Westbrook finishes perfect spring; Tigers pick up Fultz

Jake Westbrook has been having a pretty dynamite spring on the mound. In his last start he was perfect before giving way to the bullpen, and in his last start before the season he didn’t disappoint.

Perfect Spring: Jake Westbrook ended spring training with a perfect 0.00 ERA.

He capped it off with a 4 inning, 2 hit gem. He struck out 4 batters and walked only one.

Jake has been striking out a lot more batters than usual. Could we see more of that? I personally hope not, because that’s not his game.. But then again sometimes he knows what he has to do to get hitters out.

For instance last year Tampa Bay was swinging all day long at the change up, and it resulted in Jake getting a higher number of punch outs.

Jake pitched in 18 scoreless innings this spring, spreading them out over 5 starts. Let’s see how much longer he can go!

Game ends in 7: Jensen Lewis and Jorge Julio followed Westbrook with two perfect innings a piece before Masahide Kobayashi came in to give up 5 runs.

Only one run was earned though, as a pair of Indians errors effectively ended the game as rain started to fall.

The runs came from the bottom of the lineup as Casey Blake, Franklin Gutierrez, and Jamey Carroll all knocked in a run.

CNN Anchor Steps up to the Plate: CNN Anchor Robin Meade, an Ohio native and former Miss Ohio took batting practice with the Tribe today in Atlanta.

[Meade] showed some skill with the bat while waiting for the Indians to finish hitting, flipping it around like a baton, leading her mentor to say, “I’ll teach you how to hit if you teach me how to do that.”

Meade, donning an Indians batting-practice jersey, then dug in against Willis. After fouling off a couple of pitches, Willis lost the plate. (Indians.com)

Read the whole story over at the Indians website. Meade is a Tribe fan so we like her. She took some BP from Carl Willis and Willis got razzed for the easy throwing to her. She put a ball in fair territory which is more than LeBron James could say. Mwahahaha

Manager of the Year Stays in 07: Eric Wedge is keeping that 2007 Award with 2007.

“Winning Manager of the Year doesn’t mean anything to me,” Wedge said prior to the Indians’ 2008 Spring Training finale. “Regardless of what happens, the consistency with the players and the back-and-forth should always be the same. It’s no different this year than it was last year.

“What matters to them is that we all take care of each other as teammates and play the game the right way. That’s what they should worry about. If they look at me differently now than last year, then I’m doing something wrong. That’s as blunt as I can put it.” (Indians.com)

While it doesn’t really rub me the wrong way.. Of course it means something to you Wedge. It shows that your team really came together strong. It says a lot. Everything else you said though, is right.

Fultz Signs With Tigers: After getting dropped by the Tribe, Aaron Fultz has latched on with the enemy.

He won’t be there right away though. Fultz signed a minor league deal with the Tigers today and will report to Triple A Toledo. This was actually a decent signing for the Tigers considering they don’t have many lefties in their pen or in their system that are close to contributing.

But then again we all know it is Aaron Fultz.