Season Swept Away

This may be the defining series of an extremely disappointing and frustrating year for the Tribe. The Rockies completed the sweep of our Indians with a 6-3 win last night in Denver. Jeremy Sowers wasn't very sharp and didn't get much support anyway. And the bullpen then gave us no chance, and they really haven't all season long. This isn't what I had in mind when I bought season tickets (20-game plan) last October.

The Rockies completed the sweep on Thursday night

The team surely won't admit it, but even they have to know it's time to blow this thing up. Start the fire sale now. Terry Pluto agrees with me. I've been saying for a while that Paul Byrd will surely have to go. That's a no-brainer. But now I'm fully on board with trading CC Sabathia as well. Honestly, the only pitchers I wouldn't deal at this point are Aaron Laffey, Fausto Carmona, and Cliff Lee. The rest can be had for the right prospects. It will be interesting to see how this plays out but I have faith in Mr. Shapiro.

Tribe Notes: The Tribe did some shuffling in the wake of Victor Martinez's elbow surgery. They acquired veteran catcher Sal Fasano from the Braves, the the ever popular player-to-be-named-later. They also sent catcher Yamid Haad back down to the minors before he ever played in a game. Oh, and Jason Micheals is batting .279 in Pittsburgh with 5 doubles, 3 HR, and 22 RBI since being traded there. Of course he is. And finally, who knows when Travis Hafner will be back? Your guess is as good as mine.

Cavs Update: Brian Windhorst makes his triumphant blogging return (well, for me at least) and gives us the lowdown on the recent Anderson Varejao trade rumors. I look forward to hearing more from BW over the next week in anticipation of the draft next Thursday.

No Suspension for Brenda (and Ben called up!)

It's been a busy sports information afternoon here on the shores of Lake Erie. First, apparently Brenda Haywood will not be suspended for his flagrant foul on LeBron in Game 2. I've made my thoughts on this known below so I won't delve into it anymore.

Also, the Tribe made a roster move today. Jake Westbrook was placed on the 15-day DL with a ribcage muscle injury (specifically a "left intercostal strain"). So Ben Francisco was called up from AAA Buffalo to take his place on the roster. This will likely only be for a couple days until Westbrook's turn in the rotation, when I expect Aaron Laffey or Jeremy Sowers to get the call. But maybe if we all work together in unison in positive thinking, we can persuade Eric Wedge to give Ben a couple starts in left field to show what he can do. The Jason Michaels/David Dellucci experiment has already taken at least a month off my life.

Welcome back Ben - hope you can stay for a while

Joe 'Blow' is back...

I guess these sort of things happen from time to time over the course of a long 162 game baseball season. But it doesn't make it any less frustrating. The offense looked dreadful again last night for 8 innings until scoring three runs in the top of the ninth. It should have been more, but Jason Michaels was prominently involved with the bases loaded, and we know how that usually plays out.

So with a 4-2 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth and JoeBo coming in, I expected things to get a little shaky, as they typically do with JoeBo. But I also expected us to get the win. Things started off innocently enough, with him retiring the leadoff man. But then a base hit and two straight walks had me shaking my head. Then Torii Hunter sealed the deal with a walkoff grand slam at approximately 1:12 am ET. It's times like this when I wonder why I stay up for these West coast games. There will be a payoff eventually for my undying loyalty, right???

Torii provided the death blow as I wondered why I wasn't sleeping...