What a comeback! Bench players will never make the all-star team … but Kelly Shoppach is an All-Star at reserve catcher if there ever has been one.

pictures from cleveland.com

No. The answer is no. It’s not different. It’s not exciting. It’s not appealing. And I hate seeing the Indians lose 3-1 games. National League fans love the pitchers duel, the stolen base, the sacrafice bunt. Don’t get me wrong I love when my team can execute the "small ball" plays and put together good at-bats… but how can you watch that type of game 162 days a year? Give me the 3-run game-winning homers. And the Indians, minus one 3-run, game-winning HR should have been swept by the Nationals.

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.

First off, I’d like to say thank you to all the broadcasters and writers that keep reminding us of the last time we played in Florida in the post-season. They actually had a link on indians.com to watch game 7… once was enough for me. I will never forget the pictures in my mind of Omar’s diving play, or Chad Ogea’s rbi hits, or Bobby Bonilla’s HR to cut the lead in half when Jaret Wright was cruising, or the sac fly, or the single off Nagy’s glove…

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

Well I made it to my first two Indians games of the year last weekend!! I tried to get to game 2 at the Jake but it was snowed out so I went to Thursday’s game instead. Great Tribe win, AMAZING Sizemore catch. The next night I was also going out to the game for Dollar Dog Day! Now I’ve never admitted this publically… but in 2001 when the Indians came back from down 12 runs in the 7th inning I was there. I was at that game…. but I left early. Friday night I felt a little vindicated. The Indians were down 5-1 in the 6th. Peralta and Michaels hit HRs to tie it. Down 9-5, they scored 2 more to get back into it. Down 11-7 in the bottom of the 9th the Indians score 5 times to win it in what was one of the most exciting finishes I’ve seen at Jacobs Field (and I’ve seen some good ones). And the Jake was sold out which is always fun to be a part of.

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!

Maybe I’m missing something here… Why are the Indians a different team on the road? The Indians are 17-4 at home and 10-13 on the road this season. Is there something wrong with the gray jerseys? Even when they were in Milwaukee for "home" games they won 2 out of 3. What gives?

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.

Bartolo Colon is on the mound tonight against the Tigers. It got me to thinking when I saw his picture on the Tigers website.

Pre Rookie:

Then:

Now:

Seems rather fitting actually. We traded him for Cliff Lee and Grady Sizemore and now he weighs about the same as Cliff Lee and Grady Sizemore combined (although the Angels website only lists him at 245lbs). I’m not trying to put Bartolo down, I like him. I just wish he was in a little better shape or with his arm problems he’ll probably be done in 3-4 years. Maybe he would have been anyway though, he is 34.

Speaking of Cliff Lee, he’s on the mound tonight against the Royals. The Tribe for whatever reason has been struggling against left handed pitching and that’s what happened last night with a 4-3 loss. Hopefully we can rebound and take the last 2 from KC heading into a big series in Detroit this weekend.

Clifton goes for his 3rd win in his fifth start. I think he’s been pretty solid so far, but it’s time for him to really get into a groove and turn it into a big season. Remember before spring training they were saying Cliff is really the wildcard in the rotation. They thought that Jake was consistant, CC was the leader, Byrdman the veteran, Sowers the young and comer… They really wanted Cliff to cement himself as the #2 or #1(a) as it’s called sometimes in the Big Leagues (I’m trying out some sweet MLB-Lingo on this MLBlog… some kind of professional I’m becoming).

I think we all know that Jermey Sowers has a ticket to Buffalo come mid-June when Westbrook is back. He’s getting hit at will this season and Fausto is really the staff’s number 2 guy so far. I believe in Cliff. I think he will be and probably is our #2 guy. I predict Tribe win tonight, against Scott Elarton … I say 10-4 we win.

You can never say that too many times. Detroit lost game 1 of their double header and the Indians for the second time this season, behind another gem by Fausto Carmona, beat Johan Santana. The last time a pitcher beat Santana twice in one season was back in May and July of 2004 when Jon Garland and the White Sox beat Johan and the Twinkies 17-7 and 2-1. Fausto does it 5-3 in Minnesota and 2-0 today in Cleveland.

Back to back homeruns by Victor Martinez (his 3rd career HR off Santana) and Ryan Garko in the 7th took the Tribe to their 24th win of the season.  It was the first time the Indians have hit back-to-back homeruns since August of last season when it was again, Vic and Ryan.

The Indians, now 12-2 at Jacobs Field (offically 14-3 at home), are the best home team in the Major Leagues. They are 9-2 against the Central including 5-0 against the reigning division champs (it’s Minnesota for those of you who forgot).

What more is there to say? The Tribe had me a little down after a 4-6 road trip, which could have easily gone 6-4 … but they bounced right back and swept the Twinkies.

Go Tribe!

I want to be on the Indians. Is that too much to ask? I could live on 1/6th of the league minimum. I wouldn’t even take up a roster spot. They can just put me on the DL. I want to be on the first step giving out high-fives and hand-pounds to runners that score. I wanna be the first guy off the bench and out to the front step to watch a homerun sail into the bleachers. I want to be in that line at the end of the game where they all give high fives and some weird players-only secret hand shake. I want to pat the winning pitcher on the butt. I want to be in the dugout putting bubble gum on the top of the rookies hat… and I’ll make sure to tell the camera guy next to the dugout.

I can lighten the mood when it’s too tense. I can keep us focused when we’re down by 3 in the 7th.

My new cubicle

I like Joe Borowski. In the post-game interviews he’s a nice guy. I don’t know if I like him as our closer. Steve Phillips (former NY Mets GM) said on the radio this morning that the Indians won’t make the playoffs because of Borowski. I hope he’s wrong, I’m just not sure I can disagree yet. He’s already blown two games where he’s had a 4-run and a 2-run lead with NOBODY ON BASE and TWO OUTS in the 9th…

This got me thinking — after that first save in Chicago we heard that Borowski is going to be like Bob Wickman whereas he’s going to make it interesting but he’ll pull thru most of the time. I know blown saves happen, it’s part of the game… But with a multiple run lead with NOBODY ON BASE and TWO OUTS in the 9th…

I dug deeper. Let’s compare the opposition’s batting average off of Bob Wickman in 2005 to the same off of Joe Borowski in 2007 thus far:

                                Wicky          Joe B
AVG                         .247             .306
Runners On           .149             .407
Scoring Position      .094           .467
Scoring Pos, 2 out   .077           .583

.583!? Are you kidding me?? Teams are hitting .583 with runners in scoring postition and 2 outs!? How can you close out a game like that? The stats just keep getting worse in that comparison. Joe just hasn’t been able to CLOSE anything. Looking at those stats I honestly don’t even know how he has 12 saves. He is actually 12 of 14 in save opportunities, which isn’t too bad, but his ERA is 9.00. Meaning, he’s giving up 1 run per inning. I really can’t bring myself to disagree with Steve Phillips with all this.

So who can our closer be? Well last year we tried Tom Mastny there for a little time. He’s actually been our best, most consistant man in the bullpen this year. Let’s see his stats in these categories this year … again comparing to Borowski because seeing his numbers just one time is not enough to grasp the true ugliness (and we’ll also combined Mastny’s ’06 numbers to get a bigger sample):

                            Mastny (’07)   Joe B        Mastny (’06-’07)
AVG                           .203             .306            .279
Runners On              .227             .407           .258
Scoring Position      .200             .467            .278
Scoring Pos, 2 out  .000 (0/5)    .583            .200 (2/10)

Now thinking back to the Steve Phillips comments and thinking about playoff baseball, Tom Mastny is someone who I think could be a difference maker in the back end of the Tribe bullpen. I’m just not comfortable with Borowski, especially in the types of situations that playoff baseball brings. I hope it doesn’t get to the point where we need to make a bullpen switch … but it sure would be nice to see a little more closing being done by the closer.

Happy Mothers’ Day. I took my mom (and dad) to the airport this morning so they can be on their way to Hawaii for 2 weeks. While they are on their way out of Cleveland, the Tribe is making their way back tonight.

It’s been a tough road trip but all you try to do on the road is go .500. It started out rough with 2 losses in Baltimore but the Indians battled back to take the last two and split the series. They dropped 2 to the Angels after winning the first game and have split the first two with Oakland. A Mothers’ Day win can bring the Tribe home even for the trip at 5-5.

A few Indians will be using the pink bats today for breast cancer awareness… and Mom’s, I guess.

How about Cliff Lee’s start the other day in Anaheim? Complete game, 3 hits. That was really good to see in his second game of the year. Cliff battles the pink bats of the A’s this afternoon. Go Tribe!