Category: Cleveland Indians (Page 52 of 96)

The Cleveland Indians and Mr. Dolan, as I stated consistently for the past few weeks, will suffer from trying to find that “steal” when signing pitchers. The never got a true number one starter. C.C. Sabathia is a solid number two pitcher and may be a number one a couple years down the road.
The lose of Bob Howry and still using Bob Wickman as our closer will hurt the Tribe as this long season continues. Howry was “automatic” for two innings and Wicky did have luck and talent on his side last year. Cleveland has a very good offense, but I don’t believe they can continually out score their opponents to win games.
It’s still early in the season, but I think our magician GM Mark Shapiro needs to start making some calls and shore up this very mediocre pitching staff.

What has been a strength for the Indians so far this season has doomed them the past two nights. The Tribe’s bullpen couldn’t hold a lead as they lost to the Mariners in the rubber match Thursday night, 9-5. Jason Johnson left the game in the sixth with a 5-3 lead but the bullpen was unable to sustain it. Indians pitchers as a whole walked nine Mariners in the game.

“We put them in position to win,” Indians manager Eric Wedge said. “It’s uncharacteristic of guys who are usually aggressive over the plate and throw strike one, strike two.”

Our relievers have not been sharp recently which has led to our two-game losing streak.

An old friend came back to haunt the Indians Wednesday night. With one out in the sixth, Richie Sexson launched a Danny Graves pitch over the wall in left for a grand slam to blow the game open. The Tribe battled back but fell short to the Mariners, 11-9. The Indians’ win streak came to a halt at six. Paul Byrd had a rough outing, giving up six runs in 3 2/3 innings. Offensively, once again, there were many bright spots. Pronk went yard for the seventh time in the last seven games. Casey Blake seems like a totally different hitter from last season. He went 3 for 4 with 4 RBI and raised his average to .429.

Though he got the win in his first outing, Paul Byrd has not looked sharp in the early going. However, he is a veteran and I’m not too terribly concerned at this point.

They just keep on rolling. The Indians continue to rake the ball around the park, putting up 13 hits in their 9-5 win over the Seattle Mariners Tuesday night in the first game of the series. The middle of the Tribe’s lineup went 8 for 10 including two homers and five RBI. Travis Hafner and Jhonny Peralta hit back to back jacks in the fifth and Victor Martinez went 3 for 3 in the game to propel the Tribe’s offense. Cliff Lee got his first win of the season, surrendering only two runs and recording eight punchouts through six innings. Even the slumping Ronnie Belliard got in the action with a two-RBI single in the 7th, giving him just his third hit of the season.

“We’re all confident right now,” said Lee, who retired 14 straight after a leadoff walk in the first. “Everybody is pitching well. Everybody is hitting well. We keep swinging like this, and I don’t see a whole lot changing.”

Ronnie has struggled at the plate in the early going and his injury didn’t help. Perhaps his base hit late in the ballgame will give him some relief and boost his confidence. As for the others in the lineup, just keep mashing!

Cleveland is a very strong city when it comes to supporting professional sports, but even the die hard cities have some issues with how teams are managed. The Cleveland Indians and their ownership are still attempting to renew the fan base they had in the mid 90’s. The Tribe was averaging around 3 million fans a year.
Terry Pluto gives an interesting perspective on why Cleveland is still struggling to raise the attendance numbers. I personally think the Dolan’s are still too “cheap” on the salaries and Mark Shapiro has done an excellent PR job with the fans and players. The Indians organization needs to understand that big money players bring fans. We recently signed some young talented players to long term deals. The benefits to this won’t be seen for at least a couple years.