My first Indians post of 2010, in which it’s reported that Russell Branyan will be the starting first baseman, Matt LaPorta will be in left field, and Michael Brantley, well, he may be in the minors.
WE'RE NOT HERE TO COOPERATE
February 25, 2010
Yes, I'm Actually Going To Do It ...
October 26, 2009
CC vs. Cliff Lee
The complaining has already started that two former Indians pitchers are likely going to go against each other in game one of the World Series Wednesday night. I’d like to, however, take a different approach to this.
1) One pitcher, even a Cy Young Winner, does not make a team a World Series Champion.
2) CC was drafted by the Indians and developed by them - this should give us a little hope in the organization’s ability to draft and develop.
3) Cliff was traded for by the Indians and then really re-developed by them. Remember he was sent down to the minors in 2007 to get right. Perhaps this bodes well for Fausto Carmona and the pitching prospects the Indians traded for this season…although we will see.
As a fan of both pitchers, despite my misgivings about the way CC pitched in the postseason in 2007 and the fact that Cliff was left off the postseason roster in 2007 because of his performance that year, I’m looking forward to the game.
October 23, 2009
Two Quick Things
Real quick:
Interesting story about Rajon Rondo that my boy Adlew Druz sent. For the record, if I’m doling out max contracts next season, I’m a lot closer to giving one to Rondo than I am to Chris Bosh. He’ll be restricted, but would look very good in a Cavs uniform playing alongside Bron.
Bobby Valentine sounds like a disaster. Why would the Indians want to hire a (basically) career .500 manager who hates rebuilding and knows nothing about the current state of MLB or its players? I want to see what happens with Don Mattingly and Torey Lovullo, but I’m pretty close to endorsing Manny Acta as the best candidate. His interview with the media, I thought, was very impressive.
October 22, 2009
CC’s Postseason Success in NYC vs. Failure in Cleveland
Like my brother, I thought for sure that CC Sabathia would suck this postseason with the Yankees just like he did with the Indians and Brewers previously.
So far, we’ve been wrong.
The thought that I’m sure went through the minds of plenty of Clevelanders - regrettably, myself included - was that CC’s turnaround has something to do with him getting out of Northeast Ohio. The culture of losing, if you will, a curse maybe, or even karma is the culprit.
Of course, that would mean Milwaukee has all of these problems, too.
But instead of subscribing to an opinion akin to witchcraft, I thought I should look into how many innings CC threw in the 2007 regular season. In 2008, the general consensus (which I’m always cautious of) was that the Brewers over-used Sabathia down the stretch, leaving him exhausted and ineffective for his one playoff start, which he bombed out on.
Having said that, Sabathia did throw a complete game on the final day of the 2008 season, giving up one run with 7 SO’s and 1 BB - that he magically crossed the threshold between exhausted and capably tired when the regular season became the postseason seems questionable…however, it was also CC’s fourth straight start on three days rest!
In 2008, Sabathia threw 253 innings for the Brewers and Indians combined. In 2007, he pitched 241 innings for the Indians. This year for the Yankees, CC’s innings count ended up at 230.
So the discrepancy between all three seasons may not be huge - but what’s massive (besides CC himself) is the leap Sabathia made between 2006 and 2007.
CC’s innings pitched in 2006: 192.2
For those without a calculator, that means the Indians increased his workload by 48.1 innings!
Further, CC had only pitched more than 200 innings one other time in his career up until 2007, in his second season with the Tribe, when he threw 210 innings. In other words, there was no real precedent for him to be used so extensively.
Thankfully, at least, the Indians never used CC on three days rest in 2007. And his last three starts - one of which came after the team clinched the division on September 23 - were only 7 inning efforts, so it’s hard to be overly critical of how they used him down the stretch.
Still, there’s certainly reason to wonder what made manager Eric Wedge and pitching coach Carl Willis think that Sabathia wouldn’t be worn down in the postseason when they chose to up his workload 25% between 2006 and 2007. Certainly, it’s a debatable decision.
We can thank Willis and Wedge for one thing though - at least now we don’t have to act like CC’s failure in the Indians postseason was the result of some kind of ridiculous Cleveland curse. Their questionable management of him gives us one other possible, and highly plausible, reason.
September 30, 2009
Tumult in NE Ohio
Here’s what happened today:
Inadequinn got benched. D.A. will start on Sunday.
“Red” aka Delonte West continues to be M.I.A. from practice.
Eric Wedge was fired.
It’s early (I’m writing this at about 6:00pm Cleveland time) but the prevailing attitude I’ve been hearing is that this is an “Only in Cleveland” day. The thinking is that cosmically bad things happen in Northeast Ohio, Cleveland is cursed, and it’s impossible for anything positive to occur here.
Certain things in life can be controlled; others can’t. Let’s start there. Not a single individual reading this blog could have helped the Indians begin the season with a winning record in April, enabled Quinn to improve his third down conversion rate, or gotten Delonte to show up at practice (I don’t think - unless Jamario Moon accepted Holland’s Friend Request).
In this case, we’re all merely impartial observers who care deeply about the Cleveland sports triumvirate but can’t get on the floor or on the field, and aren’t even capable of navigating the front offices because we haven’t dedicated our lives to scoring one of those positions (although maybe we should have).
In other words, it’s out of our hands.
Having said that, here’s my take on 9/30/09 - the day of tumult.
The Browns
In the relatively small amount of time we’ve been able to watch Quinn and Anderson this season, both have sucked. I’m beginning to think this is more of a product of Brian Daboll’s offensive scheme than anything else, but it’s hard for us to imagine that playing D.A. instead of Quinn will result in an outcome far worse - or even just regular worse - than what we’ve seen so far.
Yes, it’s somewhat of a desperation move on the part of Alpha Dog, but he already went for the Hail Mary when he pulled Inadequinn at the start of the second half. Plus, going to D.A. now is going to result in one of two things - success of some kind or more failure, in which case Mangini will have created what I believe he’s been trying to create ever since he traded the 5th pick in the draft…and that is a pathway to naming Brett Ratliff his starting QB.
The Cavs
Delonte’s continued status as a “no show” is clearly the most troubling of any of today’s developments. I understand that we’re reaching a point of no return with Red - there’s a lot at stake this season, and the team needs him…but the team needs him. Is anyone comfortable with a 2 guard rotation that consists of Anthony Parker and a hodgepodge of combo guards (Boobie Gibson and Coby Karl), an unproven rookie (Danny Green), and a D-League All-Star (Jawad Williams)?
That’s what I thought. As a result, unfortunately, the Cavs are going to have to continue to manage the Delonte situation with care because, really, he holds all of the cards at this point.
A trade isn’t going to happen - at least not one where you can get equal value - and cutting Delonte would be unconscionable for basketball and ethical reasons.
The Indians
Would anyone have been happy if Wedgie had started the 2010 season as the Indians manager?
I didn’t think so.
In other news, Justin Masterson struck out 12 and walked 1 in 9 innings tonight, without giving up a HR. Further, Fausto Carmona had 5 K’s and 2 BB’s in 7 innings, also without giving up a HR. At one point, Fausto had thrown 20 of 26 first pitch strikes.
I leave you with this quote from Don Draper in Mad Men, which incidentally is the lead quote in my novel:
“…and let’s also say that change is neither good or bad; it simply is. It can be greeted with terror or joy. A tantrum that says, ‘I want it the way it was’ or a dance that says, ‘look, it’s something new.’”
Plus, did anyone really say “Only in Cleveland” the day the Cavs won the lottery in 2003?
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