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.

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.

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!

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.

ALCS Game 2: Mon., October 15 @  7:00 p.m. ET TV: FOX | Radio: WTAM 1100
Matsuzaka 0-0, -.--		@		Westbrook 0-0, -.--

Probable Pitchers

Game Preview | Full Schedule

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!

Next Game: Fri., October 12 @  7:00 p.m. ET TV: FOX | Radio: WTAM 1100
Sabathia 0-0, -.--		@		Beckett 0-0, -.--

Probable Pitchers

Game Preview | Full Schedule

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!

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....

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.

Click Here to Apply for the Indians Beat Writer Position

pictures from cleveland.com

Ugly. The Indians are 10-12 in the month of June. They've scored 3 runs or less TEN TIMES this month (we still have a week left). Travis Hafner is yet to hit a Homerun this month. They've lost 7 home games, after losing only 4 in the first two months combined. They consistently knock pitchers out of games on pitch counts over 100 in the 4th-5th-6th innings yet only scoring 1-2 runs off them.

We desperately need Pronk to wake up. Dellucci was heating up but now he's hurt... Nixon had his hot streak and has been cold ever since and can't play OF or run. So who, besides me, just wants to see Ben Fransisco in left and Franklin Gutierrez in right everyday? They've both been on fire since March 1st. Let's see what they got.

Maybe they would provide the needed spark. We might just be a tired club. We had 6 days off in the first 2 weeks of the season. Since then they've barely had time to sleep with all the plane trips. By the time the All-star break comes July 9th we will have played 79 games in 82 days. At this point I'm not even sure if I expect the Indians to be in first place by the break... although we do have a series with the Tigers coming up so it's very possible.

We are right in front of a VERY important stretch of the season. Two games out with 14 to go until the All-Star break. Let's hope Pronk gets blazing hot and him and Victor carry the team to the break. Right now this could go either way. We could stumble and fall back 5-6 games in the division... or we could re-gain first place and go into the break with a lead.

Anyway, since no one cares who the best catcher in the leauge is... I thought I'd share a article with you by John Donovan of Sports Illustrated. At least he thinks there is one Indian worthy of starting the all-star game.

World Series re-match week continues at the Jake this weekend when the Braves come to town. Although the Tribe is in first place, I've put together a list of things I'm still waiting for:

• Travis Hafner to catch fire ... or at least resemble himself.
• The rotation to be consistant and win.
• Travis Hafner's offense
• Westbrook and Lee
• Pronk

And how about that 1-0 game last night? What a great job by CC Sabathia.

Now on a more serious note. Are the Indians even going to have an All-Star!? Victor Martinez has 12 HRs, 50 RBIs, he's batting .321 ... and is FIFTH IN THE ALL-STAR VOTING! That is absurd. I know most of the vote-in lineups are made of Red Sox and Yankees... but that is just ridiculous. I honestly can't even think of 5 catchers in the American Leauge. Victor is #1, Joe Mauer is and has been hurt. Varietek is at best average. Get over it Boston fans. HE'S AVERAGE (at best)!  Jhonny Peralta is hitting .297 with 11 HRs ... what's Jeter doing? Oh, he's just 2nd in errors of all AL shortstops, that's all.

This is easliy the most absurd voting in years. Jason Giambi is ahead of Hafner in the 1B vote. Joe Mauer is ahead of Victor in the catcher vote... THEY AREN'T EVEN ON THE ACTIVE ROSTER! Robinson Cano is leading the 2B vote. Are you kidding me? Are. You. Kidding. Me! He's batting .276 with 3 HRs, 1 SB, 6 Errors (2nd most on the Yankees next to Jeter).

You Tribe fans are lazy. Get out there and vote.

Tribe fans... We need to "Rise Up" here so I'm providing you with some all-star voting tips.

ALL-STAR VOTING TIPS

• Victor Martinez for catcher. Victor Martinez for catcher. VICTOR MARTINEZ FOR CATCHER!
• Do NOT vote for any Yankees or Red Sox, NO MATTER WHAT.
• VOTE FOR PRONK.
• Vote Grady in the OF. And DO NOT vote for any other good OFs or you'll just be cancelling out your Grady vote. I'm voting for Grady Sizemore, Emil Brown, and Rondell White.
• Jhonny Peralta > Derek Jeter. Peralta's even better defensively this year... and He's 2nd to Victor on the Indians in hits.
• Vote online. Vote often. If you vote once online it remembers your answers if you click to link to immediately vote again. And you're allowed to vote at least 25 times. Take advantage.
• Vote Now!

I took a deeper look at the standings and here's what I found. There are 3 teams currently 10 or more games over .500 at home this season (Indians, Angels, Brewers). None of them have a winning record on the road!Combined they are 34 games over .500 at home, 6 games under .500 on the road. Now I don't really believe that they are a worse team on the road... but for some reason they are easier to beat away from Jacobs Field... and they desperately need to figure this out.

This is a game that worries me tonight. Sowers on the mound and the Indians on the verge of getting swept by Kansas City. The Royals are actually 8-2 in their last 10 games.

I think they will get it turned around on the road eventually, but I'd like to see it happen on this road trip. They just had a 10-game trip where they dropped the first 2 in Baltimore (probably should have at least split those). But they came back and had a chance to even out the trip if it wasn't for the Borowski meltdown #2. Actually, Joe himself can account for two of those road losses, so we should be 12-11. We also should have taken 2 of 3 from KC but now we are in danger of lossing all three.

There really isn't much to complain about with the Indians lately. I love the team and they're doing great, so far. But eveyone in Cleveland who watches them knows they are doing great... and not playing their best baseball. Eric Wedge says this himself pretty much after every win in the post-game interviews. I believe Eric has the team focused and now more than ever they know their strengths, they know their weaknesses, they know where and how they can improve and I believe they will get there. This year.

If you toss out the fluke that was 2006 (and I will chalk that up to 50% fluke, 50% AL Central division), the Indians have improved each year Eric Wedge has been in charge. And this year, more than any other under him, I feel like they are one of the top 3 or 4 teams in the AL.

I think sometimes the law of averages catches up with you as we probably are seeing as evidence in the road records of the 3 best home teams this season. Also, as I mentioned before I believe the Tribe knows that we need a solid bullpen and they are working towards it (part of why they let Jason Davis go was to give them more freedom to bring someone like Mujica or Koplove up and see if they can add stability). I think they know that they need to get more consistant on the road and focus on each at-bat, each game, each series. This is evident when you see that they have 3 guys in the top 10 in pitches/at-bat; They're being patient and getting good pitches to hit. They make pitchers work and get them out of the games early. It's evident when you see just how many series and games they have already won this season. I think they realize that they need to do better against the teams they are expected to win against, but not to take them lightly. I dont' know if I have evidence for that one yet... They've lost 3 of 7 to Baltimore, 2 to KC, 3 to the Yankees... But most importantly of all is that this is a team with confidence. I think they know they can win.

... And I think I want them to win tonight... It would really make me feel a little better.