Taking a vacation from the Tribe

Going to be gone for a week - a well-deserved vacation if I must say so.

No Tribe for a week would seem like vacation enough, but we'll be doing Disney - my daughter's pick for her senior-year family getaway.

So it should be a good time.

But before I go, there are number of things to go over.

A week that started out with a bit of promise - the team scoring runs and winning three of four - ended with the Tribe at the low point of a dismal season, at 11 games under .500 and 7-1/2 games out.

The roster moves continue (David Huff and Greg Aquino arriving, Masa Kobayashi and Tony Sipp departing), but the results are the same. No one can pitch. No one can field. No one (except Victor) can hit consistently.

David Huff's MLB debut was one to forget. Seven hits, four walks and seven runs in 3 2/3 innings. One performance does not a career make, but he appears to lack an out pitch - even after getting ahead of hitters. A lot like Jeremy Sowers. You have to give him a few shots, but so far it seems the search for a No. 5 starter - and a No. 4 for that matter - continues.

Two long-time MLB retreads - Aquino and Matt Herges - kept the Rays at bay the rest of the way (with a one-out assist from Kerry Wood). I'll take it, but I wouldn't count on it going forward.

Today's outfield was a joke; Ryan Garko in LF, Ben Francisco in CF and Shin-soo Choo in RF. Is it any wonder the Rays had a bushel full of extra-base hits?

Did Grady Sizemore need the day off? I guess probably so as he's been below the Mendoza line (.167 to be exact) over the past 11 games. But do we have to see Garko out in LF on a day when Grady is not in CF?

I've got a better question. Do we ever need to see Garko in the outfield again. He was awful out there today on balls hit over his head. That's a tough play for many outfielders but Garko wasn't close to making those plays - one of them hit for a double by Rays pitcher Andy Sonnanstine. He did manage to catch one in the 7th after an awkward chase back to the wall - but that one might be filed in the "blind squirrel finding a nut once in awhile" category.

Another thing that is becoming quickly obvious is Mark DeRosa is about as good at 1B as he was at 3B - perhaps worse. The question of where to stick him in the field is becoming a bigger one each day. The Cubs felt his best position was 2B (or at least that's where he played most of the time for them). But I can't help but think that putting him there would just reopen as many holes as were closed by putting Asrubal Cabrera at SS and moving Jhonny Peralta out of the middle of the infield. They need DeRosa's bat, which should become more consistently good at some point. But the question remains, where does he play?

The Rays did all they could to help the Tribe today by sending out a lineup card that had two 3B on it, meaning that Evan Longoria - who actually was supposed to DH and bat third - had to come out of the lineup and Sonnanstine had to hit in No. 3. So the league leader in RBIs comes out and is replaced by the pitcher in the three hole.

Of course that didn't turn out to be as rosy as you might think for the Tribe, as Garko played a can of corn to left into an RBI double for Sonnanstine. Yes Garko was playing well in, but a decent leftfielder has enough time to get under that ball.

And the game was full of controversy. A horrible call on a ball that hit the top of the wall in left took a double away from the Tribe in the top of the eighth. (Click link to see video)

And then there was the bench-clearing shout-and-shove, precipitated by two Kerry Wood pitches- one behind B.J. Upton and one just off his letters. It was supposedly retaliation for a base running indiscretion earlier in the series.

If you are thinking with your head, that's not such a good idea when your down only two and there's a runner already on first . But if you're thinking with the part of the body that puts testosterone into the blood stream, it probably wasn't such a bad move. Something to rally the team a little. Not that it did.

It is becoming very obvious that this organization does not have enough pitching to get the Tribe through this season. You can switch guys from the rotation to the pen or vice-versa at all levels of the organization. But the bottom line is there are just not enough effective big-league arms to go around.

It is time to face facts. This pitching staff, even if it at some point starts to perform at a level closer to what should be expected, is not the kind of staff that allows a team to rip off 9 of 11 or 19 of 25. And with the team already 11 games under .500 that's what it will take to put the team back into serious contention.

I just don't see that happening.

Have a good week otherwise. I should be back online next Sunday or Memorial Day at the latest.