Sal Fasano Knows How To Bunt

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I rest my case people.. Look at that get down the line! I swear I’m not sure Vlad Guerrero couldn’t throw him out at first on a hard one hopper to right field.

I will defend Andy Marte on that one.. I’d be pretty shocked too if Sal Fasano dropped down a bunt.

I’m really not phased by this latest lost..

I fully expected to come on here to talk about a win.. But that wasn’t the case at all. Rafael Betancourt continues to unravel before our very eyes. I think its time to get what we can for him, because last year was obviously a fluke.

Grady and Peralta have been the two guys we can count on.. 3-5 for Grady with two runs knocked in.. Peralta would have been 2-5 with two knocked in as well but the GRD stole a RBI. Which in turn sort of cost us the game.

I will also say not getting a run with the bases juiced and on one out was pitiful… You would hope that these types of things got covered up with a nice win, but no, Betancourt exposed it all.

Anyway.. Including that bunt, Sal Fasano was 3-4(if Marte advanced it would be a sac and he would be 3-3). He’s been awesome with that bat there in his games.

Andy Marte the 2-5 night.. He needs some more time come on Wedge.. Casey needs to go soon, keep this kid in the lineup.

Byrd looked like he was going to give up another lead in the first, but he managed to get out of all the damage he had. Too bad he couldn’t snap that winless streak that has now gone a month and three days long. The last win he had was against the Tigers in June.

Tomorrow we get the upstart Rays and it will be a sad sight if their pitchers are on.. Tomorrow it is Andy Sonnanstine the local product against Aaron Laffey.

[BOXSCORE]

Morning Update: Jeff Datz better give up the Gopher Ball

With C.C. now gone all the attention has turned to Casey Blake and when, not if, he will be shipped out to another team.

“It could happen,” Blake said. “I’d be lying if I told you I don’t think about it quite a bit. But I really don’t have any control over that. If it happens, it happens. But I’m here right now to help our team win.” (Indians.com)

Count on Casey to keep the laughter flowing though.. I think you could fill a book with all his dry humor quotes. Here are some of his gems from the C.C Trade.

“I told him no one really liked him,” said Blake, “and that he wouldn’t be missed. I was just trying to make light of the situation. He was a good friend. You just liked being around him. You could never tell what was going on with his life. He was always smiling and laughing.” (Plain Dealer)

Is he going to be like Ichiro now and just have ‘CC’ on the back of his jersey?”

Blake also joked that he’d like to be referred to as “KC” instead of “Casey” from this point forward. (CastroTurf)

Cliff Lee probably had the best quote of them all though. Not humorous in anyway.

“When you’re 6-foot-7 and 300 pounds, you’re going to have a presence,” Lee said of Sabathia. “He wasn’t a rah-rah guy, but when he spoke, people listened. The team’s going to take on a different identity with him gone.” (Indians.com)

Speaking of quotes, Grady had a great one on his up-coming appearance in the home run derby.

“I’m just going to take my normal batting-practice swing,” said Sizemore. “If it goes out, fine. If it doesn’t, I guess I don’t win.” (Plain Dealer)

If you haven’t heard yet, Grady will be partaking in the derby next Monday. He will be using Jeff Datz as his pitcher and like he said he will be using his batting practice swing. I have to put some heavy chips on him because he’s a lefty and his uppercut swing is so effortless.

We’ve got a few roster moves here.. Juan Rincon will be called up here shortly to take the spot of C.C. Sabathia. Not sure what move the Indians will make on Saturday when they need someone to start the game. Jeff Weaver is not ready considering he hasn’t pitched in a while.

All indications are Matt Ginter will be called up to start the game. Ginter was yanked after three innings of his start last night with Buffalo, so it appears as if he will be the guy.

Not sure what is going up with Scott Elarton, but he was moved from the Restricted List to the 15 Day Disabled List with a non-baseball-related injury.

AND LOOK AT THIS!!!

Albert Belle is shooting his mouth off again.

“Imagine that, the Cleveland Indians trade away another great player because they didn’t want to pay him,” said Belle from his home in Arizona. “The saga continues.”

“When is Larry Dolan going to sell the club?” said Belle. “I could buy a piece of it. There are a lot of people on teams making a lot of bad decisions. You don’t always have to spend a lot of money. Look at what Billy Beane does in Oakland.”

Asked if he wanted to get back into the game, Belle said, “I want to be an owner. The Mariners called me and wanted me to come to spring training as a roving hitting coach. But they were going to pay me peanuts.” (Plain Dealer)

You know what Albert… You really get dumber by the decade don’t you? An OWNER? Are you serious? Pretty ridiculous if you ask me. You know absolutely nothing about this situation and you’ve made it plainly obvious with your boneheaded comments.. The Indians did try and pay C.C. They wanted to give him upwards of 18 to 19 million a year. BUT HE DIDN’T WANT IT.

When is this clown going to go away?!

Minor League Update: New Additions Have Different Results

Well one piece to the C.C. Sabathia trade had a positive debut for their new organization. Hint hint.. It wasn’t Matt LaPorta.

Zach Jackson pitched two innings of relief allowing just one hit to pick up the win in the first game against Syracuse. All signs point to Matt Ginter starting the game for Cleveland on Saturday so they wanted to get him in and get him out.

The other new pitcher for Buffalo, Preston Larrison, picked up the two inning save, yielding just one walk. Asdrubal Cabrera had a solo home run and Chris Gimenez contributed with a two run shot in the 7th.

Gimenez also knocked in a run in the second game, while Jordan Brown hit a solo home run and had an RBI single for the Buffalo scoring.

Gain an outfield, lose another.. Trevor Crowe was named Eastern League player of the month.. then he celebrated by going on the DL. Truly a shame as he was healthy and hitting well. I wonder if we’ll ever see him. He has an intercostral strain (same thing Westbrook had). Wyatt Toregas as mentioned was named EL Player of the Week.

While it wasn’t a positive debut for Matt LaPorta, it certainly wasn’t negative. In fact it didn’t even happen. LaPorta’s flight was delayed on top of the fact the game got rained out. We had some crazy storms last night so I’m not surprised Akron got pounded as well.

The press conference still happened though and it must have been crazy for LaPorta. Nothing new for him though.

”[The last 24 hours] have been kind of crazy,” he admitted with an easy smile. ”On Saturday, I talked to our manager and he told me not to worry about anything going on with the trade, just play ball,” LaPorta said. ”So I did until my name wasn’t in the lineup. As the day went on I learned I wasn’t playing because the trade might go on. At the end of the game I walked in the clubhouse and there was a bunch of media people in there, so I was like, ‘Obviously something must have happened.’ ” (ABJ)

”I like new things in my life,” he said. ”And this is definitely a new task. But I’m enjoying it.” (ABJ)

You can watch an interview with LaPorta, conducted by Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com here.

You can also hear the presser he had with the media, via Terry Pluto and the Plain Dealer.

LaPorta also does a journal for MLB.com, here is his pre-trade entry before he learned of the move where he talked about being selected to the futures game.

More good news for Akron.. They are getting Chuck Lofgren back. Lofgren mysteriously went back to extended spring-training awhile ago. He will be pitching from the pen for the time being though. This team could make a serious EL Playoff run.