Category: Cleveland Indians (Page 39 of 96)

Indians GM Shapiro says the club is exploring options to improve the team, but trade discussions are moving slowly.

“That’s involving a whole lot of conversations with a lot of general managers, in which there is still very little life to making larger moves right now,” Shapiro said. “And it’s also intense internal conversations, in, do we have the guy internally here who we think can make us a better team?”

Don’t expect a trade to happen anytime soon. Until it gets closer to the trading deadline it will not be clear for several teams whether they are buyers or sellers. Things will start to heat up on the trade market in about a month but in the meantime, Shapiro is on the phone and having as many conversations as possible with other general managers.

Bullpen woes have been an issue for the Tribe all season and one step was taken last week to try to shake things up in that area. Scott Sauerbeck was having a rough year on and off the field and the Indians recently designated him for assigment and recalled Rafael Perez from Akron. This clearly was not Sauerbeck’s year. Something had to be done and Shapiro made the right call by cutting the cord with him. Perez really can’t do much worse, can he? The Indians still have a mess to deal with in Mota, however.
The Indians unfortunately have more concerns than just relief pitching and Shapiro is doing all he can to keep talks open with several teams.

“I think you need to be constantly active in reaching out to the clubs that you feel that you could have a fit with, just to get a feel for what kind of deal they’re looking to do,” Shapiro said. “Are they a team that would consider right now trading a Major League player for prospects? Are they a team that would have to be big league for big league deal?

At this point in time, the only moves the Indians can make to improve themselves are from inside the organization. I’ve said it for awhile now and several other Indians fans agree with the notion of bringing up Jeremy Sowers and dumping Jason Johnson. Sowers is wasting his time in AAA and needs to be pitching at the major league level right now.

What started as a blowout in favor of the Indians turned out to be a near disaster as they hung on to beat the White Sox 10-8 Sunday night. The Indians shelled Sox starter Freddy Garcia for eight runs in 5 2/3 innings. Victor Martinez continues to be on a tear, homering for the second straight game. Ronnie Belliard also hit one of the Tribe’s four homers in the ballgame and added four RBIs. However, the tide would quickly turn as the Sox made it extremely interesting in the bottom of the ninth. They scored six in the inning off Jason Davis and Rafael Betancourt, although only three were earned thanks to Ramon Vazquez’s fielding error. Vazquez did not have the greatest of nights defensively, totalling three errors in the game. The Sox were able to bring the tying run to the plate in the ninth but Bob Wickman came on to finally put the game away.

Victor’s bat finally starting to get hot after a rough month of May. Through nine games in June, Martinez is batting .400 with five home runs. As far as Vazquez is concerned, with each strikeout and error, the Indians are looking more and more foolish for keeping him instead of Phillips.

Bob Wickman blew his first save of the season as the White Sox came back to beat the Tribe 4-3 in an extra inning affair Saturday afternoon. Victor Martinez, who had all three RBIs for the Indians, put Cleveland on top 3-2 with his second homer of the day in the top of the 11th. Wickman had registered a major league best 24 straight saves dating back to last season but couldn’t close the deal as Tadahito Iguchi got the game-winning hit in the bottom of the inning. Starter C.C Sabathia and Mark Buerhle went toe-to-toe with each other, allowing only three runs combined in the ballgame. The loss drops the Tribe to three games below the .500 mark.

“I’ll say one thing, I wasn’t fooling anyone,” Wickman said. “They put some pretty good at-bats on me and I didn’t get the job done. We got the lead with Vic’s home run and I came out there and blew it.”

It’s always something new with this team. Wickman has been the most consistent, steady player for the Indians all season and you’d think him coming into the game with the lead would most likely secure a victory. However, this year’s Indians always find ways to lose games and Saturday was no different.

Travis Hafner and Jermaine Dye both homered but it was Dye’s two-run shot in the eighth that sent the White Sox to a 5-4 victory Friday night. The Tribe took the lead in the sixth on Hafner’s three-run bomb but then it was Chicago’s right fielder’s time to shine. Dye singled home a run in the sixth and delivered the big homer two innings later. Rafael Betancourt gave up the costly late inning runs for the Tribe and Cliff Lee gave up four runs in 7 2/3 innings.

“We did a real poor job with runners in scoring position,” manager Eric Wedge said. “We had some great opportunities. We just didn’t finish it off and get a big hit.”

In other news, left-hander Scott Sauerbeck was designated for assignment and Rafael Perez was recalled from AA to take his place in the bullpen. I think we all can agree a change needed to be made in regards to Sauerbeck. From his performance on the mound to his arrest, things obviously weren’t working out for Scotty this season.

Oakland starter Esteban Loaiza returned from the disabled list to beat the Indians 4-1 Thursday afternoon. He baffled the Tribe, surrendering only four hits through seven innings. The Indians scored their lone run on a Ben Broussard home run. Jason Johnson gave up 11 hits but only allowed three Athletics to cross the plate. He was able to get out of a few jams with some double plays and kept the Tribe in the ballgame but Loaiza was too dominant for the Indian offense. Four of the Tribe’s six hits came from Broussard and Belliard. On the other side, Eric Chavez was the only one without a hit for Oakland.

“I don’t think getting one run on three hits off him is very good,” said Indians DH Travis Hafner, who went 0-for-2 with a walk off Loaiza. “We didn’t have many good at-bats and I didn’t have any.”

The Indians will now face a stretch of nine games on the road, including two key series against the White Sox and Yankees.