Back in action

To the faithful readers out there, I apologize for slacking yesterday. I took a day off and enjoyed some fun at Cedar Point in Sandusky. For those of you that have never been there, or maybe have been there but haven't tried out Top Thrill Dragster, I highly recommend it. The best way I can describe it is an experience where you almost crap your pants and have an orgasm at the same time. Just standing there watching it is intimidating as it accelerates to 120 mph and ascends straight up to 420 feet, and then straight back down again for the 17 second ride of your life. It gives you that nervous/sick feeling in your stomach just waiting in line to ride it (very reminiscent of the feeling I had watching Joe Borowski warm up during last year's playoff run). But I digress.

My day away from the TV and computer did allow me to avoid the pitching mockery on display by the Tribe yesterday. All I know is that they lost 14-11(!), Grady Sizemore hit another home run, and Aaron Laffey has been mystifyingly bad in his last two starts. Oh, and Tom Mastny is still not good (1-1/3 innings, 4 earned runs, and a 14.90 ERA). I've harped on it here before, so I guess I will again today - the 2008 Cleveland Indians are just awful during the day this year (10-19). And in weekday 'getaway' games they are even worse. By my own unofficial count they are now 0-6 on the year, being outscored 40-25 in such games. And there are still four more of them left on the schedule, which gives me another dumb reason to keep following the year of futility. Ugh.

The sun is shining, so chalk up another Tribe loss

Thankfully the Tribe will be given a day of rest today to travel back home. They will resume play tomorrow night at the Prog for a three-game set with the Minnesota Twins. At this point I just want to see us embrace the role of spoiler in the Central and try to make things difficult for both Minnesota and Chicago. And of course end up ahead of the lowly Royals. Yes, I'm now inventing reasons to keep watching.

In other Indians news, Shin-Soo Choo owes his country something. And as we've been speculating for a while, Casey Blake appears to be on the trading block. Also, the bullpen will likely undergo an overhaul before next season.

Browns Update: In more hopeful news, the Browns did finally begin training camp yesterday morning in Berea. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for no devastating knee injuries, resulting staph infections, or any of the other problems that seem to have plagued training camps of the past. Officially, both Joe Jurevicius and Ryan Tucker were placed on the active PUP list. The Browns have until first roster cuts (August 26th) to decide their status for the start of the season. Even with the injury to Jurevicius, Braylon Edwards is ready for the huge expectations this season. But I'm not sure even he was ready for the 'Super Bowl' chants heard on Wednesday.

Can K2 and the rest of the Browns live up to the massive expectations?

''Around here for a long time there were no expectations. We're glad people have some confidence in us, and we're going to try to prove worthy of those expectations.'' - Romeo Crennel

Bill Livingston and Bud Shaw give their thoughts on all the optimism in Berea. And Tony Grossi will check in today at noon for a training camp chat.

Cavs Update: J.J. Hickson continues to receive positive reviews, writes the ABJ's Pat McManamon. And LeBron almost gave me a heart attack last night when I read that he sprained his ankle (thankfully only a 'mild' sprain). Now he is guaranteeing gold in Beijing and I think he will deliver. And finally, Bob Finnan gives us a Delonte West update.

An unlikely sweep... and other thoughts

Well maybe the Indians are finally rounding back into form? Maybe the Rays really are just a fluke and are now crashing back to earth? Or maybe that team meeting before Thursday's game actually woke the Tribe up? We won't really know the answers until the second half of the season starts. But for now, the four-game sweep of Tampa Bay sure was a nice way to cap off an otherwise miserable first half of the 2008 season. And it was definitely unexpected coming on the heels of a horrendous 10-game losing streak.

Friday night's game featured more solid pitching from Cliff Lee, who notched his 12th win on the year with a 5-0 victory. With a 12-2 record and a tidy 2.31 ERA, today Lee did get the nod as the All-Star Game starter on Tuesday night in New York City. Quite a turnaround from his dismal performance in 2007. On Saturday the Indians won 8-4, behind Ryan Garko's career-high 5 RBI night. And yesterday's game featured a very bizarre stat line, one I thought I'd never see again to be perfectly honest. And Jhonny Peralta seems to be finally reaping the benefits of his laser vision correction surgery (7 hits and 2 home runs this weekend). We even had an Andy Marte sighting! And Ben Francisco is playing well again, raising his average by 14 points with a 12-for-19 series. The only bad news I could find after the Tribe's weekend was the fact that they allowed the Red Sox back into first place in the AL East...

A truly backwards weekend: Tribe sweep & a Mastny win!

More Tribe: American League home run leader Grady Sizemore takes his swing up against the short porch in right tonight in New York for the Home Run Derby. And we got a glimpse of the future with new prospect Matt LaPorta on Sunday in the Futures Game. And of course, I will miss seeing this in a Tribe uniform during interleague games. That is a hell of a swing for a pitcher.

Gladiators Update: The fun ride ended on Saturday afternoon as the Philadelphia Soul beat our Gladtiators 70-35 in the National Conference championship game. Early offensive mistakes and a turnover really put them in trouble in the first half and they just were never able to recover. But 2-14 to 9-7 and two playoff wins is nothing to take lightly. Good job by Bernie Kosar, the entire coaching staff, and the players. I'm now a fan and will be looking forward to more indoor football next spring.

Cavs Update: No news yet on the neverending James Posey saga. But Terry Pluto has some thoughts on what is happening behind the scenes in Cavalier-land.

The Return of Joe Blow

Leave it to the Tribe's cold bats to prevent Cliff Lee from notching his 12th win... then leave it to Joe Borowski to really blow things up. With two outs and no one on in the bottom of the 10th and the Tribe hanging onto a 2-1 lead, Joe Blow first served up a home run to weak-hitting Alexei Ramirez. Then he went on to give up two more hits and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory yet again. The Indians' miserable four-game slide continues and I'm at a point where I've run out of ways to describe my level of disappointment (and now disinterest) in this team.

Believe it or not, this picture was taken when Borowski was running in from the bullpen

I was talking to my buddy at the game last Friday, recalling the Tribe's poor '06 season. But at least in that season you felt like they were trying to build towards the future. I just don't see the logic anymore of playing guys like David Dellucci and Joe Borowski on a daily basis. At some point you need to give up hope and start trying to retool for next year. 11.5 games out on July 2 and in sole possession of last place - it's time to raise the white flag. And that's coming from as big a Cleveland homer as you'll find.

But never fear Tribe fans - Eric Wedge isn't ready to concede anything. Great. Terry Pluto wonders if the Indians' youth is being wasted this year. And Sheldon Ocker tells us to expect new faces in the bullpen soon - and yes he did drop the dreaded Mastny reference there. Yikes.

Browns Update: Joe Jurevicius sounds like he really won't be ready for the start of training camp on the 23rd. A fourth surgery already this offseason? I'll be happy if he plays before the bye week at this point. And it makes the Donte Stallworth signing that much smarter.

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.

Maybe?

Maybe the Tribe needed a 13-9 softball-type slugfest like last night vs. the Rangers to right the ship? Or maybe it's just an anomaly against a bad pitching staff in a hitter's ballpark. Either way it was fun to finally see the offense make some noise last night and pick up Aaron Laffey when he had a rare bad outing. It was one of those nights for the Indians at the plate - 4 HR's, 4 doubles, 16 hits in all, and 7 RBI by Casey Blake (all before the end of the 4th inning!). They actually raised the team batting average three points with last night's performance - still a paltry .236, but I'll take any type of progress at this point. Blake had two home runs and Ben Francisco and David Dellucci added the others.

Hopefully things can start rolling now but it will be even more difficult to keep the momentum going tonight, as Jake Westbrook has been put on the 15-day DL. To make matters worse, Tom Mastny gets the start tonight for the Tribe, since Jeremy Sowers just pitched for AAA Buffalo on Sunday. Jensen Lewis was also called back up today to help in the bullpen. Let's hope the bats can stay warm because I have a feeling they will really be needed in this one...

Casey was all over the bases on Monday night on his way to 7 RBI

Cavs Update: LeBron James was just named the #3 earner in pro sports over the past year, behind only Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson. All this in the dinky little godforsaken market known as Cleveland. Here's to hoping that he sees that market size does not matter and he will stay home in June of 2010. We need you LeBron... just look how much you mean to this city: www.lebron2010.com (brought to you by the great Glen Infante of RCF fame).