The Dayton Daily News has a helpful position-by-position analysis of the Browns roster heading into the NFL Draft. They point out correctly that the Browns are starting to look much better on paper after Phil Savage’s recent free agent moves.
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Newly recalled Fausto Carmona didn’t appear to be a young 22-year-old making his first major league start. He showed tremendous poise and confidence on the mound, giving up only one run and five hits in six innings as the Indians beat the Tigers 7-2 Saturday afternoon. The Tribe jumped on Jeremy Bonderman early with a Travis Hafner home run in the first and scored five more runs in the fourth. The win snapped the Tribe’s three-game losing streak. Manager Eric Wedge was very impressed with Carmona’s performance.
“He was very good,” Wedge said. “He was very good in general but even beyond that, in terms of his first start, he had a power sinker working, did a good job utilizing his breaking ball as well as his changeup.”
Carmona was outstanding today in his Indians debut. He seemed to have good movement on his pitches and kept Tiger hitters off balance. It’s too bad he’ll probably be headed back to Buffalo when C.C returns.
After a superb first two outings in which he allowed only three runs combined, Jake Westbrook had an uncharacteristically rough start Friday night, giving up five runs in six innings as the Tribe lost to the Tigers 5-1. Conversely, Tiger starter Kenny Rogers was very sharp, giving up only one run through eight. The lone Indians run came in the sixth when Eduardo Perez grounded into a double play, scoring Hafner.
Being a sinkerball pitcher, it’s unlike Westbrook to give up three home runs in a game. He missed his spots over the plate and Detroit made him and and the Tribe pay.
“I just got carried away with trying to throw the ball too hard,” he said. “You can’t make bad pitches against that team.”
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.
. . . but he has some serious praise for LeBron as well, who he puts at #2:
The intriguing subplot: LeBron is figuring out how to take over down the stretch, personified by what happened on Saturday in New Jersey (17 in the final quarter). At least once a game, he does something so explosive, so athletic, so incredible, you can’t even believe it happened. The last time I remember feeling this way about a professional athlete was Bo Jackson, who wasn’t just great … he stood out. I attended a spring training game once when Bo scored from third base on a 180-foot pop fly — standing up. It was awesome to watch.
Well, LeBron reminds me of Bo. On those plays when he says, “Screw it, I’m scoring” and heads toward the basket like a runaway freight train. He’s like a young Barkley crossed with a young Shawn Kemp crossed with young Magic, but with a little Bo thrown in. Out of anyone in the league, he’s the only player who can cripple the other team with one monster play.
That’s the first time I’ve heard the Bo Jackson reference, bit Simmons makes a great point.
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