Beasts of the East?

I think at this point the Tribe might be wishing this were 1993, before the divisions in baseball were realigned and we had the pleasure of residing in the AL East. Of course, we were also still in the old Stadium and our roster was pretty horrible (aside from young Thome, Belle, Ramirez, etc.). But the point I'm trying to make is that in 2008 the Tribe has been awful in the own division (just 17-30 vs. the AL Central), but a stellar 16-8 vs. the AL East after the weekend sweep in Toronto and then their 13-8 victory last night against Baltimore. To illustrate the quirkiness of realignment in MLB, this was somehow the first time the Indians faced the Orioles since May 7, 2007 (they have played the Reds - a team from the National League - 12 times since then). It doesn't really make sense and no one is really a fan of it as far as I can tell:

"It's a tough thing, but it's the same for both teams," Wedge said. "I don't
like it, but there's nothing I can do about it. It's part of baseball. Now that
we have interleague play and the unbalanced schedule, that's how it works out."

Last night's game was a bit of a wild one, with the Tribe taking a 7-3 lead into the 7th inning. Then Fausto Carmona ran out of gas and Edward Mujica, in true 2008 bullpen fashion, somehow allowed 4 runs to score on just 4 pitches (sadly, he was only charged with one of those runs). He proceeded to blow the lead and the win for Carmona, only to end up getting the win himself when the Indians' offense scored three more runs in the bottom of the 7th. It's been that kind of
year for the Tribe. Asdrubal Cabrera was the hero at the plate last night with the game-winning RBI double, to go along with a 2nd inning home run. Andy Gonzalez also hit his first home run in an Indians uniform. Brandon Donnelly also made his Tribe debut, returning to a major league mound for the first time in over a year, working a scoreless 8th inning.

Gonzalez was one of three Indians to homer on Monday night

The Indians and Orioles continue their 4-game series tonight at the Prog with Jeremy Sowers still looking for his 2nd win of the year. With a win and a Royals loss the Tribe can climb out of the Central cellar for the first time since July 26th.

Other Tribe Updates: Ryan Garko appears to really be sorry (at least to "the clones") about not running out that grounder. And we get some injury updates on Victor, Hafner, and Barfield.

Browns Update: Steve Sanders (no, not him) is temporarily seizing the opportunity with the first-team offense in the wake of Braylon Edwards' bizarre post-practice shoeless foot injury. And Romeo isn't too concerned about the injury. He also is seeing improvement in the secondary.

Cavs Update: LeBron chipped in 12 for Team USA in their 21-point win over Angola this morning. They are now 2-0 to start the Olympics with their most important games (Greece and Spain) next on the horizon.

LeBron and the Redeem Team won easily on Tuesday morning

Hitting rock bottom

I thought the Tribe hit rock bottom this season on July 9th when they lost their 10th consecutive game. It seemed at that point that things couldn't get much worse. They had blown a bunch of winnable games during that stretch and finally slid to 16 games under .500 before partly righting the ship and rattling off four straight wins over Tampa Bay just before the All-Star break. The worst of the season was over, right? Time to look toward the future and watch some of the younger guys fight for spots on the team next year. At least that could be interesting to watch. But there was nothing interesting about yesterday's game in Tampa Bay. A more proper way to describe it would be sickening.

The Indians officially hit rock bottom yesterday around 4:00 PM when their bullpen completely imploded. Holding a 7-4 lead heading into the 9th inning it felt like things were safe and they would escape taking two of three in the series against the resurgent Rays. But then Edward Mujica, the latest experiment in the great closer search of '08, was handed the ball. Just nine pitches later, Eric Wedge was forced yank Mujica from the game with the score tied at 7 and still no outs. Masa Kobayashi got the call and did Mujica one better, allowing three more runs on just 8 pitches and not recording an out. Final score: 10-7. The Rays danced around near home plate and the Tribe headed off to Toronto to continue their awful season. Thankfully we are spared from watching the 'pen again today as the Tribe has the day off in Canada.

Next up, Kobayashi to complete the implosion

I should note that the bullpen can't be completely blamed for this one. Indians hitters were nearly as awful (excluding Jhonny Peralta who was a stellar 5-for-5), leaving 18 men stranded on base. It's just a continuation of the year-long theme of zero clutch hitting and disastrous bullpen work. And that's a great recipe for a last-place finish.

Other Tribe Notes: Ryan Garko was benched yesterday after not running out a ground ball in the second inning, just to round out the Tribe's great day. Garko has really been a mystery to me this year. And some injury updates and call-ups yesterday. I'm gonna go out on a limb and predict that Brendan Donnelly will be getting a shot at the closer's role in the near future. He can't be any worse than the other candidates have been.

Browns Update: FINALLY, we get to see the Browns on the field in some real game action (at least as real as the preseason can get). They will take on the Jets tonight at the Stadium in a 7:30 kickoff. Thankfully the Brett Favre saga didn't end until yesterday, but I have a feeling it will still be somewhat of a media circus surrounding the Jets. Romeo Crennel is looking forward to assessing his players in a real game setting. And Brady Quinn promises to remain a patient understudy to DA.

''I want to see how the rookies react to the environment with people in the stands and it actually counting,'' Crennel said. ''Also in the preseason, the tempo of the game increases. . . . So I want to see how they handle that. Will they hit? That becomes an important thing — and how they handle getting hit.''

Cavs Update: The Cavs released their 2008-09 schedule yesterday. They will be the very first game on the NBA schedule this year, opening in Boston on October 28th with revenge on their minds. The Cavaliers will be featured on 25 national TV games (not including games aired on NBATV). They also get another Christmas Day game, this time against their bitches, the Washington Wizards.

LBJ & the Cavs will look to spoil the ring ceremony on 10/28

Also of note, Bud Shaw agrees about the lunacy of LeBron playing in Europe. We will get to see LBJ take center stage on Sunday when Team USA plays China in their Olympic opener.

The sky is falling!!!

Well, not really, but the good folks at ESPN would like to have Cavaliers fans believe that. I can really see no other explanation for why this story was released last night and is still featured prominently on the front of espn.com. I'm already sick and tired of hearing about LeBron leaving and his unrestricted free agency doesn't even begin for almost two years from now. The fact of the matter is that he will not play in an inferior league, even for an outrageous offer like $50 million/year. Marginal talent like Josh Childress (a nice player, but nowhere near a superstar) might signal a beginning of more NBA players heading overseas to chase more money, but I just can't see a star like LeBron ever doing the same. I think the "person close to James" that leaked this story is probably doing this just to hype up the international appeal of LeBron's marketing plan. And what better way to do it than release this information just two days before the start of the Olympics? Now international basketball fans can watch the greatest player in the world and drool over their chances to snag him in 2010. Sounds to me like a great strategy for the making of a "global icon," a goal LeBron has stated many times in the past. But fear not Cavalier fans, he won't be heading to Europe, and he has over a hundred million reasons to stay in a wine and gold uniform.

LeBron to Europe? I don't think so.

Speaking of that, let's take a quick look at the Cavaliers' salary cap numbers. As much as the national media would like you to believe that LeBron is leaving, he has no reason to. Not only can the Cavs offer him more guaranteed money over more years than any other NBA team, but Danny Ferry has also done an excellent job of clearing cap flexibility for the next two off-seasons. The expiring contracts we have this season (Wally Szczerbiak, Damon Jones, and Eric Snow) total over $25 million. You can bet these will be used in a trade at some point to bring in more talent for this season. And Joe Smith and Anderson Varejao (if he opts out of his non-guaranteed year for 2009) will clear another $10 million. Then we will have another $25 million coming off the books in 2010 with Ben Wallace and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. The point I'm trying to make is that the roster you see now will not be the same roster over the next two seasons. It will be more talented and should give Cavs fans everywhere a reason to smile. Just be patient and we will hopefully see LeBron get his 'Pippen' and a few other guys to help bring us the title we crave. And that said, we are already very close even with this far-from-perfect roster. LeBron is that good. The sky is not falling and the future is bright in the short- and long-term for this franchise.

Tribe Update: You knew it had to happen eventually - the Tampa Bay Rays finally figured out a way to beat our Indians (just their fourth win in their last 23 tries against the good guys). All you need to know about this one is that the Tribe could not find a way to drive guys in once they were on base (13 runners stranded!) and Rafael Betancourt continued his downward spiral. Then he decided to make it worse. And then Edward Mujica joined in the home run party. When the dust finally settled the Tribe lost again, 8-4.

Yay, they brought in Betancourt!

Thankfully the Royals lost too, so the Indians are still within shouting distance of finding their way out of the Central cellar. I've given up on my silly dream of .500 baseball this year and am now just hoping to finish ahead of the Royals. Today Jeremy Sowers gets the call for the Tribe in a 12:40 start (the always fun weekday getaway game). This one could get ugly.

Browns Update: Day 13 of training camp brought more details about Josh Cribbs hoping for a new contract. Tony Grossi says that Cribbs is out of line. We also got the news of Gary Baxter's arthroscopic knee surgery, and I was not surprised (let's just hope for no follow-up staph infection). And D'Qwell Jackson expects to have a big year, thanks to the new d-line in front of him.

''My loyalty is to this football team and I'm sure they'll show me the same loyalty in return.'' - Josh Cribbs

5 and a half hours for that?

I really feel bad for the few brave souls who remained at the Prog last night to watch that debacle. Luckily, I wasn't one of them. My wife and I were finishing up a major landscaping overhaul at our house and didn't even tune into the game until around 9:30 when it was already 11-7. A comfortable lead in the 8th inning, right? Not exactly with this bullpen. They (mainly Edward Mujica and Masa Kobayashi) unraveled yet again, allowing the Tigers to tie it in the 8th and then actually take the lead in the 9th. Some heroics by Kelly Shoppach (five extra base hits on the night) allowed the Tribe to tie it in the bottom of the 9th, but that really just delayed the inevitable.

Shoppach's incredible night went to waste in another bullpen meltdown

I do vaguely remember waking up for a second around midnight to see the Tribe had the bases loaded in the bottom of the 12th with no one out. But I fell back asleep and didn't see what transpired until this morning. Shoppach struck out (but he can be forgiven after his banner day), and then my favorite double-play candidate, Andy Marte, did what he does best ending any possible hope of a win. How you can't score with the bases loaded and no one out is beyond me. But then again, this game did also feature an 8-1 Indians' lead with Cliff Lee on the mound. Obviously he's not perfect, but with that much run support he shouldn't have to be. And the bullpen should be able to nail down a win in these types of games. Final score: 14-12 Tigers. Just another microcosm of an ugly season.

Today's game should be tons of fun. Fausto Carmona is on the mound in a noon start at the Prog. He needs to redeem himself after his forgettable comeback from the hip injury on Saturday. And I won't go into another rant about these weekday getaway games, but by now we all now how much the Tribe sucks in these situations. With both bullpens being worked so hard last night I expect an ugly game if either starter is shaky. But the Tribe knows all about ugly this season.

Cavs Update: LeBron James made a surprising move yesterday. I don't want to go all political on here but let's just say that I endorse his endorsement.

Browns Update: Day 8 of training camp went without any major glitches. Brady Quinn is showing improvement. And Shaun Rogers is a hit with his new teammates. 38 days to go Browns fans...

"I'd have to say he's got to be one of the best if not the best defensive tackle in the NFL," said Fraley, a nine-year veteran.

This #92 is more intimidating than MDP... will he get his own McDonald's sandwich too?

Tribe Mastnyed in Texas

I think that has a good ring to it - from now on when one of our pitchers gets pummeled I think I will call it "getting Mastnyed." Tom Mastny certainly was Mastnyed in his spot start last night, as expected. He was only able to go 1-1/3 innings last night while giving up 5 runs (2HR) and struggling through 56 pitches. And trust me, it could have been a lot worse than that. Eric Wedge was able to save the 'important' (if you can call them that) bullpen arms with mop up work by Jensen Lewis, Edward Mujica, and Scott Elarton. Rafael Perez and Elarton was able to complete the torching by throwing gas on the fire in the bottom of the 8th after the Tribe was able to cut the lead to 9-6. Final score 12-7 and the one-game winning streak snapped just like that.

The good news is that the Indians' bats were able to pound out 15 more hits last night and again raised the team batting average. It now stands at a blistering .239 (up six whole points over the last two games). So if we played in the AL West and got to face the Rangers 19 times a year, our team BA might even crack .250. But I have a feeling our ERA would also be a lot worse. Let's hope for some better results tonight when Cliff Lee hits the mound for the third of this four-game series.

The Rangers enjoyed facing Tom Mastny on Tuesday night

Cavs Update: Terry Pluto thinks the Cavaliers need to put more emphasis on regular season games. I tend to agree.

Browns Update: Phil Savage is in no hurry to re-work Kellen Winslow's deal. And Tony Grossi knows the Browns revamped defense will be put to the test in 2008.