Thursday, May 21, 2009

Something Truly Amazing...

Today against the Trenton Thunder in the AA Eastern League, Starter Jeanmar Gomez of the Cleveland Indians AA Affiliate, the Akron Aeros, pitched a Perfect Game. Gomez went all nine, retiring all 27 batters he faced, and striking out 9. This is something truly amazing and something he will remember for the rest of his life. Gomez now stands with a 4-0 record with a miniscule 0.31 ERA.

Monday, May 18, 2009

In case anyone missed it...

The Cleveland Indians said they were moving Hector Rondon back to the starting rotation starting Wednesday according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer,

Role change (again): Right-hander Hector Rondon is returning to Class AA Akron's starting rotation Wednesday. The Indians moved Rondon to the bullpen for two appearances because they felt they may need his help in Cleveland.

Rondon, 5-0 as a starter, had trouble adjusting to the pen. He still could pitch his way to Cleveland this season because outside of Cliff Lee and Carl Pavano, the Indians are concerned about the rotation.

I understand why the Indians wanted to make this move in the first place, the Indians are desperate to find anyone to help them. Rondon has that good fastball a lot of Indians pitchers lack, he was already on the 40-man roster, and he could probably move the quickest if successful at pitching out of the bullpen. Well apparently the pen is not his thing, and that doesn't surprise me, the kid has probably never done it and is not use to warming up quick like he has to in the pen. Isn't that exactly why they didn't put Sowers in the pen and instead put Laffey in the pen? Sowers had not pitched out of the bullpen since his early college days at Vanderbilt, Laffey had pitched out of the bullpen as recently as 2006 and he could also quickly warm-up. Back to the Rondon move, I am glad the Indians did not wait around too long to backtrack on their decision, if Rondon doesn't help us this year in the Indians rotation, he will certainly be given the chance next year in spring training.

State of the Tribe Address: May 19, 2009

It was a very interesting weekend this past weekend as all friends of the feather know. We had a 9-run lead in game one of the Rays series, but had to add on extra runs to keep the Rays from rallying. Game two we were not so fortunate as we had seven run lead and still managed to lose it. Game three we just could not get it together at the plate vs. a good Matt Garza and Carl Pavano was, well Carl Pavano, not Cliff Lee, but good enough to win for sure. Game four was an eventful one to put it mildly. First the Rays forget to make one of their third basemen a designated hitter, so 13 minutes later, the umps find out, oh you lose your DH and the pitcher has to hit in his spot. Well that should be an automatic out then for an AL pitcher right? Guess again, Andy Sonnastine didn't pitch very well, but he did hit a two-out, rbi double. The Indians have a hard time getting their position players getting hits with two outs, but the Rays can get their pitcher to get one.

So here we stand at 14-25 7.5 GB of the 1st-place Detroit kitty cats. At least they figured out what the Twins did last year, but the Indians couldn't, Juan Rincon becomes free agent after not accepting assignment to Triple-A Toledo.

Back to the Tribe though, what can be done to help this team, a returning Travis Hafner? A change at manager? Tradeing for a successful bullpen guy?

Well as it appears right now, Hafner will return shortly, so hopefully that means David Dellucci will be given his pink slip shortly. From what I understand Hafner will be with Columbus the rest of the week and this weekend and when the Indians return to the Prog next Monday to face the Rays, he will be activated from the DL. Obviously I have pointed out I would like to see Dellucci or the Looch as I have come to known him from other Wahoo fans, however what us fans would like to see and what the front office is going to do can be different many times, so here are a few other options that could happen,

They could option one of Matt LaPorta, Luis Valbuena, Ben Francisco, or Ryan Garko. Sorry Wedgie, Josh Barfield has already been optioned to Columbus. I will tell you why, none of the four mentioned before should not be the one moved for Hafner.

LaPorta is young and there is nothing left for him to prove or learn in AAA, he simply just needs to be in the line-up and play. Valbuena is the second back-up infielder, leaving Carroll as the only back-up infielder so that won't happen. Ben Francisco is your only legite option other than Sizemore in CF unless you want put Jamey Carroll out there. I know Sizemore doesn't take many days off but he sure needs them this year, still hasn't taken enough and makes me wonder if he is still dealing with his Spring Training groin injury. Garko doesn't flat out deserved to be sent down, but I wonder if Ryan is truly in Wedge's doghouse, then why hasn't he been, that's why Barfield keeps getting sent down, isn't it?


Waiter!!! I don't like this manager, can your get me a new one?

Well wahoo fans we can ask that all we want and we won't be getting a yes to that answer. Although I don't think it should be one anyways, I usually see a pattern with managers being fired after a team has underperformed, and usually it is the manager can just not simply win with the team put on the field by the front office. Did anyone really expect the Devil Rays to win under Sweet Lou, of course not, but we all knew the track record of Lou and knew he was a good manager. Joe Torre had problems with keeping the front office and owner happy on his way to managing the Yankess, but once he was there and was given a proper team, boom playoffs every year, isn't that amazing? So here I will go on record as saying Wedge should not be fired because it is not entirely his fault and it doesn't seem the players are giving up on him, so we know they're trying at least.


You must be really scraping the bottom of the barrel...

That does seem what Mark Shapiro is doing, with recently signing RHP Blaine Neal. There are other options to go though then signing AAAA re-treads, we could trade for someone like our good ol' buddy Danys Baez, or here is a crazy idea, how about not keeping guys like Neal, Vinnie Chulk and Masa Kobayashi around and letting guys like Steven Wright, Vinnie Pestano, Scott Roehl, Erik Stiller, or Neil Wagner have a chance proving themselves at AAA? They at least figured out a way to get Frank Herrman at AAA, in the bullpen, which actually may not be a very good move as he does not get a lot of swings and misses, something we have too much of and has not worked. Not saying Herrman is no good, just maybe better suited in the starter's role where he leads the inning off and doesn't have to come in with runners on trying to get an out.


Well that's all for this edition of State of the Tribe Address for this week, maybe we will be in better shape next Tuesday.