Category: Cleveland Indians (Page 94 of 96)

In the year that the Tribe was supposed to “contend,” they’ve dropped 12 out of their first 20 games after Wednesday’s 10-3 loss to Detroit. It’s not like they’re losing dramatically — they’re losing without any passion, without any fire, without any sense of urgency whatsoever. After the game, Wedge will say his usual crap…”We’ll start hitting”…”it’s early”…”can’t get too down or too high”…. I have no desire to buy a ticket to see this uninspired baseball. Spare me this “what does Wedge have to do with it” crap. This guy needs to start sitting players who can’t even bat their playing weight. Do something — sitting on your ass waiting for things to happen isn’t why you’re paid the big bucks, Wedge.

The Indians have already signed Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner to long-term extensions this season, and now it looks C.C. Sabathia is on the verge of inking his own deal. The Plain Dealer reports that Sabathia and the Indians are closing in on a contract extension that’ll keep the lefty in Cleveland at least through 2007 and pay him between $8 to $10 million during the first year of the deal.

Hmm…. I’m all for locking Sabathia up long-term but that dollar figure seems pretty high for a guy with a somewhat sketchy injury history, has battled weight problems throughout his brief career and has yet to develop into the legitimate #1 starter that his skill set suggests he should be. He won 17 games as a rookie (with a 4.39 ERA), but since then Sabathia has never topped 13 wins, bottoming out at 11-10 last year. His career 4.07 ERA is solid, at least in this day and age, but for a kid with so much promise he just hasn’t been able to take a pronounced step forward in his development. Granted, he’s still only 24 years old, he’s got one hell of an arm and he’s a lefty, all of which make him more valuable than his career numbers would indicate. It just seems like an awful lot of cash to throw at a guy who’s basically underachieved the past three years. Then again, we haven’t seen the contract’s official numbers — it may very well be heavily front-loaded, which would certainly make me feel better about the signing.

Update:
MLB.com is reporting that the deal has been agreed to and that the extension will run through 2008, worth $17.75 million. Sabathia reportedly will earn $8.75 million in 2007 and $9 million in 2008 while his 2006 option for $7 million also is now guaranteed. Since he’s still making less than $10 million per year throughout the contract, these are definitely reasonable numbers and, if this really is the year C.C. becomes a true staff ace, he’ll be a bargain.

Man, does Jamie Moyer have the Tribe’s number or what? The Indians haven’t beaten the soft-tossing lefty in Seattle since 1998 and in his last six starts against Cleveland, dating back to 2002, Moyer has four wins with a 2.52 ERA. So it wasn’t surprising to see Moyer and the Mariners shut down the Indians 9-1 Sunday afternoon. Moyer went eight, allowing one earned run (an Aaron Boone homer) on six hits with five strikeouts.

Moyer was good, Scott Elarton was bad. Awful, actually, giving up five runs in just over five innings. Elarton is now 0-1 with a 7.58 ERA and he hasn’t lasted longer than 5.1 innings in any of his four starts. It’s about time to pull the plug on the Scott Elarton experiment, though I’d probably give him a one, maybe two more starts to pull out of it.

In his second-straight impressive outing, lefty Cliff Lee shut out the Mariners on four hits and five strikeouts in seven innings, leading the Tribe to a 5-2 win. Bob Howry coughed up two runs in the ninth without recording an out but Bob Wickman actually put out a fire instead of causing one, bailing out Howry by recording the final three outs to notch his fifth save. The Indians look for the sweep in Seattle Sunday afternoon at 4:05.

He’s been pitching well of late, allowing one earned run in his last five innings while converting four-straight save opportunities, but Thursday night Bob Wickman coughed up a one-run lead against the Angels in the ninth and the Tribe went on to lose 6-5 in 10 innings. Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner each had three hits while Coco Crisp and Ronnie Belliard added two apiece, including a two-run homer from Belliard in the third inning, but the Indians had some trouble on the mound. Kevin Millwood gave up three earned on eight hits in 5.1 innings of work, then Arthur Rhodes allowed a run in the eighth, Wick blew the save with a run in the ninth and Jason Davis lost the game with another run in the tenth on an Orlando Cabrera walk-off homer.