Whoa Nelly, How About a Tribe Win?

I don’t know if I’m on the record for this, so might as well.

If there is one guy in this system that is going to close games for the Cleveland Indians.. It will be Jensen Lewis. He has the mentality to get the job done and the live arm in the pressure situations to keep a hitter unbalanced.

With that said..

Five in a row and it feels so good.

Usual Tuesday duties so I did not get to see the first few innings, but how about Choo getting on, Marte bunting him over and Cabrera going up the middle.

That is a manufactured run my friends.

That opened up the Sizemore single and Francisco hit to bring Cabrera home. Just timely hitting when you need it most.

Ryan Garko knocked in yet another run, as did Peralta. Very quietly Asdrubal Cabrera has raised his average up to .221, which is far respectable than the .180 some one he was carrying earlier in the year.

No one had more than one RBI, which means to tell me that 1-9 thing is working well. Everyone but starting minus Shoppach had a hit, and it was just a well played offensive game.

I don’t know what Jeremy Sowers looked like but the important thing is he went into the 7th, rebounded from the two early runs. This was Jensen Lewis’ night though. Keep giving the kid some chances and he’s gonna be locking it down.. Mark IT DOWN!

Tomorrow A-Ray as he will be called goes against former Indian Jeremy Guthrie. Expect a What Could Have Been on him.. I’m gonna be getting into the Byrd stuff tomorrow as well, I think Laffey will be called up to take Byrd’s spot on Thursday. What a matchup though.. Guthrie and Reyes. Guthrie did what Reyes is trying to do with the Indians.. Change of scenary..

[BOXSCORE]

Paul Byrd Is Traded!

Woooo..

I love Paul Byrd.. He’s a great guy.. But this is the move that needed to be made.. Much like Dellucci, but we won’t cry about that right now.

According to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe, the Indians have dealt Paul Byrd to Boston in exchange for a Player to Be Named Later or Cash.

Not sure who is paying the salary. If the Red Sox want to give up a better prospect in exchange for the Indians paying the rest of his salary, then I’m not sure Mark Shapiro or the Dolan’s will care. If not I wouldn’t expect the player to be anything special. Either way, they needed to clear a spot up and let the young guys go at. Aaron Laffey is ready.

Will Dellucci go next? I hope so, we’ll see in a few weeks when Vic, Hafner and Barfield are all due back.

Wakeup Wahoo: Tribe’s New Spring Digs in Jeopardy

“You see Fausto locked in at times,” Wedge said. “Then he’ll slip in and out of it. He has trouble at times being consistent with his delivery.” (Indians.com)

Exactly. Eric Wedge was spot on when he called this a weird game.. It was.. How often does Fausto Carmona not hold down a 5-0 lead comfortably?

Obviously, much has been made about the fact these two teams haven’t played each other in well over a year’s worth of days. 461 to be exact. Remember the last time Baltimore was in town?

It was a weird evening, when the Umpires somehow managed to give the O’s a run a few innings after they made a ruling. You remember the double play that had a run score.. Talk about weird.

Some more non-player stuff to get to.. Turns out there is a dispute that is threatening the Tribe from moving into their new spring training digs.

I’ll let Castrovince explain it.

“According to a report in the Arizona Republic, city manager John Fischbach and Goodyear sent a cancellation notice to MPK Enterprises, Civica Development LLC and other parties involved in the development of the stadium site. There is a concern over who should receive city payments for road and sewer construction around the 10,000-seat ballpark. ” (Indians.com)

Well, the necessary people say it will be done by first pitch, I hope so. Or well you never know, those Winter Haven fans might be happy about this.

Yesterday, we talked about how Grady Sizemore helped out Shin-Soo Choo. Wedge spoke on Grady’s increased role in the clubhouse.

“What he does, from a leadership perspective, is not seen that much, because he is a young player, and he’s quiet by nature,” Wedge said. “But now that he’s established himself as one of the best players in the league, and he is one of our veteran guys now, he has a lot inside of him, in regard to being more vocal or just how he acts.” (Indians.com)

He is going to take on more as a veteran. He has knowledge to share and he’d better share it. He won’t joke around like Victor did with Cabrera last night, but Grady is probably going to be one of those Casey Blake types. Lead by example. The Indians need some of those guys, so it’s great that our Superstar is doing it and not someone like Blake who isn’t even with the team now.

I’m getting serious issues with the Plain Dealer site.. So i’m cutting it short today, Depth Chart is updated..

Minor Issues: Drennen has big night, Scott Lewis Earns Award

Buffalo couldn’t get the series win against the Iron Pigs and will settle for the split. Bryan Bullington pitched 6 innings giving up four runs. Jordan Brown went 3-4 in a losing effort.

Akron was off yesterday but Scott Lewis took home Eastern League Pitcher of the Week honors. He’s the sixth Aero to do so this season.

Kinston laid a beat-down on Lynchburg, with Johnnie Drennen having the big night. Drennen went 2-3 with 5 RBI, including a three run shot. Carlos Santana hit a solo homer and both Carlos Rivero and Niuman Romero collected an RBI and 2 hits. Hector Rondon went 6 and 2/3 for the win, giving up a run and striking out five off three hits.

Mark Thompson knocked in three runs off one hit in Lake County’s offensive slugfest with Columbus. Chris Nash and Matt Brown knocked in just one run off their combined 6 hits, go figure. Thompson’s triple cleared the bases and helped the Captains to the 5 run 10th inning that was much needed after the Catfish responded with two in the bottom of the 10th. Juan Valdes and Adam White knocked in two apiece, while Ryan Miller pitched 5 innings of one run ball.

Backed by a five run inning of their own, Mahoning Valley beat Tri City with another good game from Cord Phelps. Phelps has just one hit but he knocked in two runs. Two more hits for Isaias Velasquez and an RBI for Jeremie Tice.

Abner Abreau homered for the 9th time with the GCL team.