, nobody else is worthy of this spot right now.
4. Martinez - see Sizemore
5. Hafner - Maybe, just maybe, he is warming up a tad?
6. Garko - Righty to protect Pronk. I think he comes around soon.
7. DD/Gutierrez - Struggle city USA resides at #7
8. AC/Carroll - Boy, do our second basemen know how to hit!
9. Fake - Seems most comfortable and at his best here

Back Where We Belong

And Now.... Your.... First Place...... Cleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeveland Indiannnnnnnnnns!

The Tribe busts out the brooms at the Jake on Thursday with a 4-2 win over Oakland. Aaron Laffey continues to impress and the starting pitching has been off the hook. Cleveland completed a 6-1 homestand in which it allowed runs in just four of 64 innings. The starters went 6-0 with a 0.16 ERA and haven't allowed an earned run in 50 1/3 innings. Only "The Realtor" Rafael Betancourt has allowed an earned run over the last six games and unfortunately he has given up 4. He'll turn it around. Laffey goes 7 and gives up just the unearned run, which was actually his own throwing error (stupid MLB rule by the way). Jhonny Peralta with a homer and Benny Francisco adds three hits and an rbi. Tribe now up SIX, count em.. SIX games over heavy payrolled Detroit in the AL Central.

Meantime, Fox Sports's Ken Rosenthal is reporting that if Colorado continues to swan dive, the Rockies may look to deal Matt Holliday, who becomes a free agent after the 2009 season. Holliday is a Scott Boras client and will demand huge money in two years and the Rockies likely will not be able to pay him. Here is what Rosenthal writes in regards to possible teams that could trade for the 28 year old stud LF:

Among the clubs that could pursue Holliday:
Cleveland. The Indians need to inject offense. They might prefer to upgrade in their infield, but their production in both outfield corners is poor.

DCB's thoughts? GO GET HIM NOW SHAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!