Baby steps for the Tribe as they take the Royals series

It's not exactly a reason to kill the fatted calf, but the Indians have their first series victory of the season to hang their hats on today.

A three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth by Grady Sizemore gave the Tribe a 5-2 win today at Progressive Field and their first series victory - two games to one.

Given that it was a series within the Central Division, it kind of takes a little bit of the sting out of the fact that the Tribe split the series in New York, when they could have easily swept the first-ever series at the New Yankee Stadium.

The offense, until very recently, has been the only reason for optimism for the Tribe. They still have their nights of K's and LOB's, but for the most part they've done the job.

The big difference lately has been the Tribe's starters.

In the last eight games, starting with the final game in KC last week, the Tribe is 5-3. The ERA for the starting pitchers in those games is 2.92 and 5 of the 8 met the (admittedly weak) standard to be considered a "quality start." The stretch started with Aaron Laffey's first appearance of the year, in Kansas City, and runs through today's fine outing by Anthony Reyes.

In the stretch, Cliff Lee has gotten things righted, Fausto Carmona has shown he at least still has some concept of how to pitch, Laffey has had two good starts in two tries, Carl Pavano had his bullpen-ruined gem in New York on Sunday and Reyes has been solid.

The only thing missing now is some longevity.

Over the past 8 games, Tribe starters have gone 49 1/3 innings, or just over 6 innings per start. A far cry from the early blowouts in the first 8 games, but still leaving plenty of room for improvement.

In the last four games the starters have gone 27 innings, 1 shy of an even 7 per start - and one might argue (as I already have) that Carl Pavano should have been allowed to go that one more inning on Sunday.

So things are looking up in the starting pitching department, even to the point where it's not quite clear just where Scott Lewis will fit in when he comes off the DL.

Anybody have any thoughts on that?

Which brings us to the bullpen - which three weeks ago was being heralded as the strength of the club.

Let's start with the good.

How much fun is it watch Kerry Wood come in and just blow people away? One might say it's worth - oh - $10 million bucks.

No more walks, singles, 3-2 counts and gnawed-off finger nails in the 9th. For the first time in a decade.

True enough Wood provided some drama Tuesday, giving up a two-run homer with a three-run lead, but I'm giving him a pass on that one. The inning was prolonged by an infield hit and the dinger barely made it over the wall in right field. He dominated four of the five guys he faced, though one did manage to eke out that single.

The other slight ray of hope presented itself last night, with the arrival of Tony Sipp. The just-recalled rookie lefty made his debut with a perfect inning, which included a K. Sipp - from the few pitches he threw - seems to have a decent fastball with serious movement, and a big slow breaking ball. The movement on both pitches, and the drastic changes in speed made him look tough to hit. If he can hold down the fort against lefties until Raffie Perez gets it back together, or grab the reins himself in the late innings, the huge hole in the pen will seem just that much smaller.

Jensen Lewis slammed the door on a bullpen-induced rally by the Royals Monday night with his best outing so far this year. But, while he pitched two scoreless innings today that 8th inning was still pretty shaky. Still, his last two outings have been an improvement, so there's reason for hope there.

I suggested the Tribe try Joe Smith in a bigger role. My bad. Smith had difficulties Monday night and he and Masa Kobayashi nearly blew a 6-1 lead in the 8th. He needs to find a way to get lefties out or he will be limited to that rarest of roles - the righty specialist.

Let's not take the pen off the feeding tube just yet.

Still, after starting the season at 0-5, the Tribe is taking baby steps in the right direction.

My first trip to the new Yankee Stadium; Why it may be time to fire Wedge, and a few other passing thoughts

My first trip to the new Yankee Stadium ended up much the same way as so many trips to the old park did - the Tribe holding on to a lead late into the game, only to be done in by a bad call, a bad bullpen, bad fielding, lousy clutch hitting, stupid managing, or just bad karma. Sunday it was at least five out of six of those factors that did in the Tribe.

The most talked-about moment of the game of course was the fan interference / two-run homer that put the Yanks ahead to stay in the seventh inning.

From my $350 seats (no I did not pay for them - we'll get into that later), I was an entire baseball field away from the chief action of the day. I clearly didn't have the angle - though from my seat it looked like Trevor Crowe had the ball in his glove and then lost it on his way back to earth.

My next-door neighbor, the biggest Yankee fan I know (that's saying something) and who just happens to have Sunday-plan tickets on the right field porch, said, "From my angle, slightly to the left, the ball was over the wall/on top of the wall, very close and the fan’s hands were above the players glove."

How's that for definitive.

After getting home and watching a replay on YES - the Yankees broadcast channel - it looked like a homer. Until I saw another replay, which clearly made it appear the fan was reaching into the field.

The point is, the argument is pointless. Plenty of things went wrong from the seventh inning on - and a split-second decision by an umpire was not one of them (I don't think).

Back to those other five things.

Let's start with lousy clutch hitting. With the bases loaded and one out in the seventh, the Tribe had Mark DeRosa and Vic Martinez coming to the plate. With those odds they should have squeaked across at least one run through osmosis. If Cleveland gets one or two more runs there, maybe Carl Pavano gets to go another inning. At the very least the bullpen would have more margin for error.

Though clearly, by what happened the rest of the way, there is no such concept where the Indians bullpen is concerned.

Our "lefty specialist" comes in to face two lefties. A single, a double - he's gone. Nice job Raffie.

Jensen Lewis - the one pitching this April like last April's version, instead of the August-September guy - is brought in to give up the controversial dinger. Having had to stand around for nine minutes while the umpires watched the replay, Lewis had to come out of the game - yielding to Raffie Betancourt, who fared no better.

Which brings us to the bad fielding, and more bad relief pitching.

After finishing off the seventh inning for Lewis with two Ks, Raffie Betancourt manged two quick outs in the eight, with the Tribe still down one. A double, 2 walks (one intentional) and something scored as a double in the box score made it 7-3 and Betancourt was gone. The three runs scored on a sky-high fly ball to left that Shin-Soo Choo apparantly gave up on as foul (some say he lost it in the sun) or was just not adept enough to get to for whatever reason. The ball dropped near the line in left filed (on the fair side) and the game was out of reach. (I love his bat, I like his arm, but oh that glove!)

Which brings us to bad managing.

Those of you who have read this blog over the years know that I am not a blame-the-manager-first type of guy. But Raffie Perez? With just a two-run lead? You can't just go by the long-term track record. Sometimes it is smart to ask, "what have you done for me lately?" Perhaps the 14.00-plus ERA should have served as a reminder to Wedge that Perez hasn't been getting it done so far this year. Jensen Lewis has been nearly as bad - so of course let's bring him in next.

Any thought of letting Carl Pavano (89 pitches through 6 innings) come out for the seventh instead?

Anybody ever heard of Joe Smith? He comes in two or three times, gets his one right-handed batter out then disappears. Might Wedge have rolled the dice and brought him into the game, even if it meant he would have had to face two, or dare we say it, three hitters? Seems like a better bet than what Lewis has been giving us lately.

Maybe Smith could have gotten us through seven, and Kerry Wood - who has pitched all of three innings in 13 games - might have been pushed for a two-inning save (especially with an off day coming up).

Do we need to try something different?

Didn't someone once say the definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result?

I don't say this lightly. But since he is so firm in his ways - ways that seem to backfire on him regularly - maybe the something different we need to try is a new manager. Before this thing gets out of hand.

I say that not because I would have handled yesterday differently, or because the bad managing came on a day that I had tickets and am ticked because we lost.

There have been many times over the years I've been tempted to say it's time to pull the plug on Wedge, but then I think it over and say maybe not.

Well, he's been around for six-plus years now and where has the Tribe gone with him?

The first years were rebuilding years, so we'll look past them. In 2005, the Tribe was one of the big surprises in baseball. But when they needed just one win in the last week of the season to make the playoffs, they couldn't get it done. We can chalk that up to a young team that felt the pressure.

In 2006 there were, justifiably, some rather large expectations. Followed by an awful season. Again, we can say the guys were young. They weren't ready for the pressure.

In 2007 lots of things fell into place and the Tribe made it to the ALCS. They had a 3-1 lead in the series in fact. And then, like a guy on the high wire who makes it three-fourths of the way across before he mistakenly looks down, the Tribe got woozy and choked against the Red Sox.

Last year, again, was a year of high expectations. The season was over by Mother's Day. Once the heat was off, the Tribe managed to right the ship and finish at .500.

And now with most observers giving them at least an equal chance to anyone else to win the Central Division, they've started the season once again with a swan dive.

Are we picking up a pattern here?

Why can't this team play when there is something to play for?

Fans criticize the team's motivation and the low-key approach of the manager. I think this team has heart - but not stomach. They can't handle the pressure that comes with expectation, or moderate success.

Whatever the case, this manager has proven time and time again he can not get the most out of his players when the heat is on.

The Tribe has played 13 games. They have 19 to go before Mother's Day (an arbitrary choice perhaps, but one that seems to be at about the right point in the season). If there has not been a significant change in the team's fortunes by then, Wedge should be gone before the season can't be salvaged.

In the meantime, some quick decisions need to be made about how to get this thing going. Who needs to go. Who needs to replace them. Who should do what in the bullpen.

That said, let's get back to a more pleasant topic.

My first trip to the new Yankee Stadium yesterday was a lot of fun, despite the final score.

As you probably know, the park - on the outside - looks pretty much just like those grainy films you've seen of the original Yankee Stadium, prior to its refurbishment. The nostalgia rush is terrific.

Inside, as much as I thought the old place was fine, the new place is definitely a significant improvement.

At seat level, if you let your mind wander even a little bit, you feel like you are still at the old stadium. The dimensions are the same. The fans are the same, the "feel" is the same. Those of you who are local will be happy to know that even Freddie - the frying pan man - was able to make the transition to the new place.

The biggest improvement of all is in the concourses. The wide, open concourses. At the old place, they were narrow, dirty and tunnel-like. At game's end, with 50,000 people filing out you could scarcely move. In the new stadium there's plenty of room for everyone, you can see the field from the concession stand lines (many of them anyway) and the bathrooms are habitable by human beings after the third inning (something that was not true across the street.)

Still, with all of the improvements and amenities, I'll take Progressive Field and Camden Yards over the new Yankee stadium because they feel more "homey" or intimate. More like ballparks than a stadium.

As it turns out the first ticket I got to the new Yankee Stadium will likely be the best I'll ever have.

The face value on the ticket for the seat I was in was $350. It was nine rows from the field and to the right of the Tribe dugout, about even with the on-deck circle. Since there was no screen to contend with, as there is for seats right behind the plate, I, arguably, had the best seat in the place, especially when you consider that the seats in the first eight rows (in front of a five-foot walkway that separated my seat from those), were selling (or in this case, not selling), for $2,650. Yes, that is for one seat.

I was invited to the game by a friend of mine, Yank Poleyeff, who works for a big corporation in the city and who also is a long-time writer for the magazine Indians Ink. Yank and I met over the winter through this blog and now can depend on each other to jointly weather the slings and arrows that come the way of a Tribe fan at Yankee Stadium, rather than going it alone. (There's a long story about how he got the nickname Yank, but trust me he's a Tribe fan.)

Yank's buddy, Mike Francesconi, drove from well upstate New York (five hours each way and he got there in time for Tribe BP) to join us.

Thanks to the two of them for a great day of talkin' Tribe. A special thanks to Yank for the tickets and to Mike for taking the photos that accompany this posting.

It's been some time since I've posted. For those who have been checking back regularly, I thank you. I've had some issues intervene over the past few months that have made posting very difficult. I'm hoping to be able to pick it up in the days ahead. Please pass the word that the Tribe Fan In Yankeeland is back.

My doubts about the Tribe as camp is days away

Before I get into the Tribe, let me just say - as you can tell by the photo to the left - that, pre-preseason or not, NY tabloid headline writers are in mid-season form. Unless you've been in a cave the last four days or so, you know what that cover of today's NY Post is all about, so let me get down to the business at hand - The Tribe.

I've been mostly absent from this site over the winter. A switch in duties and schedule at work has - unfortunately - left me with less time and energy to think and write about the Tribe.

So I've been saving up most of this for quite some time.

I'll start first with my thoughts on how I think the lineup and pitching staff will shape up and then explain why I'm not as optimistic as most about the Tribe season ahead.

I guess I'll start with what I consider to be the Tribe's Achilles heel - the starting rotation. Does anyone see anything but question marks beyond one member of the rotation - Cliff Lee.

Last year's Cy Young winner is the only "sure thing" in the rotation. And even Cliff can't be counted on to repeat last year's performance - since it was off-the-charts good, just as the previous season was off-the-charts bad for Lee. Expect a more "typical" season from Lee - about 16 or 17 wins with an ERA in the low-4.00's.

Beyond Lee, uncertainty abounds.

As high as the No. 2 spot in the rotation, there are serious questions to be asked. Which Fausto Carmona will we see? Will he be the 19-game winner of two seasons ago, or the Wild Thing who took the hill - when healthy - last season?

No 3. is Carl Pavano. I did a piece last month saying I thought Pavano was a good gamble on an incentive-laden pact. The operative word in that piece was "gamble." If he's healthy he can slot nicely into the No. 3 hole. He's no better than that if healthy, but he is talented enough fill that role if his body holds up.

Nos. 4 and 5 will likely be Aaron Laffey and Anthony Reyes. Both had injury issues last season and Laffey had performance issues as well. Are they sound? Who knows.

The good news is the Tribe has Jeremy Sowers, Dave Huff, Zack Jackson and Scott Lewis waiting in the wings to respond to the liklihood that at least one the four question marks above will be answered with a negative.

Of this group, I have little confidence that either Jackson or Sowers can be effective in the four hole or even as an acceptable number five. Scott Lewis had a great few weeks with the Tribe at the end of last season, so he offers hope. Dave Huff, in my mind, should and will be in the Tribe rotation this season - and probably right from April.

By far, the best and biggest move of the off-season was the signing of Kerry Wood to anchor what looks to be a solid-to-spectacular bullpen.

Jensen Lewis and the two Raffies - with the closer situation settled - should make the eighth inning as air-tight as the ninth should be in Wood's hands. Add Joe Smith to the mix and Eric Wedge has plenty of switches to flip to lock down the last three innings of the game - something that will be necessary with the questionable starting rotation.

To further illustrate just how much better the pen is this year, Masa Kobayashi - who was a key cog (or meant to be anyway) in last year's pen - will be called upon to do a lot less this - a good thing since he ran out of gas at the All-Star break last season.

And I haven't even mentioned Adam Miller, who - if healthy - could push his way into the late innings as he and the season progress.

In the second half of last season the Tribe's offense - once rid of the defective parts that Eric Wedge kept sending to the plate until they could no longer swing a bat - started to click. It was among the best offenses in the league in the post-All Star period. Some may say the attack was helped by the pressure of a pennant race being no longer a factor. That could be. But I tend to think it had more to do with the fact that impostors wearing Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner unis were counted on for way too long.

Martinez is (the Tribe says) as good as new heading into this year. Travis Hafner remains a very big "if".

The Tribe added a legitimate No.2 hitter in Mark DeRosa - something that has been missing since Omar left town.

While most people say the success of the offense depends on Hafner returning to his former self, I say that is only partially true.

Ben Francisco - currently slated to start in left field - had a lousy second half last season and it makes you wonder whether the league had him figured out, he tired in his first full-time big-league season, or he's just a fourth outfielder playing the role of starter.

Shin-Soo Chu also has to be considered something far short of a sure thing in right. But of the two, I have much more confidence in Choo. Still, with Matt LaPorta and Michael Brantely, not to mention Trevor Crowe, waiting in the minors, I'm less concerned about the outfield than I am about the starting rotation - both parts of the team that are loaded with question marks.

No I did not forget David Dellucci. I just couldn't bring myself to mention him.

As far as the infield goes, the only real question is how they will line up, not who they will be or whether they will perform

My preference would be Kelly Shoppach behind the plate, Victor Martinez at 1B, Mark DeRosa at 2B, Asdrubal Cabrerra at SS and Jhonny Peralta at 3B, with Travis Hafner at DH. There's enough versatility in the C-1B-DH roles that plenty of ABs can also be found for Ryan Garko, if he proves himself to deserve those ABs. I think he went a long way in the second half of last season to redeem himself, but if he gets pull happy early he may see lots of time on the bench. Still, it wouldn't hurt to give Victor, Hafner and Shoppach a day off or two each week to keep them fresh. Maybe only one a week for Victor.

Despite what I think, I would say the reality is that Victor Martinez will catch at least half the time. I have no problem at all with Victor behind the plate, I just think 1B is a better place for a banged up player to play and I'd rather see more of Shoppach and less of Garko - something that won't happen if Victor plays a lot behind the plate.

I think it is more likely that I might see my preferred defensive alignment at 2B-SS-3B. But that is a question that should be settled in spring training. Moving three people to new spots during the season is not advisable, but lots of experimenting in training camp is something I would like to see. I can't stress enough how much I would rather see Cabrerra at SS than Peralta.

One other note about the roster. I keep hearing that Josh Barfield could be kept as a utility player. The term utility player implies that a guy can play more than one position. I still happen to like Barfield, but I just don't see him with a role, even on a team that has a lot of versatility.

Now to my thoughts as to how all this will play out.

Mostly pointing to the inactivity of the other teams in the division, the Tribe is being picked by many as the team to beat in the Central Division and - from what I read online anyway - the hopes are high in Cleveland.

I just can't see how a team with four question marks in a five-man rotation can be picked as a favorite. Gun to my head, I suppose I would pick the Tribe to win the division, but I think in reality it can be won by four of the five teams, with the Royals excepted. The winner will be the team whose many questions are answered with positive results.

That said, there's the post-season grind to work through. That, even more than during the Central Division race, will be where the iffy rotation will hurt the Tribe.

There should be plenty of fun ahead this season, and I can understand the optimism many feel about winning the Central Division. But if it is the brass ring you are hoping for, 2009 will not be the year - not unless that rotation is bolstered at the trade deadline.