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The Black Keys to perform benefit concert at Musica on November 27
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New 'Call of Duty' could set entertainment record
Word gets around: Anderson hasn't signed
By Patrick McManamon
Beacon Journal columnist
Published on Wednesday, Feb 27, 2008
WINTER HAVEN, FLA.: Welcome, the PA announcer said, to ''your Cleveland Indians vs. your Cleveland Indians.''
This not-so-charming burb in the middle of Florida — not too far from Cypress Gardens, but a good long ways from Yeehaw Junction to the east and Weeki Wachee (population: nine) to the west — apparently does not surrender its Indians easily.
Even though the logo on the outfield fence still is from 2007.
This announcement greeted the Indians' first sort-of-real on-field play of the last spring training in central Florida, the intrasquad game.
Realistic expectations must accompany these intrasquad games.
Players use them as the next step in preparing for the season. Pitchers throw an inning or 25 pitches, whichever comes first. They'd like to get out unscathed, but they're not going to move to Yeehaw if they get hit.
That being said, with the sun shining and the temperature in the 80s, it's also a nice time to sit back and let early observations wash over you as you ponder how the Indians will thrive in a place called Goodyear, Ariz.:
• The left-field platoon of David Dellucci and Jason Michaels filled the second spot in both orders.
Platoons, it seems, are best left to movies.
This tandem does not bring to mind the prototypical power-hitting corner outfielder. What team would not like a left fielder who can hit 30 home runs and drive in 90 runs?
The Indians don't have that, though Dellucci did hit 29 home runs in 2005.
Go figure that one. The guy has 90 career home runs in his nine seasons, and 29 of them came in one season. His highest total other than 2005 was 17 with the Texas Rangers in 2004.
Michaels has 37 career
home runs in six-plus seasons.
This does not seem like a corner position that will provide power.
• FYI, the Indians lacked a power-hitting, run-producing left-fielder last season, as well. They still scored 811 runs, which is five per game. They ranked eighth in the league despite a brutal stretch of 21 games in July, when they couldn't hit a Derek Anderson contract.
And they won 96 games.
So the absence of a power-hitting, run-producing left fielder is only important if nobody else in the lineup is driving in runs.
• Manager Eric Wedge listed some of his team's leaders after the game, and included Dellucci.
Which for some reason seems interesting.
• Paul Byrd started the game. Threw strikes on the first two pitches. This is a good thing. First- and/or second-pitch strikes are vital facets of the Indians' pitching philosophy.
That's the kind of thing one learns in spring training.
• Word filtered south that Anderson still has not signed a new contract with the Browns.
Just like Monday and Sunday and all last week. No signature on a contract.
Anderson's decision or non-decision to sign has become the Francisco Franco is dead story of the offseason.
• Would have been nice to see Adam Miller pitch.
Miller is the Indians' best pitching prospect, but he struggled with injuries last year. The goal was to get him healthy and see what he could do in spring training.
But Miller has a blister that has sidelined him for what will be a week.
Pity.
• Joe Borowski was his usual self.
Borowski started the game and gave up a two-run home run to right by Jhonny Peralta and a Ryan Garko home run.
Yes, it's only an intrasquad game, but Borowski can at times pitch on the edge.
Watching Rafael Betancourt follow Borowski makes a person ponder whether at some point Borowski's propensity to walk the edge will lead the Indians to go with Betancourt as the closer and Masa Kobayashi as the set-up man.
The Indians love bullpen depth, and they have it, but it sure seems like Kobayashi was signed with more than just depth in mind.
Pure speculation, mind you, especially since Borowski led the league in saves last season. But it seems that if any major change in the Indians would take place, it might just happen in that area of the team.
The qualifier: Betancourt might have been the best relief pitcher in baseball last season as the set-up guy, and teams sometimes are reluctant to take a guy out of a role where he's been successful.
• Probably means nothing, but Jeremy Sowers and Aaron Laffey both pitched in the first intrasquad game and Cliff Lee will pitch in the second.
• Glad to hear Starbucks closed for three hours in the afternoon to re-train their baristas. Brewing coffee can be that intricate.
• No Derek Anderson signing just yet.
• Travis Hafner went to the plate in an intrasquad game and saw three infielders on the right side of the infield.
This shift is something Hafner saw a lot of last year, but is not something typical for an intrasquad game.
Wedge said he did not know that shift was coming.
''Maybe it was Jhonny taking charge out there,'' he mused.
• As the ''game'' wore on and guys wearing numbers in the 60s and 70s started to play, Michael Aubrey took one deep for a three-run home run.
Aubrey has spent a good part of the last four seasons in Akron.
Which is pretty much what the game and this day were about.
Veterans tuning up, and younger guys wearing jerseys in the 60s or 70s doing their best with an opportunity.
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com.
WINTER HAVEN, FLA.: Welcome, the PA announcer said, to ''your Cleveland Indians vs. your Cleveland Indians.''
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