A weekend in Balti-whore

Oriole Park at Camden Yards is a beautiful ballpark. It just has the misfortune of being located in Baltimore, Maryland. I feel bad for you Camden Yards. I really do.

I attended the last 3 games of the series braving DC traffic to make the trek up to Baltimore. Well worth it considering the Tribe managed a 2-2 split after the bullpen pissed away Game 1. Rather than touch on every game since I was there live the was some good, bad and some interesting from the weekend.

The Good

• After losing the first two games the Tribe rallied to split the series. Yes, they should have WON the series but I get the feeling that the 2006 Indians may have just rolled over and ended up losing the series. With the 2007 Tribe, I get the feeling they actually take some pride in their performance against inferior opponents.


• Starting pitching was outstanding (minus one person to be addressed later) again. Needed after Westbrook went on the DL. Byrd was great, should of won Game 1. C. C. his normal solid, spectacular when necessary, self. And Fausto, holy crap! I have to admit I was wrong. I thought he was done for good after the Closer-in-Training debacle. Unsalvagable. His last two games have been incredible and the amount of ground balls, Sweet Lord. A masterfully pitched game and when he got in a jam he was calm, didn't panic and pitched his way out of it.


• The Thunder Sticks Awaken. After a total of 4 runs in the first two games (both losses) the Indians exploded for 9 runs on Sunday and 10 runs on Monday. Barfield has been getting it together. Trot Nixon was just SICK with the stick and hopefully Pronk's Grand Slam will get him back in the zone.


• New SI cover boy Grady Sizemore deserves it. If he's up in a clutch situation he's delivering faster than Mr. McFeely in Mr. Rodger's Neighborhood. He's only hitting .250 now, but do you honestly think he'll be stuck there all year? Imagine when he's hitting .290 by September. And when this guy finally hits 3rd in a few years. Wow.

The Bad

• Jeremy Sowers looked bad. Real bad. I don't know if it was because it was cold and wet Saturday night and he couldn't get a good break on his pitches. Lucky he didn't give up more than 6 runs in two innings. Painful to watch from I guy I think could be great.


• Pronk in a funk. One hit in the series for Travis Hafner until the Grand Slam. Hopefully it gets him locked back in. The inning before his Grand Slam O's skipper Sam Perlozzo intentionally walked CASEY BLAKE to LOAD THE BASES to pitch to Pronk. And it worked. Pronk struck out. But as the old Klingon proverb says, "Revenge is a dish best served cold."


• Jason Davis pitched himself out of the Cleveland Indians organization. Three ugly innings on Saturday night that did nothing to impress. No pressure, no one on base. All you have to do is keep the game from getting out of hand. Yeah, you didn't do that. CUT! Sad. I thought a few years ago that he could be our closer of the future. Never took advantage of any opportunity given to him. Perfect model for his Cleveland tenure... I went to the Tribe O's game in Baltimore back in 2003. Jason Davis started that game (he was in the rotation in 2003). The Tribe jumped out to a 4 or 5 run lead after 3 innings and Jason Davis slowly but surely gave it back in innings 4 and 5. Walks, bad pitch placement. All he had to do was pitch, he was up 5 runs. And he couldn't do it.


• No Cleveland Stadium Mustard. Just the regular yellow stuff. It just doesn't taste right at the ballpark like that.


• A lot of purple on the stadium patrons. Purple is awful. Just awful.

The Interesting

• I am not joking. Mike Rouse hit a ball that hit the bottom of the outfield wall.... on a fly. Seriously. It didn't roll and hit it. It was on the fly. I almost fell over!


• Trot Nixon went 5-5 on Sunday which isn't surprising since he is a good hitter. But the first 4 were against left handed pitching. I believe Trot hits around .200 against lefties. And all were rips, no ground balls with eyes or dying quails.


• The Tribe was up 10-1, bottom of the 9th and the newly promoted Edward Mujica didn't come into pitch. Roberto Hernandez did. Isn't this the opportune time to get a young arm his first action of the season?


• I talked to a couple guys in town from Seattle. Their dislikes of Mike Hargrove's managing style in Seattle are the same ones we had in the 1990's in Cleveland. Some things never change.

All in all a good weekend. Could have been better. Could have been worse. But all in all worth my time and money.

In closing there's only one thing left to say...

Hey Baltimore! Go F yourself!

Love,

Cleveland

Tribe Sweeps Jays 3-0

An interesting series with Toronto to say the least. The Indians managed to fall behind in all three games which, with the way they ended April hitting, would make you think would lead to impending doom.

C. C. Sabathia gave up three home runs in the first inning of Game 1 but after a 30 minute rain delay came back a changed man, striking out 9, as the Tribe romped the Jays 12-3. Jhonny Peralta stayed red hot with 5 RBI including a 3 run jack. Pronk and Trot Nixon also added home runs as the Indians out-muscled the opposition despite being down 3-0 after a half of an inning.

Game 2 saw the Tribe win 7-6 in 11 innings on a dying quail off the bat of Travis Hafner that rolled into short left field where no one was withing 150 feet of it. But a very disheartening game despite the win. Jake Westbrook injured a rib cage muscle and looks destined for the DL. Eric Wedge the proceed to burn out the bullpen by pitching every single reliever. Jason Davis didn't do him any favors by pitching like crap and lasting 1/3 of an inning in game where he needed to eat innings, but I can't justify Wedge using every member of the bullpen and only using two of them for more than 1 1/3 innings (Cabrera 2 2/3, Betancourt 2). It moves like this that make me ponder what Eric Wedge is thinking sometimes. He redeemed himself by sending Dellucci on a 3-2 pitch that let Pronk do what Pronk do and win the game but still the handling of the 'Pen is unforgivable. We'll see how it affect the long road trip the Tribe is about to embark on.

Tonight's game saw the return of Cliff Lee to the tune of a 5 run, 6 inning performance. Not too good, not too bad. Start number two will be a better measuring stick. The Tribe got down 4-0 but came back to take a 5-4 lead before the Jays tied it a 5. The benches cleared briefly after Josh Barfield was thrown out at home plate and Jays' catcher Jason Philips had some choice words for him. Kudos to David Dellucci for getting in Philips' face and showing a little fire. We need a little attitude and this team and it was nice to see. And in the end Grady Sizemore doubled home the winning run in the bottom of the 8th on a ground rule double and Joe Borowski pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to notch his league leading 10th save and a 6-5 Tribe win as the Indians finished the home stand at 7-1.

The first 3 game sweep for the Indians this season but we anxiously await the news on Jake Westbrook and see if the depleted bullpen will come back to bite them on the 10 game raod trip they are about to embark on.

Off to Baltiwhore for a 4 game wrap-around series with the O's

Indians Takes Series From O's Behind Dazzling Outing By Carmona

Well, despite the distractions the Browns created, the Indians kept rolling by taking 2 of 3 from the Baltimore Orioles and are poised to have their first winning record in April under Eric Wedge.

Not much of a recap from me because I've been knee deep in the NFL Draft but highlights included a come from behind victory on Friday night thanks to a Grady Sizemore inside the park homerun. The bullpen did blow the game Saturday and prevents a sweep, but the bullpen hiccups have been much less frequent than 2006. Capped off by an amazing outing by Fausto Carmona in his farewell start and the Indians have won every series this year minus the Yankees debacle.

An off day Monday before the Toronto Blue Jays come in for a 3 game series Tuesday. Keep up the good work boys!

Phil Shocks The World!!! Or Cleveland At The Very Least!

OH MY GOD!!!

Stunned. Shocked. Flabbergasted. Befuddled. Utterly Amazed.

In an absolutely incredible, unanticipated series of moves Phil Savage and the Browns surprised everyone by taking Wisconsin OT Joe Thomas at #3 and then trading up to draft free-falling Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn at #22 and then trading up again in the 2nd Round to grab UNLV CB Eric Wright, who's past character issues caused him slip to #53.

I don't think anyone in Cleveland or the NFL saw this coming. The Browns ended up with 2 of the players they had rated in their Top 5 and another player that would have been a mid-1st Round pick if it weren't for his off the field issues.

So the Browns finally have what appears to be:
1. The final piece to what might actually be the first legitimate offensive line since their reincarnation in 1999.
2. Potentially the franchise QB that has avoided them since Bernie Kosar.
3. A shut-down CB to solidify a position that has been snake-bitten the past two years.

It did come at a price. Both trades were consummated with the Dallas Cowboys.
1. To get Quinn (Round 1, #22) the Browns traded their 2nd Round pick in 2007 (#36) and their 1st Round pick in 2008.
2. To get Wright (Round 2, #53) the Browns traded their 2007 3rd (#67), 4th (#104) and 6th Round (#179) picks. The Browns also received Dallas' 2007 6th Round pick (#196) tomorrow as part of the trade.

This leaves the Browns with a 5th, 6th and 7th Round pick tomorrow.

Was the price too steep? We'll know in the Fall of 2007 and in 2008. All 3 guys could ended up to be busts, you never know. But right now, personally, I am estatic. The Browns got 3 first round talents by giving up an additional 1st and 4th Round picks. (I will consider the 3rd Round pick a wash since we still got 3 players on Day 1 of the 2007 Draft and the 6th Round pick a wash since we swapped it with Dallas' 6th Round pick.)

Thomas. Wow. Think about it... Thomas, Steinbach, Fraley, McKinney, Shaffer. It actually looks like a good offensive line on paper. We haven't been able to say it looks good ON PAPER since 1995! And if Bentley and Tucker come back and replace Fraley and Shaffer?!? Sweet Jesus.

Quinn. Even though they have an O-line the Browns need to follow the model of the 2006 Draft. Vince Young, Matt Leinart and Jay Cutler all sat to start the year and looked good by the end of the season. Carson Palmer and Steve McNair sat entire seasons. Is he worth the extra 1st Round pick? Time will tell. But I would take him over Brian Brohm of Louisville or Colt Brennan of Hawaii who are the only two big name QBs coming out in 2008. Sometimes you have to roll the dice and make a move if you think its right. I hope the Browns are.

Wright. I am going to assume they did their homework. As everyone probably knows by now he was accused (while attending USC) of slipping an 18 year old girl a date rape drug and subsequently police found over 130 pills of Ecstasy in his dorm room. He was never charged with anything but was kicked out of USC and transferred to UNLV. A legitimate 1st Round talent. Can he keep his nose clean? He's got a second chance. Let see what he makes of it.

One of THE most important drafts since the Browns return in 1999 and they did not disappoint. They filled three HUGE holes and did it in dramatic fashion. We'll see how they do tomorrow on Day 2 but an amazing start on Day 1. I said I wanted them to keep stockpiling talent via the draft and Day 1 in 2007 looks like a great beginning!

The Doctor's Draft Scenarios

Well the NFL Draft is tomorrow and the Browns sit #3 on the board behind the Raiders and the Lions. Here are my scenarios of what I could see going down based on TV, newspaper, Internet speculation and my gut feeling.

The Raiders are considering these three guys in this order at #1:
JaMarcus Russell, Calvin Johnson, Brady Quinn

The Lions are considering these three guys in this order at #1:
Russell, Johnson
(note that Johnson is for trade value, either they pick him at #2 and then trade him or someone trades up to get him, I don't see the Lions keeping him even if they draft him)

So based on the Raiders and Lions order of preferences this leaves the Browns three scenarios of what will happen before them:
A. OAK - Russell, DET - Johnson
B. OAK - Johnson, DET - Russell
C. OAK - Quinn, DET - Russell

So, in scenarios A and B this leaves the Browns their choice of Brady Quinn, Adrian Peterson, Joe Thomas or trying to trade down. (Unless they pull a total Butch Davis/Pete Garcia-esque surprise on us.)

In scenario C, Calvin Johnson falls into the picture, increasing the possibility of trading down, or the Browns have their choice of Peterson, Johnson or Thomas.

So what do I think will happen?

I think the Browns are scared of Adrian Peterson. With his injury history (and the phantom "Cleveland Curse" douche bags believe in) they are peeing their pants wondering if he can take a beating in the NFL. I don't think they take the risk. The safest pick is Joe Thomas, but I think they have plans on trading up in the latter part of Round 1 to get Joe Staley from Central Michigan and I don't seeing them spend more money on the OL (despite how much it would MAKE SENSE) after spending top dollar for Eric Steinbach and LeCharles Bentley unless he's got everyone totally fooled. That leaves us with Golden Domer QB Brady Quinn. This is who I see the Browns selecting at #3.

But what if they don't pick #3... What's that? The Doc is f'n nuts? For the Browns' sake I hope I am. So hear me out.

Ponder the things rattling around in my brain....
Tampa Bay (Pick #4) wants Brady Quinn, Calvin Johnson or Gaines Adams (for a trade to DET for Johnson).

Arizona (5) apparently Levi Brown more than Joe Thomas, so they could grab either of the two.

If Washington (6) doesn't trade up for Johnson they will take either LaRon Landry or a defensive lineman.

Minnesota (7) is wavering between trading up for Quinn or Peterson but has more pressing needs on defense.

Miami (9) wants Quinn.

Atlanta (8) is not going to take Quinn, Peterson or Thomas. They would only trade up to get Johnson.

Houston (10) is praying Peterson's falls to them.

If, and it's a big if, we could entice Washington (6), Minnesota (7) or Miami (9) into trading up and pick up some extra second and third round draft picks I could see this following scenarios possibly playing out

1. If we swap with Washington we could still get Quinn (unless TB takes him), Thomas (if AZ takes Levi Brown) or Peterson is still there at #6. Plus we got the additional draft picks.

2. If we swap with Minnesota, they will take either Quinn or Peterson which leaves us with the other one, Joe Thomas or Levi Brown (whoever AZ doesn't pick) at #7. Plus we got the additional draft picks.

3. If we swap with Miami, they take Quinn, Arizona takes Thomas (or Brown) and Minnesota takes Peterson (or a defensive player) and we end up with either Peterson, Thomas or Brown at #9. Plus we got the additional draft picks.

We need more talent, period. I am hoping and praying Phil is f'n with everybody's head on purpose. I actually heard an ESPN Radio comment on the state of the "perpetual early first round drafters": Oakland, Detroit and Cleveland which is due to them having such a poorly run organization (Doc Poove's #1 complaint about our beloved Browns). They actually said that while Oakland and Detroit have idiots (their word not mine) running the talent evaluation, they feel Phil Savage is taking the right steps to fix the "grease fire" (their word not mine) he inherited but that it will be a long process. I hope they are right about Phil having a clue. If he pulls off a draft like 2006 and picks up the the guy he's wanted from Day 1 in addition to the extra first day picks we desperately need, I might start to believe it.

Godspeed, Phil Savage.

Tribe Wins 5th in a Row, Sweeps Texas

Suck on it, Chuck Norris!

The Indians won their fifth game in a row and their third series in a row to remain atop of the AL Central standings. The Indians now stand at 12-7 and have won every series they have played this year except for the 3 game ass whooping at the hands of the Yankees.

After hanging on to an 8-7 victory in 11 innings last night the Tribe took advantage on the quick turnaround for an afternoon game today an knocked out the Rangers to the tune of a 9-4 clip.

Wednesday's game was low lighted by a bad sixth inning for C. C. and a worse ninth inning for Joe Borowski. But the Indians hung in there and pulled out the win. A solid, yet unspectacular outing by Paul Byrd this afternoon allowed the Tribe to secure their second consecutive 2 game series sweep.

Despite Wednesday's late inning hiccups this is a game the Indians always found a way to lose last year. Also, a good showing for the day game after a night game as Texas was never really in it.

Up next, a 3 game visit at The Jake from the Baltiwhore Orioles. Can the Tribe stay on fire?