Another Walk-Off Loss

The Tribe's brutal three-game series in Chicago concluded fittingly last night on Masa Kobayashi's first pitch in the bottom of the 10th inning. When the ball finally landed in the bleachers in left center field, the White Sox were again dancing on the field and the few Indians left sitting in the dugout were probably wondering how many more games were left in this miserable season. The bright spot for me is that we are so buried now that I don't really concern myself with the outcome of these games anymore. I used to get pissed - now I'm just indifferent. It makes me wonder how many players on the roster feel the same way about this season...

The White Sox are surely sad to see the Indians leave town

This is now five straight losses for the defending AL Central champs. They find themselves a full game behind Kansas City for sole possession of last place (if anyone still cares out there). At this point I'm hoping that a little pride will kick in. At least enough to stay out of last place for the duration of this season. Grady Sizemore did add two more homers last night... of course they were both solo shots, but now I'm just nitpicking. Today's off-day will likely be a big one for the team, with the front office and manager discussing plans for the rest of the season.

I think I've made my ideas sort of well-known here about the current state of the Tribe. But here's what I would lay out today if I were part of those meetings:

1) Move Jhonny Peralta to third base... it's more likely his natural position now with his lack of range at shortstop.
2) Bring back Asdrubal Cabrera and plug him in at shortstop. This is also his natural position and with the season already over there will be less pressure on him to hit in the big leagues. Time to see what the future holds at shortstop.
3) This obviously means that Casey Blake needs to be traded. He is a free agent at the end of the year and likely not in the team's long-term plans. He's a great guy and I appreciate everything he's done for this team. He can help a team in the playoff hunt and I think he would bring back a prospect or two in a trade, especially given his versatility (he can play basically any position).
4) Other players I'd look to trade (no surprises here) - CC Sabathia, Paul Byrd, Joe Borowski, David Dellucci. Obviously CC is the big prize here. I would wait until the deadline and really see how desperate teams get for him. And I'm not expecting much in return for the other three, but I'd take anything at this point.

There are probably lots of other moves to be made but it's hurting my brain right now thinking that this is the same team that was one win away from the World Series just 9 months ago. Hopefully today begins the discussion to take the necessary steps to get this team back there.