Month: June 2005 (Page 7 of 9)

Cliff Lee and the bullpen combined on an 11-inning shutout of the Padres, as the Tribe managed to score two unearned runs in the 11th to take the first game of this series. Cliff Lee has been on a roll along with the rest of the pitching staff (other than Jason Davis). Unfortunately, the White Sox won again.

Hey, did you know the MLB draft was going on today? Well, in case you missed it, the Indians took Arizona outfielder Travor Crowe with the 14th-overall selection. Crowe, a 6-0, 200-pound switch-hitter, hit .403 with nine homers and 27 steals in his senior season at Arizona.

Hey, at least they didn’t get swept, right? The Indians beat the White Sox 6-4 in 12 innings Sunday despite Bob Wickman’s best effort to give away the game in the 10th. After going 2-4 against the Twins and Sox last week, the Indians now find themselves 10.5 games behind Chicago and seven behind Minnesota in the Central standings with a series against the NL West-leading Padres up next. It ain’t lookin’ pretty, Tribe fans.

I guess someone had to take the heat for this mess. The Indians, who rank last in the American League in average, on-base percentage and runs scored, have fired hitting coach Eddie Murray. Manager Eric Wedge and general manager Mark Shapiro announced the firing after Saturday’s loss to the White Sox, naming minor league hitting coordinator Derek Shelton as Murray’s replacement until season’s end.

“We obviously have a tremendous amount of respect for what Eddie has accomplished in the game,” Wedge said, “but from an operations standpoint, we just felt like this was the best for our ballclub.”

It’s nice to finally see a little accountability from this team, but when are guys like Aaron Boone and Casey Blake going to have to take some responsibility for their pathetic numbers? It’s easy to throw Murray out there as the sacrificial lamb when the entire team is struggling, saying that he’s a poor communicator and that he’s “standoffish,” but nobody was complaining about him last season when the Indians owned the fifth-best offense in baseball. Eddie Murray is not the only reason this team continues to struggle, though as the hitting coach he certainly deserves some of the blame. Still, fingers should also be pointed at Eric Wedge, who writes Boone’s and Blake’s names on the line-up card almost every day, and Shapiro, who refuses to send Boone down despite his .160 average.