C.C. Sabathia dares you to hit his slider.

Wait a minute….

Two straight games of 8 inning shut out ball?

What the hell is going on here!

Then offense to support it?

The world must be coming to an end as we know it. The Tribe have won two straight in great fashion, manufacturing some two out runage after Sir Franklin struck out with runners on 2nd and 3rd and noooooooobody out! Kelly Shoppach had a sac-fly followed by line drive double by Grady Sizemore, who looked as if he saved the day in the 5th inning with a solo shot and rain coming down.

Sparkplug threw in a single up the middle, and thanks to some sloppy defense he got to second in addition to Garko scored almost surprisingly on the Grady double.

Let’s also mention that play Grady made early in the game. I swear to god I thought he broke his ankle, but man did he go up and get that sucker.

CC? Oh yeah 8 innings, 4 hits, 2 walks and 11 of those things we like to call strikeouts.

Looking good here.. Jamey Carroll’s average is up over .300 now by the way.

Tomorrow it will be Free Money Night, so I encourage you go and get your free money. You might also see Paul Byrd pitch a good game, but I wouldn’t hold your breath. Johnny Cueto for the Reds from Cincinnati.

Oh hey did everyone catch DAVE BURBA in the booth tonight? I think he did radio as well, but man. Gotta love Burba. They showed his home run as well. DAVE BURBA!!

Maybe that’s where all this good karma is coming from.

DAVE BURBA!! BRING HIM BACK!

[BOXSCORE]

Blake drumming up interest; C.C. Suitors We like

The always great Ken Rosenthal has a new article out and he talks about a few Indians.

Of course on of them has to be C.C. Sabathia.

The Brewers and Rays are two contenders for C.C. by virtue of their deep farm system and the fact that they are in the race right now.

Like I’ve mentioned before. A team like Tampa or Milwaukee and Oakland are ones that we Indians’ fans need to support if in fact he is traded.

A) Deep Farm System, We would be sure to get some good talent

B) Not so deep pockets, so they probably wouldn’t negotiate or attempt to sign C.C. to a long term contract as noted by Rosenthal. Thus they wouldn’t need or want a “window” to sign him.

C) They really would rather have the draft picks, which are very useful considering they are both very high. Those teams are good with their draft picks too.

D) They aren’t the Yankees

If a deal has to happen, these are the teams you want to see C.C. end up on. They’ve got loads of talent to make us happy and fill some needs and it still keeps the slight chance of us making a run at him in the off-season, whcih I know is a pipe dream, but it can’t hurt to have that.

Rosenthal also mentions Casey Blake’s name as having some interest around the majors. Of course the guy who has been knocking in most of our runs is going to. Remember he is a Free Agent and teams will love his versatility.

The possible landing spots, New York(Mets), Oakland, LA(Dodgers).

I’m all for trading Casey Blake as we know. Get a decent guy in return would not hurt at all. Those are the moves Shapiro lives for (Broussard/Perez for Choo/Cabrera ring a bell?).

Morning Update: Casey Blake, master of the deadpan

Hey here’s a neat little tidbit.

Despite not starting the year on the active roster, Ben Francisco leads the entire American League in outfield assists with 9.. Benny, your thoughts..

“I didn’t know it was that many,” he admitted.” (Indians.com)

Yeah, neither did I. From the department of great quotes, I now give you Casey Blake’s thoughts on playing shortstop the other night.

“Omar was taking some notes,” Blake said. (Indians.com)

I swear, between Hafner and Blake, we have two of the most dry humored guys ever. No wonder those two are good friends.

Wedge in all seriousness praised Blake for being an athlete.. He then openly admitted how much of a man-crush he has on his fellow Wichita State Shocker..

Kidding.

We will have some updates on Fausto Carmona and Travis Hafner today, yay!

The Lord of the Flies will be playing catch today.. Eric Wedge said in his presser he hopes to have a schedule for Carmona down fairly soon.

Pronkilicious will be doing some more strength exercises and Wedge was pretty adamant that was all he was doing.. In other words.. NO SWINGING :blink blink blink blink BUGEYE:

Speaking of Pronk, and rerally there is nothing today so far.. Which is why I’ve got silly quotes from Casey Blake….

The Pronk Bar has made a reapperance..

Rick Bauer and C.C. Sabathia snagged a few at the top of Haf’s locker.

Oh.. Yeah and of course.. C.C. The daily grind here of reporting the latest rumors.

Buster Olney says Rays could be a sleeper.. I hope so. Give me Dave Price, no kidding, but really they got a deep farm system.

There was a rumor the Angels could pursue a Sabathia deal.. Well wait, that just contradicts the rumor that they would stand pat…. That’s Rumors for Ya!

and of course San Francisco had to ask C.C. if he would consider San Francisco… I think he would if they didn’t suck.. But his answer surprised me.

From the same place of the Angels rumor, which is Jayson Stark of ESPN. He speculates that the Indians could make Rafael Betancourt, Rafael Perez and Franklin Gutierrez available. I don’t think Perez will be, left-handers in the pen are too hard to come by. I really wonder if Betancourt wouldn’t be a bad guy to shop. Like I mentioned, I love Jeff Stevens, we have Jensen Lewis, Perez. He hasn’t displayed that control he did last year, maybe it was a one year fluke?

Minor League Update: Bullpen Shakeup Could Be Next for Stevens

There’s been a lot of shake up in the bullpens lately if you haven’t paid attention. Luis Perdomo was sent to Akron, in response Vinnie Pestano was sent to Kinston. The next move could be Randy Newsome to Buffalo.

For that to happen though, would mean that Buffalo would lose their closer. Their closer is… Jeff Stevens, a guy I really like.

All of this means Stevens could be on his way to Cleveland soon.

Make sure you read the Minor League Happenings every week. There is a lot of great stuff in there, including more on Stevens and his possible call up.

Speaking of Buffalo, they won last night. Jordan Brown hit a solo shot and went 3-3.

The big news.. Jensen Lewis went three PERFECT innings with three punch outs. That’s what you want to see outta the kid.

Akron’s new pitcher, Luis Perdomo factored into the win last night. Perdomo came in for two shutout innings of relief and got the win.

Tony Sipp watch… Sipp is on rehab with the GCL Indians and last night he pitched two perfect innings with a strikeout.