Amazing!

If you don't follow sports you probably haven't noticed one of the great pitching performances in recent history. With a 5-0 shutout of the Chicago White Sox tonight, Cleveland Indians leftie Cliff Lee improved to 20-2 on the season. That is amazing in and of itself that he has 20 wins to only 2 losses with a sub-2.50 ERA. What makes it really incredible is that he has done it for such a bad ballclub. Coming into the season the Indians were supposed to contend for the AL Central and quite possibly the World Series. That notion is long gone. Tonight's Indians line up was missing stars like Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner. Instead we have a bunch of role players and one genuine star, Grady Sizemore. None of the batters are hitting .300. In fact the best average of the bunch is .284 from Shin Soo-Choo. The supposed closer for this team, Joe Borowski was released outright and is currently unemployed. Yet even with that "supporting cast", Lee has compiled a 20-2 record and should be a shoo-in for the Cy Young.

One year ago today, Lee was called up from the minors. Tonight he is the best pitcher in the American League. A year can make a big difference. Congrats to Cliff Lee!

Opening Day!

The first day of baseball (not counting the goofy games in Japan and the game last night)

Getting off to a good start, the Indians won and are 1-0 and the Tigers lost and are 0-1. I am getting some ugly looks since I am in Detroit and wearing my Indians hat, but my boys are the defending champs until someone knocks 'em off!

PLAY BALL!

10

The Indians magic number is down to 10 after a walk-off home run by Casey Blake. With two weeks left the Indians have three 15 game winners in C.C. Sabathia, Fausto Carmona and Paul Byrd. Pretty good 1-2-3 punch for a short series and with a decent bullpen we should be in good shape for a 7 game series.

20

That is the Indians magic number for a division title, showing up tonight in the standings after the Indians beat Johan Santana again this season (I think that is the fourth or fifth time, Santana is not the same pitcher he used to be). Any combination of Indians wins or Tigers losses equaling 20 means a division title for the Indians.

Go Tribe!

A wasted effort

Cleveland's C.C. Sabathia threw a 9 inning shut out today, only gave up 3 hits and one walk over those nine innings. An absolute gem. And the Indians lost. They couldn't scrape together one run in nine innings and lost in the 12th. One stinkin' run and Sabathia is the first 10 game winner. What worse feeling can a team have then letting down their starter, who threw a complete game shut-out and you couldn't score one run against the REDS of all teams. The Tribe goes 1-2 against the awful Cinci Reds and the Tigers creep closer. These are games you have to win if you want to win the pennant.

Why fans voting for the baseball All-Star Game is dumb

The current standings for the All-Star ballot on MLB.com show the AL catchers race like so...

1.Rodriguez, I. Tigers 469,696
2. Mauer, J. Twins 438,365
3. Varitek, J. Red Sox 413,153
4. Posada, J. Yankees 392,908
5. Martinez, V. Indians 206,377

Now Victor Martinez is in fifth place, over two hundred thousand votes behind I-Rod. The fans say that I-Rod is the best catcher in the AL. What do the stats say?

Martinez is hitting .318. I-Rod is hitting a respectable .287. Martinez has 12 HR and 53 RBI. Rodriguez has 6 HR and 30 RBI. Martinez is has an OPS (On base plus slugging) of .931, Ivan .734. Almost double the RBI, double the HR, .200 points higher in OPS and Cleveland leads the AL Central. Posada has a slightly higher OPS (.984) but still trails Martinez with 7 HR and 39 RBI. Joe Mauer has only played in 29 games, has a whopping 1 HR and 14 RBI, with an OPS of .922.

Every number points to Martinez, through June 8th, having a much better season than any of the other catchers, and yet he is in a distant fifth place in the voting. This is why the fan voting system is stupid.

Go Cleveland!

While I stopped watching the NBA over a decade ago in disgust, I am keeping a small amount of interest in the Eastern Finals as we may get to see, in one weekend, the Indians sweep the Tigers in a four game series and the Cavaliers eliminate the Pistons. After that performance in Game 5, Lebron may have killed the heart of the Pistons, a team which by all rights should have polished off the Cavs in a four game sweep. I love this video of James dunking right in Rasheed Wallace's face. Lebron is 22. 22!

A little broom action!

The Tribe takes 3 from the Detroit Tigers, in what is an ugly and difficult stretch. Up next, three games against the best team in baseball, the Boston Red Sox and then back to the Tigers for a four game series. How the Tribe comes out of this stretch may go a long way to determining the end of the season. I know it is only May but if we show something now against the two biggest threats in the American League (no offense intended to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim or whatever they are called these days...) it speaks well to how we are going to be down the stretch. In the same division as the Tigers, every game counts and given the Indians incredible record at home (17-4, .809), having home field advantage will be key if we make the playoffs. So far, so good, 3-0 in this stretch!

GO TRIBE!

A sure sign that this is our year!

The Tribe beat the White Sox, 2-1, today lifting their record to 6-3 overall, 4-2 in the toughest division in baseball, the AL Central. What is really cool is that they did it by getting only one hit. The hefty lefty, C.C. Sabathia, now at 3-0 on the season, struck out ten today. Kind of a weird win, but I will take it. Any win is a good one, and especially a win over a division rival. If we can just get Victor Martinez healthy and once Pronk starts hitting, it is going to be lights out for the rest of the AL Central!

So far, so good!

A season opening 12-5 beat down of the overrated Chicago White Sox. Let's be honest, by rights the AL Central is a two team race, the Tribe and the Detroit Tigers. Just what we needed, leadoff homer by Sizemore, 3 RBI each from Peralta and Martinez, an RBI triple by new guy Josh Barfield, 3 hits from ancient Trot Nixon. Six different starters had at least 1 RBI, seven starters at least one hit. A solid start from Sabathia. Really you couldn't ask for much more on opening day. I know it is only one game, but Opening Day is all about optimism!

UPDATE: Day two of the season, and the Indians are still undefeated at 1-0. Go Tribe!

Nothing should make an Indians fan more nervous....

More than fresh hype that this is the year! We heard it last year and I bought into it. Then the season started and the Tribe imploded. My big hope was to start the season unheralded but more and more the whispers are coming out....this could be the year. Now an article on ESPN.com right before the season opens titled Basic logic points to Indians being better, which suggests that the Indians are poised to be this years Tigers. The bullpen is better. The defense is supposed to be better. Hafner, Sizemore, Martinez are all back. The addition of Josh Barfield, a great young second baseman who is coming from a pitchers park to a hitters park is going to be huge. Sabathia and Westbrook looked good all spring. Sowers is coming up full time. Perhaps one of the best pitchers in baseball, Adam Miller, is waiting in the wings in Buffalo after failing to surrender a run in Spring. All the signs point to this being the Tribes year. And that scares me! Curse you Jayson Stark!