I decided that during the offseason months will be taking the questions from the offical tribe mailbag and answering them myself here each monday (or tuesday).

Here are the questions and my answers from the mailbag last week:

I like having Asdrubal Cabrera in the lineup, but I also think that
Josh Barfield can return to his production he had with the Padres. Are
the Indians considering moving Jhonny Peralta over to third and putting
Asdrubal back at his natural position for next year? Nothing against
Casey Blake, but he could go back to the outfield.
– Jeremy M., Lincoln, Ill.

No. Jhonny Peralta is the shortstop for 2008. Josh Barfield really didn’t have that much better of a season his rookie year. It was good, but not fantastic. You’re just gonna have to wait it out and see Jeremy. I don’t think the Indians are ready to hand over the everyday job to Cabrera, but they’re also not ready to give it back to Barfield. This will be something that makes spring training more interesting.

Now that the Indians’ magic season has come to an end, what will
happen to Kenny Lofton? I want to see him back, but do you think the
Indians will try to sign him?
– Evan S., Solon, Ohio

See ya later, Kenny. It’s been fun. The best scenario would have been that the Indians win the World Series, Kenny Lofton finally gets that ring he was looking for, Kenny retires and the city of Cleveland elects him mayor. I’m afriad it’s over though. Maybe we’ll trade for him at the deadline again.

If the Indians are unable to re-sign C.C. Sabathia this offseason,
will he be traded? I think that is the best choice if they can’t
re-sign him.
– Miguel, Mexico

I don’t get fans. If this actually happened we’d be right back in the hate-hate relationship well all felt in 2002 with the Indians. The Indians are gonna ride it out with CC. They have plenty of depth in pitching in the minors. I really think CC wants to stay though.

Do Sabathia’s struggles in the postseason make him a little bit
easier to re-sign? And, off the topic, do you cover any other sport in
the offseason?
– Rick B., Baltimore

Even if CC never pitched good in the playoffs in his entire carrer this would still not help a team trying to sign him at a discounted price (see: Alex Rodriguez)

We are having a debate at work, and I was hoping you could settle
it. Has anyone ever hit a home run to the upper deck (not the
mezzanine, the upper deck) in right field at Jacobs Field? I maintain
that Jim Thome has done it and that it has happened occasionally.
– Phil J., Stow, Ohio

You are 100% wrong. Not only has this never happened… I think it’s only sparingly happened to the mezzanine level (Pronkville). Maybe you’re thinking of Yankee Staduim.

I’m not placing blame, I’m just showing you the facts. A lot of people want to switch immediately to their 2008 preview mode, but that’s even more depressing for me. Take a look at what got us here, and what ended it.

Sabathia in September: 4-0, 2.37 ERA
Carmona in September: 5-0, 1.78 ERA
Hafner in September: .316, 5 HR, 23 RBI

Sabathia in playoffs: 1-2, 8.80 ERA
Carmona in playoffs: 0-1, 7.20 ERA
Hafner in playoffs: .186, 2 HR, 4 RBI

As a baseball fan and a Cleveland sports fan I’ve always thought CC should have a bigger spot in this city than LeBron (a feeling that solidified itself with the Yankees hat). CC has grown up here. His hometown is near Oakland, CA but he signed with the tribe in 1998 as an 18-year old highly rated prospect. He made his major league debut in April of 2001 and won 17 games that season, despite having a carrer high in walks (95) and ERA (4.39). After that season he went 64-51 winning over 10 games every season for a young, inexperienced tribe team. Until this season. This year CC has become what everyone in Cleveland knew he could become and hoped he would develop into.

Sabathia went 19-7 this season and lost multiple 1-0 or 2-1 or 3-2 games. He had a 3.22 ERA last season and 3.21 this year. He’s cut down on his walks from 62 in 2005 to 44 in ’06 to just 37 this season. He had a carrer high win total, a carrer low ERA, a carrer high strikeout total and a carrer low walk total.

I believe tonight’s the night for CC Sabathia. He was, admittably, a little pumped up for the Yankees start and maybe a little nervous and excited to pitch in Fenway park in game 1. He walked 11 batters in those 2 games. Forget about back-to-back games, on the season the most he has walked in any 5-game stretch is 8. He’s obviously been off his game, respecting the hitters a little too much. I think he’ll be a lot better today though. He’s seen Jake and the Byrdman be aggressive and get ahead and how much success they’ve had doing it. He has a 3-1 series lead. He’s playing at home. There were stretches of that Yankees game when he was unhittable. Remember Jeter swinging himself into a tumble?

The last time the Indians made it to the World Series was 1997. CC Sabathia was the Indians very first draft pick the next season in 1998. How appropriate would it be for the new Tribe to be taken into the World Series by the very first peice of this puzzle.

Man, Alyssa Milano is cute.

Alright, there are a few things I’ve been telling people this postseason and throughout the season for that matter. Here they are:

• "Did you know Kenny Lofton hasn’t hit a homerun yet with the Indians… He’s due" … I got two phone calls and two text messages after the Game 3 HR by Mayor Lofton.
• "I don’t know when, I don’t know the situation, I don’t know how big… but I got a feeling about Casey Blake this postseason. Every year it’s some guy the nation doesn’t know too much about who comes up with a huge hit or homerun" …. He got a big one in Game 4, but I think his "BIG" hit is still ahead of us.
• "Different guy everynight" … Byrd, Peralta, Nixon, Blake, Kenny … everyone is getting a chance and making the most of it.
• "Eric Wedge is a great manager"

Let’s focus on Wedge for a minute. There’s a group on facebook I joined just to tell people how stupid I thought their group was. It was called, "Fire Eric Wedge". These people bother me so much. I checked out the group (there are actually 5 different ones, with a total of 128 members. Odd how the last comment in any of these groups was from the middle of August. No complaints now, people? They really lit a fire under me, that’s the only reason I bring them back up now. Wedge will be the manager of the year on the AL and people were still calling for his firing as late as August.

And remember last season when Jhonny Peralta was having a bad year and people were saying we should get rid of him? Now Jhonny is getting consideration for the ALCS MVP if we wrap this series up. This is exactly why Eric Wedge is an amazing manager. He trusts his players, he sticks with them, he goes with Byrd when the whole world wants CC to pitch. He wins.

And how about Casey Blake? He had a bad 2005 season but has had two great seasons since then. Is he our third basemen? Our right fielder? Our first basemen? Who cares just get him in there everyday. That’s what the Indians said and that’s paying off. He’s playing great defense at third and coming up with big hits for the Tribe all season long.

Every guy on this team has a story like that. Would anybody know Grady Sizemore if he hadn’t gotten a chance to play everyday in 2005? What Asdrubal Cabrera? The Rangers had no room for Travis Hafner and weren’t sure if he could play at all but the Indians let him play everyday from 2003 on. What about Ryan Garko? In a disappointing season last year at AAA Garko gets a chance in August and won over a spot on the 2007 opening day roster. Kenny Lofton? The Indians traded to add him to the outfield. Trot Nixon? He was coming off surgery and no one else was willing to take a chance on him. And how about the bullpen? The Indians didn’t panic and trade Franklin G to Kansas City like they wanted for Octavio Dotel (who was a non-factor in Atlanta). They just trusted their young guys like Jensen Lewis and Rafeal Perez. Joe Borowski? Philadelphia said he failed his physical because they didn’t want to take a chance on his injury past so he comes here and leads the league in saves. And then we’ve seen guys like CC Sabathia, Victor Martinez and Rafael Betancourt grow up here and mature into the best at what they do. Even the GM and the coach have grown up over these last 5 years here.

This is a special team that is one win away from a special opportunity. GO TRIBE!

SATURDAY NIGHT

What a playoff classic. I counted 8 different game-tying or go-ahead hits by both teams. The "different guy every night" theme moved out to the bullpen Saturday night. Often times I get confused as to why a relief pitcher who throws one inning should get a win in a game when the bulk of the work was done at another time in the game. Saturday night Tom Mastny earned his win. Mastny’s a guy who was lights-out in the first three months of the season for us.

It’s hard to give an MVP in a game like that. Jhonny Peralta had a giantic 3-run HR, Trot Nixon with the huge go-ahead RBI in the 11th…. but we don’t get to the 11th without the 1-2-3 inning of Mastny against Ortiz, Ramirez and Lowell.

ON TO JAKE

I say this every time … but the Tribe has a great chance to win tonight. Jake Westbrook in the Jake tonight against Dice-K. I think Dice-K is hittable. Jake is too, but I have faith in the beard tonight. I think Jake’s gameplan will be to go after these hitters tonight. That’s how he needs to pitch. CC and Fausto have amazing command and raw "stuff" so I think they tried to use their command to be a little too picky in the first two games. Jake and Byrdman are the kind that need to go after hitters and trust their choices and trust their pitches. If he’s able to get 0-1, 1-2 counts on hitters tonight and keep that sinker down getting guys to pound it into the ground he will have a good game.

But who’s who? In my opinion it’s no match. CC all the way. The Indians were on a stretch in August where they couldn’t score runs. Detroit was scuffling too but CC was the reason we actually took over 1st place while in the middle of our worst stretch of the season. From July 24 to September 8th CC started 10 games in a row in which is went at least 6 innings and gave up 2 runs or less. His record was 4-3 during that stretch with a 1.83 ERA. He could have easily won 22 games for us.

Josh Beckett is very good though. Two consecutive playoff shutouts including one the World Series clincher. 20-7 this season. He didn’t lose a game until mid-June. But the Tribe has had some success against he in the past. Beckett is 1-3 with 6.57 ERA against the Indians since 2004. In 24 innings he’s given up 18 runs. But this season he is 1-1 against the Tribe having only given up 3 runs in 15 innings.

Back to CC. His only start against the Red Sox this year was a 1-0 loss against Dice-K (I was at that game). And CC is only 1-2 against Boston since 2004, but he’s a different pitcher these last two seasons. On August 1, 2006, his last start at Fenway, he went 8.0 IP, struck out 8 and only surrendered a solo HR to Mark Loretta in the 3rd inning.

As you can tell I expect this to be a low-scoring pitchers matchup, but you never know in this game. The Indians have been very good against "ace" pitchers this season and I expect another great game-plan on the offensive side tonight.

It’s Tribe Time Now! Finally it’s here after the 3-day wait! GO TRIBE!

How about that Tribe!?

Still not getting credit, still not caring, still playing ball like it’s mid-September. 19-game Wang-er vs. Paul Byrdman. Who cares? Yankee Stadium in October. Who cares? The end of the Yankees as we know them. A long, over-due who cares?!

The Tribe is even getting no love from MLBlogs. The homepage has a link to Garko’s Blog, the 6 Yankee blog links. Who cares? Who cares about the Yankees? That was 1996, this is now. IT’S TRIBE TIME NOW!

The Byrdman was due. It was entertaining coming in this morning and reading the comments about all the anxiety around this Game 4 matchup. But Paul Byrd won 15 games for the Indians this season. I love the way Eric Wedge manages a club. In baseball there’s no such thing as coaching a game. You manage a club. He is the coach of the year in my book. The Indians are the organization of the decade in my book.  I love that he stuck with Paul Byrd, saying we knew (everybody knew) going into this series that we’d need 4 starters. He preaches consistancy to his club and that’s what he embodies. He’s trusts his team, he has faith in them and they respond to that. Byrd with 2 ER in 5 IP. Shoppach with 2 doubles. Borowski with the save. Perez with a huge 2 innings. Betencourt doesn’t even get mentioned because he set the Yankees down so quietly in the 8th.

Congratulations Tribe! Go Tribe! Now it’s time to focus on Boston. It’s certainly is Tribe Time Now!

I feel like the Byrd-man is due. Looking over his stats for the season he goes about 4 mediocre starts in between dominate efforts and he’s due. He gave up 2 ER in 7.0 IP in Anaheim, 3 mediocre’s then 1 ER in 6.0 IP in Boston. A mediocre June, then 1 ER in 8.1 IP in Toronto. Four mediocre’s then a complete game shut out in Minnesota. Bad outting against New York (which was following his first complete game of the year… maybe a little tired), then a decent start, two mediocre’s then a complete game shut out against the White Sox. Four mediocre-to-decent starts to end the season and now he’s due.

I checked into some more stats from the year. In Byrd’s next start against a team after having given up 4+ runs in his previous start against that team his record is 4-1 with a 3.29 ERA. Furthermore, Byrd has a 3.51 ERA on the road this season, a full point lower than his season ERA.

Let’s Go Byrd-Man!

Playoff baseball is here! The Tribe and Yankees are set to kick off their best-of-five division series tonight at Jacobs Field. It’s been a few years for Indians fans but you can rest assure that we know what this is all about.

On a quick sidenote: Check out Ryan Garko’s Playoff Blog. That is something I will definitely be looking at every day this October. Garko’s been a huge part of this team ever since last August and he’ll be hitting behind Victor Martinez tonight. I’m gonna do a little Cleveland Indians Playoff Preview now…

THE LINEUP
The Tribe offense is fueled by the success of Grady Sizemore and Travis Hafner. If Grady scores a run or Travis drives in a run we will be in great shape for that game. Asdrubal Cabrera’s ML Debut was August 8th. He’s 2/6 against the Yankees and the Indians numbers with him playing 2B are phenominal. Victor Martinez is the MVP of the team this year. He worked so hard in the off-season to be better at throwing runners out and he’s one of the best this season. Victor hit .301 with 25 HR, 114 RBI this season and came up with big hit after big hit in the most consistant season of his career. Ryan Garko drove in 50 runs in his first 45 ML games last season and he’s been nothing less this year. His biggest upside for me is his defense. He made the roster out of spring as the Tribe’s 25th man. He was supposed to split time at first base but thankfully the Garko’s hard work got him the everyday job. Peralta’s been great this year. His first year we compared his offensive numbers to Derek Jeter and he’s back to that form this year with much improved defense (2nd on the team in Fielding PCT). The bottom 1/3 of the lineup has been solidified with Kenny Lofton, Franklin G, and Casey Blake. Every year some non-superstar player makes himself a legand with a postseason play. I have a feeling about Casey Blake being that person this year….

Shut up, I know we haven’t talked in a while but there are more important things on the horizon. Yes, the Tribe is in first place. Yes, the Tribe is playing like ****. Yes, the Tribe has lost four 1-0 ballgames this season. Yes, Travis Hafner is in the midst of a season long slump (season-long… I said it). But NO WE ARE NOT OUT OF THE PLAYOFFS!

Cleveland Indians beat writer Anthony Castrovince thinks so. The last question of this weeks mailbag uncovers Castrovince’s deepest secret: He thinks the Tribe is out of the playoffs this season. The Tribe has gone through a lot this season and this is the last thing they need.

We missed seeing a home opener. We took a week off in April to enjoy the snow. We’ve spent a home series in Milwaukee. We designated a future closer for assignment. We sent down 40% of our starting rotation and our starting third basemen to AAA. We’ve designated 4 relief pitchers for assignment. We’ve seen 6-run 9th inning leads and 5-run 9th inning deficits disappear. We’ve seen four 1-0 losses. And now we’ve seen an Indians teammate denounce their abilities.

I admit as much as the next guy that I’m extremely disappointed with Travis Hafner, Cliff Lee, 90% of Jake Westbrook, the corner outfield…

I’ve said from Day 1 that the Indians will win the Central Division this season. Sure the Minnesota Twins are making us a little nervous right now, but they won’t be able to catch us in the end. Neither will Detroit. Over the last 10 games the Tigers are 1-9, while the Indians have gone just 3-7. That’s the only reason the Twins are gaining on us. They have only gone 6-4, it’s not like they are tearing it up. Their starting pitching is young and inconsistant. They have guys by the name of Punto, Tyner, Castilla and Rondell White in their starting lineup. They are NOT going to be there in the end.

The Indians are an even-keeled team. That’s the attitude Wedge pumps into them. It doesn’t hurt that Detroit has gone 1-9 over the last 10 and the Indians have crawled into first place but this is a team that isn’t phased by the "other stuff". Wedge is a man who knows when to give them a swift kick in the *** (now would be a good time, Wedge). And I believe that is not too far off if this play continues.

But everyteam goes thru bad stretches. You do your best to turn it around.

Travis Hafner is the key to our season. He looks jumpy at the plate. He takes his hand off the bat and swings like Kenny Lofton instead of driving thru with both hands. He’s swinging at bad pitches. His swing timing may not be off … but his decision-making timing is definitley off. By that I mean he’s thinking too much. He used to just hit and not think, he has that ability where he just needs to trust his instincts. He’s looking for one thing and gets something else…. Then he’s down in the count and tries to do too much. He’s thinking of what he wants to do with the swing instead of thinking of what he wants to do with the pitch.

Pronk if you’re reading this here is my suggestion. Sacrafice one game. Go up to the plate and don’t swing at all that entire game. Watch them all the way in. See what you can do with those pitches. Fastball away, line it to left. Middle/In, drive the ball to the gap. Just watch the pitches. Then the next game… see the pitches and let your body react.

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