Over/Under... 6

So on Tuesday, Las Vegas released the over/under lines for the number of wins for each NFL team. The Cleveland Browns... 6. Ouch.

Now when I ran through the schedule when it came out my first analysis was a ginormous FIVE wins for the Brownies, which included a division win (1 in the last 2 years) and back-to-back wins (for the first time in over 3 years). After a couple of months to ponder I can't really waiver from that.

First, the Browns have signed 1 draft choice. Welcome Chase Pittman! And it appears that the top 3 picks; Joe Thomas, Brady Quinn and Eric Wright; may be hold-outs when came begins and will not be present for orientation this coming Monday. Now for Brady Quinn, a hold-out costs him a chance to start, which I don't think is a bad thing, but for the much maligned offensive line Joe Thomas HAS to be in camp for the unit to gel or whoever QBs is in big trouble. Eric Wright needs to be in camp because he's either starting or playing nickle back from day 1. While most of the other NFL teams have their lower round picks signed the Browns are still stuck on 1. No offense to you Mr. Pittman.

The other 3 AFC Central teams have an over/under line of 9 so the going is going to be touch. Add in the schedule the AFC East, (New England, the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets, Miami and Buffalo) and NFC West (San Fran, St. Louis, Arizona and Seattle) and the road looks even tougher. Hey we get to play the Raiders and Texans again, though!

These things don't add up well for Romeo Crennel. The draftees (when they sign) add much needed depth to the franchise but the gap between the Bungals, Baltiwhore and Pittspuke still remains. We'll see what kind of coach we have early on in the season. Where the Browns, and Romeo, go from there will be known early in the '07 Season.

Stumbling Out of the Gate

So I am back from vacation and so are the Indians. Unfortunately for Cleveland fans, I have been much more productive and gotten more positive results than the Tribe these days. Travis Hafner got a contract extension, which is good. Eric Wedge got one too, which we'll see how it plays out for the remainder of the season. But other than that some less that inspired baseball from the Erie Warriors.

The Indians have stumbled out of the gate as they managed to hang on to win 2 of 3 over the lowly Royals and got lucky in taking 1 of 3 from the putrid White Sox. The White Sox series was extremely painful to watch as the Bad Sox have been a complete train wreck this season. Especially on the offensive side of things and they managed to light up Tribe pitching for 3 straight days. This dropped the Tribe to 2 games behind the division leading Tigers.

Rumors abound of a third return to Cleveland for fan favorite Kenny Lofton, which I am for, but the main concern, surprisingly, for the Tribe is pitching. The first and foremost concern for the Indians are Jake Westbrook and Cliff Lee. Both have been hurt and missed time and it shows. While C. C. Sabathia, Fausto Carmona and Paul Byrd have been somewhere between solid and spectacular all year, with a minor speed bump here and there, I find myself praying that Jake and Cliff can just keep us in the game. This has been a very difficult task for both all season and it was readily obvious in the Sox series. When they have pitched the Tribe is generally out of it by the 4th and the bullpen is gassed for the remainder of the series. The Indians need both, not one, both, of these guys to step up and get in gear if the Indians want to make a serious run at the Division or Wild Card.

The bullpen despite the vast improvement over last year still has question marks. Fernando Cabrera looks dead in the water with no hope of salvation. Tom Mastny continues to be a roller coaster in terms of performance, although he has been a little steadier lately. It appears as we will see the revolving door of relievers from Buffalo in an attempt to catch lighting in a bottle for a stretch run. We have already seen Mike Miller, Mike Koplove, Eddie Mujica, and now Jensen Lewis. I have a feeling that while Mark Shapiro continues to try and find a veteran reliever via a trade , we will continue to see some of the minor league "young guns" like Juan Lara, J. D. Martin or even Adam Miller to see if they can find help from within.

Joe Borowski is quietly having a spectacular season. Rafael Betancourt has proven to be one of the best set-up men in baseball. Rafael Perez and Jason Stanford appear to be here to stay and Aaron Fultz is due of the DL next week. It's a solid foundation to build upon but there are still a few pieces of the puzzle to be added.

Up next, a four game set in Texas followed by a four game home stand against the powerful Boston Red Sox.

Jays Series a Microcosm of the Season

Well the Indians finished up the first half of the season by dropping 2 of 3 to the sub-.500 Toronto Blue Jays and have lost 4 of their last 6 to fall 1 game behind the now AL Central leading Detroit Tigers who polished off a sweep of the powerful Boston Red Sox this afternoon.

The Blue Jays series was a perfect microcosm of the Indians season to date. In Game 1, the Indians managed to battle back after one bad inning by a starting pitcher (Cliff Lee), to get within one run of the lead, only to be done in by some shaky bullpen work (Fernando Cabrera) pushing the Jays’ lead back to 3. The Indians managed to put a run on the board in the ninth but ultimately fell short when they couldn't catch a break or come through in the clutch.

In Game 2, they ultimately came out firing on all cylinders putting up 9 runs in the first five innings behind a solid outing by a starter (Fausto Carmona) and the game was never in doubt. The “good” bullpen (Rafael Perez, Rafael Betancourt, Joe Borowski) came in to toss 3 2/3 innings of 1 run baseball to make sure there was no treat to the lead.

And then in Game 3, after averaging 7.5 runs in the first two games, the Tribe put up a giant goose egg and squandered a gem of an outing by a pitcher (Paul Byrd), who threw 8 innings of 3-hit shut-out, baseball before allowing a base runner in the ninth who scored after a questionable call by Uncle Eric in deciding to pitch to the Jays’ only All-Star and hottest hitter instead of intentionally walking him to set up the double play. This was after the Indians loaded the bases in the top of the ninth and failed to score as they failed to come through in the clutch.

This has been how the first half of the season has gone from day one… an ongoing roller coaster of what to expect with the same trends over and over. The Tribe has managed to persevere despite their shortcomings. Last year they were 18 games out at the All-Star break, this year they are 1. They have 4 days off until they have a 6 game home stand against AL Central bottom feeders Kansas City and Chicago. Let’s keep the recent trend of monster second halves going, boys. We’re going to need it.

Motor City Sh!tty

After trading punches Tuesday and Wednesday with the division rival Detroit Tigers, the Tigers essentially mopped the floor with the Tribe beating them up 12-3 to take the series 2 games to 1 and move within one game of the AL Central lead with 3 games to go before the All-Star Break.

C. C. Sabathia, in his last start before the All-Star Game, gave up 7 runs and 10 hits in only 4 innings for the Indians as the game was over by the third inning when Carlos Guillen hit a 3 run homer run off Sabathia and was out of reach when Gary Sheffield hit a 3 run shot in the fourth. Sabathia who did not have his "A" stuff today looked over matched throughout the entire contest.

The question is, was the game an aberration or will the Tigers use it as momentum going into the second half of the season? The first two games were highly competitive with the Indians catching a couple breaks and coming through in the clutch to win in 11 innings Tuesday The Tigers turned the tables in winning Wednesday night's affair. The Tribe still leads the season series 6-4 with 9 games to play.

If anything the series added a little fire to the rivalry as the Tigers seemed to cry foul on every little nuance. Whether getting Rafael Betancourt called for automatic balls for pitching too slowly or Ivan Rodriguez whining about where Travis Hafner stands in the batter's box every time up, the Motor City Kitties seem to be even less likable than their neighbors the Detroit Pistons. Just another reason to hate Michigan and that's fine by me.

The Indians head North of the border to take on the Blue Jays in Toronto for a 3 game set in Canada to finish off the first half. A sweep against the sub-.500 Jays would be nice. The Indians swept Toronto in a 3 game series earlier in the year at Jacobs Field.

Halfway Home

49-32 - First Place American League Central

30-12 at home at Jacobs Field (and Milwaukee)

434 Runs Scored - 2nd in MLB

24 Saves - T-5th in MLB

3 All-Stars - (Martinez, Sabathia, Sizemore)

Now if you would have told any Cleveland Indians fan before the 2007 season that you knew that this is where the the Tribe would be after 81 games, two things would have been true: you were full of sh!t and any true Indians fan would have gladly accepted this position.

But the tone around the fan base is one of pessimism, not optimism. There is talk of the lack of prodcution from the veteran OFs (Dellucci and Nixon) signed in the off season. There are rumblings about the need of a RH power bat in the middle of the line-up. Many are worried about the lack of clutching hitting and daily production from the team, especially Travis Hafner. And there is concern over some of the young arms in the bullpen (Cabrera, Mastny, Mujica) not living up to expectations.

But despite this, the Indians remain on top of the AL Central, less than two games removed from the best record in baseball. Yes, you read that right, less than two games removed from the best record in baseball.

I prefer to look at it this way. This is where the Indians sit DESPITE the issues they have had the first half of the season. Imagine the offense when Travis Hafner awakens, and he will, from his June slumber. We've gotten a glimpse of the Indians starting pitching staff this past week when they are at full strength and hitting their spots. The Indians were 17 GAMES BEHIND after 81 games last year... SEVENTEEN! Under Uncle Eric they have historically been a notorious second half team. In 2007 they aren't starting the second half needing to make a hard charge. Instead they need to maintain and hold off the Tigers and the hard charging Twins.

I'm not saying the Indians are the best team in baseball. I'm not saying that they are a mortal lock for anything. All I'm saying is that right now, despite all of their faults, they are in 1st place, somewhere they haven't seen for quite a few years.

And, IMHO, that's pretty damn good.

Westbrook Shines, Francisco Delivers

And with that, and thanks to the hard charging Twins steamrolling the Tigers, the Tribe regains first place over the Tigers by 1/2 games.

Despite struggling again on offense, (can we PLEASE cut down on the strikeouts) the Indians managed to top the Devil Rays, 2-1, in the opening game of a four game set at Jacobs Field. The great thing to see was Jake Westbrook's 7 inning, 5 hit, 1 run, 2 walk, 7!?! strikeout performance in his second start after coming off the Disabled List. Jake worked out of a bases loaded, 1 out jam in the first and gave up a run in a shaky second, but was lights out from then on. Unfortunately the Tribe offense was dormant and he was blocked out from picking up the win. That went to closer Joe Borowski who pitched a harmless ninth, and for the first time I can remember, came through in a NON-save situation.

The Indians won on a walk off home run by Ben Francisco, the first batter reliever Shawn Camp faced in the bottom of the 9th. The dinger was Francisco's first in the Majors and was the capper to a night in which he slapped his first major league hit to RF in the 4th inning.

Even with the slumbering offense the Tribe appears to get a little more of their moxie back which they seemed to rediscover after taking 3 of 4 from Oakland. A good sign after looking dead in Washington, DC against the lowly Nationals. The Indians MUST stop playing down to their opponents and a sweep of the D-Rays prior to heading to Detroit would be nice.