Tribe going backwards as Royals snap 12 game skid

Of course the Royals had to win sometime, you just hope it wouldn’t be against the Indians, especially when C.C. Sabathia was pitching.

CC Goes CG, But Tagged W/Loss: It’s starting to get to the point where a 4 run performance over EIGHT innings isn’t good enough for our pitchers.

In reality, it’s not bad and his ERA is down to 4.72, so really, what can you say? Shame on you CC for keeping your team in the game?

NO walks tonight, which is good see. 8 hits that scored the 4 runs, and he topped off at around 100 pitches, so really he was in a grove tonight as far as pitching to the hitters.

His one mistake came against David DeJesus in the 3rd, DeJesus took advantage and put it in the stands. Then he ran into trouble again in the 5th when the Royals strung some hits together to bring home three runs.

See the Indians can take note. When you have runners on 2nd and 3rd with nobody out, your supposed to get both those guys in, at least one. They got all of them and then some.

Ugh Hitting: Let’s talk about the hitting.

The good news as of late is that we are getting guys on base.

The bad news is that they are now leaving those guys on base, especially in crucial situations that you need to get them home in.

Here is my second guess Eric Wedge comment of the night.

Bases loaded, 1 out in the 8th inning. Franklin Gutierrez is 2-2, reached base all three times tonight, and you lift him for.

David Dellucci?

What the hell is going on guy. I know you are going match up, and okay Dellucci is a veteran.

But the guy is 2-2, I think he has earned an opportunity to hit in that situation. What good has David done in the past few games that has given you any indication that he is going to come through for you here.

If you are playing to not strike out in that situation, then dumb move. He was playing for someone to put the ball in play, which is a dumb idea because you need 3 runs, not one. You needed a hit there, because Soria was on the ropes, and there was no way you’d get him in the 9th.

Just a dumb move. Franklin tripled, singled and walked tonight, and Wedge robbed him of a chance to come through for his team.

Way to build that confidence up Wedgster.

Also, what gives with Michael Aubrey already?

You are so quick to bench Garko all this time for Aubrey who hasn’t played a lick in even Buffalo, yet Andy Marte rots on the bench for Casey Blake? I’m starting to get tired of it.. I don’t care how you do it Wedge, just be consistent with it. You aren’t really showing consistency with your decision making. This philosophy he is carrying is very odd and very weird.

We blew tonight, and we need to win tomorrow. You can’t lose a series to the Royals. Paul Byrd and Brian Bannister, I’m not holding my breath.

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Jumpin’ Joe at his best as Tribe Win

Jumpin’ Joe! Wow that was a true heart ticker, and it must suck even worse to be a Royal fan.

Cliff Okay, Still Wins!: Cliff was far from great tonight, but he did a good job with keeping his team in the game and just staying with in himself. Didn’t have his control, but smart pitchers know how to give you six solid on those nights.

Walked only one, did give up 10 hits, and four runs with three punchouts.

That is Cliff Lee’s 8th win of the year boys and girls. Pretty good, yes yes. His ERA is still under 2 at 1.87.

Betancourt and Perez did their jobs tonight, very good and it was up to Joseph to close it out. A double by HERRman(German) made it a little nerve wracking and Jose Guillen almost killed us at the end.

It was Grady Sizemore’s outstanding catch in center saved the game.

Also point out the great play by Ben Francisco to get DeJesus at 2nd. Because Gathright wasn’t running full steam, the run didn’t score before the out and we avoid that tie game.

Hey Marte: Marte has been consistent in his little time. Hits in this three game stretch, scored a run tonight, woulda had an RBI if Asdrubal Cabrera didn’t run himself out of a double.

The big men tonight were Casey Blake and Grady Sizemore though.

Sizemore started the game off with a solo jack, and he now leads the team in RBI. He then homered later in the game to bring in two more. Grady was outstanding tonight, and he even is stepping up and becoming more of a leader with the other guys.

Well, co-leads. Casey Blake wouldn’t be out-done as the road monster returned. His two run jack was huge in the sixth inning. Both him and Grady have the 29 RBI.

Tomorrow, C.C. takes the mound against Kyle Davies.

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Hafner Placed on DL; HERE COMES CHOO

Well, he was supposed to be able to return for today’s game. But just when you think that happens, the Indians place him on the 15 Day DL.

The move is retroactive to Monday, so he is eligible to come off next Sunday.

To take his spot on the roster, they have brought up Shin-Soo Choo from his rehab assignment in Buffalo.

Taking a closer look at walkup music

We occasionally like to have some fun here, look at stuff like bucket kicking and fun junk like that. Plus with the negativity and losing lately, it’s nice to get some humor in our baseball lives.

The Indians site has linked to a story on the walk-up tunes for some of the batters. I’ve always been fascinated in that type of stuff. I’m not into music, but it’s funny to just make fun of silly songs or whatever. There was a point where Travis used to come up to the Brock Lesnar entrance theme, and I found that pretty funny.

Here is the article that gets some information from the players and a professional critique on what they pick. Dellucci’s is pretty funny, and while he hasn’t used the Godfather Theme yet, I’d love to hear him do it.

Garko’s explanation is probably the best, and I can’t say I wouldn’t do the same thing. Just let C.C. pick it.

“(Pitcher) C.C. (Sabathia) picks my walk-up songs. He listens to better music. I just go to and ask what I should go to now, and he always has something good for me. He pays attention on the days that he’s not pitching on which songs I hit good with and which ones I should stick with and which ones I should not go with.” (MLB.com)

Masa Is Pretty Weird

So….

Masa Kobayashi is a pretty weird dude.

Actually he isn’t, but he does some weird things.

It may be the Japanese way, or some sort of secret Japanese way of healing or some deal like that.

But it is pretty weird.

That picture you see there is the back of Masa. Those purple circles are indescribable.

It turns out he uses a ten suction cup machine on his back for some reason.

Anyway… Here is a nice little story about Kobayashi and his adjustment to the Unite States and his new team.

Picture credit to Chuck Crowe of the Cleveland Plain Dealer

Twins Claim Breslow Off Waivers

The Craig Breslow experiment is over. The Twins did not forget about Breslow like Eric Wedge did.

The Twins claimed Breslow off waivers today, ending his time with the Tribe officially.

Oh well, I liked Breslow, he has potential, just never got any time consistently.

Adam Miller’s Season Likely Over

From Castro Turf:

“Top prospect Adam Miller’s Minor League season is conceivably over. According to head athletic trainer Lonnie Soloff, Miller will be shut down from throwing for eight weeks after having surgery performed on the middle finger of his right throwing hand Tuesday. After eight weeks, Miller will begin a return-to-throw program in either Winter Haven or Goodyear, so the odds of him coming back in time to rejoin the Bisons are slim.” (CastroTurf)

That is a big blow. We’ve been waiting to see this guy in the big leagues for some time now, and this was gonna be the year, one way or another.

Miller’s potential is high, but if he continues to injure himself then his career is never going to get underway.

Tribe Let One Slip Away

What a sucky game to lose.

Offense Leaves Golden Chances On the Table: Another game with a lot of men on base, but the were a lot of blown RISP chances with less than two outs.

The first was in the first inning after the Indians already put two on the table. Dellucci struck out with a guy at third and no outs, and then Jhonny Peralta hit a wicked shot to third that was snared by Joe Crede. The good thing was Dellucci put up a lot of pitches in the AB and Peralta did hit it hard, so you can’t really complain about the chance.

However later in the 9th inning is where you have to be disappointed. A Crede error and a Sizemore walk allowed Carroll to put down his second sacrifice in the game to get runners on second and third with one out.

Francisco who lost his 7 game hit streak immediately popped the ball up on the infield, and Victor Martinez saw a couple of pitches before he flied out to the short stop in shallow left.

Just a couple of failed opportunities killed this team. I know there was some funky business by the bullpen today, but when you get the runs up there on the table, you need to get them in. They did it yesterday perfectly and early in the first the aggressiveness was really getting them some runs.

P-Gun went deep again today, and it finally was with someone on base. Dellucci doubled in Martinez and Vic had the infield single that scored a run. Gavin Floyd’s early error let the first run score.

Jake OK in Return: Jake Westbrook was decent in his return. He cruised through the first three innings, allowing the hit to Dye but getting the double play. Dye touched him up in the 4th on a sinker that didn’t really sink that much, They would add two more in the 5th inning via Punch AJ and Carlos Quentin and some great situational hitting.

That duo was at it again in the 7th to give the White Sox the final lead. Doubles by each AJ and Quentin brought home 3 runs.

Jake went 5 giving up 3 earned and striking out 3. The Andy Marte error in the 7th really opened up the doors for that big 3 run inning against Betancourt.

An off day tomorrow.. Only two games won on this six game home stand. Now we go on the road, where the hitting has been a little better(cough casey blake cough) for the longest trip of the year.

Friday it is Cliff Lee and Gil Meche in Kansas City.

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Disclaimer

This is a disclaimer concerning all news and links posted on this website.

I post a lot of news from various sources at different times. The ones I use the most are the Plain Dealer, Indians.com and Rotoworld’s updates are good for early tip offs. CastroTurf has quickly become another reliable source for information, it is run by the Indians’ beat writer Anthony Castrovince. I also like to discuss any sort of rumor or speculation that MLB Trade Rumors offers up. Two times after I’ve talked about a rumor they posted, MLBTR has been kind enough to link back. I don’t do it for the possibility of linking back, I do it because I like commenting on any sort of news I deem worthy.

Around May 08 Week of the 12thish, I posted a link to a speculation post from Buster Olney that MLBTR talked about and I gave my thoughts. They also added Aaron Laffey as possibility.

It seems as if some thing went down with the “Speculation”. This site got caught up in the middle of it because we were linked.

I’d like to make this point for future reference. This site in no way has any sort of connection with any other site, any Indians’ sources, media personalities, reporters or writers, or any other outlet. We are a stand alone blog with myself, Nino Colla, as the lone operator. I have no inside information, contacts or people that I know. I simply comment on anything related to the Indians that is posted around the website or seen in the game. I will do what I like to call a link dump occasionally and just link to a bunch of sites around the web that has information that I think is useful. You should NOT take anything from this site as official news UNLESS I provide a valid link to a official site.

All the opinions expressed on the site are mine and I’m not right all the time. I appreciate if you’ve stopped by and linked my site to other places, I do have a stat monitor attached to the blog so I can see who is linking my site and where they are coming from.

So once again… I do apologize for any site or person that took the Aaron Laffey/Garrett Atkins SPECULATION from Buster Olney as an official rumor or deal that was going to happen. I was simply reposting a piece of information from another site, and unfortunately there are some people who A)Didn’t care to read through the entire post on MLBTR or B)Decided to say it was an official rumor rather than just speculation. From now on, please do not take anything from my site as official unless you see a link to a more credible site. The three boards on the side of the page are all a collection of information gathered off numerous other sites, and you can verify it by checking the Indians official website and all the minor league affiliates.

Victor’s Bucket Kick Video

Finally some video on Victor Martinez and his famous bucket kick.

I messed up the original story and didn’t quite understand it at first. This is a far more hilarious outcome than what I thought happened though. Stay tight, theres a few clips before that and then the bucket kick, and the CNN anchor then calls him “Mr Cranky Pants”

Great job Victor.. Check out Hafner and Sizemore having a laugh in the corner.