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Decisions Decisions: Credit Cards or Your Mortgage?
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Loucile is looking for a Lake Erie getaway in June for three kids, ages 1, 3, and 5.
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Talk of the Town – Top entertainment picks for the weekend
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See Jane Style:
Do IT this week: Layering
By Sheldon Ocker
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 05:44 p.m. EDT, Apr 25, 2009
If the long baseball season teaches us anything, it's that jumping to conclusions leads to lots of incorrect assumptions.
After the first nine days of the season, the Indians were 1-7, therefore, they must be on their way to one of the worst records in major-league history. Even at this early juncture, some people delightedly asked if Eric Wedge could last out the season as manager.
Since then, the club has won more games than it has lost. So put away the panic button, but don't forget where you stashed it. You still might need it — for the Browns.
That is not to say the Tribe has done a 180 and is preparing to win 90 percent of its games the rest of the way. But the team that fumbled and stumbled and bumbled its way through the season-opening series with the Rangers in Texas and continued to blunder against the Blue Jays in Cleveland has left the building.
No longer are the starting pitchers soaping up in the shower after the fourth inning; no longer is the defense treating rolling baseballs as if they were covered in melted butter, nor is the offense avoiding every chance to score when the bases are loaded.
The rotation has made the most dramatic turnaround. In six of the past eight games, the starters have given up no more than two earned runs and pitched at least six innings. But how do we know that's real, as Wedge likes to say.
Because even though there were doubts about the rotation, there was ample evidence that these guys knew how to win.
Does anyone believe that Cliff Lee's awful spring was a sign that he had forgotten how to pitch? Did it make sense to think that Fausto Carmona's devastating sinker had flattened out and with it his career?
Did we not see Anthony Reyes and Scott Lewis make dramatic debuts in Cleveland after they arrived from St. Louis and Buffalo, respectively, last summer? And with Lewis on the disabled list, is it a surprise to see that Aaron Laffey knows how to get batters out consistently? It's not like he hadn't done it before.
Does that mean it will be clear sailing for the starters for the next five months? Hardly. Laffey and/or Lewis are still young and subject to peaks and valleys while they learn their craft. Carmona continues to have issues with his command. He knows it, and he is aware of how to fix it, so there is reason to believe he will make the proper adjustments.
Carl Pavano, on the other hand, has been a mystery waiting to be solved. Nobody really could know what he might do, inasmuch as he lost virtually all of the past four years to injury.
So far, we've seen him keep an entire Yankee lineup totally off balance for six innings, and we've seen him treated like a batting-practice pitcher by the Rangers, who hammered him for nine runs in one inning.
There were not many concerns about the offense other than how Travis Hafner would respond after undergoing shoulder surgery last year. Hafner doesn't quite look like the hitter he was in 2006, but he has been productive, and I wouldn't bet against him getting back to the 30-home run, 100-RBI plateau.
Bad-news bullpen
So we come to the bullpen, the least effective part of the club and the sector that has caused the most grief for Wedge and General Manager Mark Shapiro. Nobody expected the relief corps to be the club's Achilles heel. It was regarded as the one area — more so even than the attack — that Shapiro, Wedge, the media and the fans could count on to do its job.
But if not for the malfeasance by the relievers, the Indians probably would have won four games at Yankee Stadium instead of splitting the series. If the bullpen hadn't been strafed for nine runs, the Tribe wouldn't have gone down 13-7 to the Blue Jays. And just last week, the relievers were saved the embarrassment of wasting a 6-1 lead, when Victor Martinez hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning.
But even this problem has shown signs of dissipating. Jensen Lewis was giving up too many home runs, but he seems to be back on track. Tony Sipp, a raw rookie summoned from Columbus last Wednesday, has the arm and the makeup to compensate for his inexperience.
Rafael Betancourt has been good more often than he's been bad, and closer Kerry Wood has been blowing hitters away with 97 mile-per-hour fastballs. So far, right-handed side-armer Joe Smith has not been effective against left-handed batters, but if that continues, he can make a living retiring batters who hit from the right side.
Masa Kobayashi was vulnerable in spring training and has been worse during the regular season. I don't expect Shapiro and Wedge to give up on him in the next 10 minutes, but he might be done. The tip-off to me is that Japan did not ask him to play on its World Baseball Classic team, even though he was one of the country's marquee relievers before coming to Cleveland.
What's with Perez?
The most troublesome relief pitching has been done by Rafael Perez, who was expected to be a lockdown setup man (along with Lewis). Instead, he has lacked the electric movement on his pitches — including his formerly lethal slider — and his command has been shaky.
What's his problem? I certainly don't know, but apparently he is not suffering from an injury. One theory advanced by Tribe deep thinkers: Perez likes to pitch in cold weather. Maybe that's it.
A theory not being put forth by team officials: Perez might have benefited from the counsel of former bullpen coach Luis Isaac, who was deposed at the end of last season.
It could be that Perez is not yet a finished product. He is still young, and while it doesn't usually take a reliever as long to learn how to pitch as it does a starter, Perez might still be going through the process.
At any rate, this is the wrong guy to go south. The Indians desperately need Perez to become master of those 60 feet, six inches between the mound and home plate, because Jensen Lewis cannot carry the burden of holding leads in the eighth inning by himself.
Sheldon Ocker can be reached at socker@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at http://www.ohio.com/tribematters. Follow the Indians on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ABJ_Indians.
If the long baseball season teaches us anything, it's that jumping to conclusions leads to lots of incorrect assumptions.
After the first nine days of the season, the Indians were 1-7, therefore, they must be on their way to one of the worst records in major-league history. Even at this early juncture, some people delightedly asked if Eric Wedge could last out the season as manager.
Since then, the club has won more games than it has lost. So put away the panic button, but don't forget where you stashed it. You still might need it — for the Browns.
That is not to say the Tribe has done a 180 and is preparing to win 90 percent of its games the rest of the way. But the team that fumbled and stumbled and bumbled its way through the season-opening series with the Rangers in Texas and continued to blunder against the Blue Jays in Cleveland has left the building.
No longer are the starting pitchers soaping up in the shower after the fourth inning; no longer is the defense treating rolling baseballs as if they were covered in melted butter, nor is the offense avoiding every chance to score when the bases are loaded.
The rotation has made the most dramatic turnaround. In six of the past eight games, the starters have given up no more than two earned runs and pitched at least six innings. But how do we know that's real, as Wedge likes to say.
Because even though there were doubts about the rotation, there was ample evidence that these guys knew how to win.
Does anyone believe that Cliff Lee's awful spring was a sign that he had forgotten how to pitch? Did it make sense to think that Fausto Carmona's devastating sinker had flattened out and with it his career?
Did we not see Anthony Reyes and Scott Lewis make dramatic debuts in Cleveland after they arrived from St. Louis and Buffalo, respectively, last summer? And with Lewis on the disabled list, is it a surprise to see that Aaron Laffey knows how to get batters out consistently? It's not like he hadn't done it before.
Does that mean it will be clear sailing for the starters for the next five months? Hardly. Laffey and/or Lewis are still young and subject to peaks and valleys while they learn their craft. Carmona continues to have issues with his command. He knows it, and he is aware of how to fix it, so there is reason to believe he will make the proper adjustments.
Carl Pavano, on the other hand, has been a mystery waiting to be solved. Nobody really could know what he might do, inasmuch as he lost virtually all of the past four years to injury.
So far, we've seen him keep an entire Yankee lineup totally off balance for six innings, and we've seen him treated like a batting-practice pitcher by the Rangers, who hammered him for nine runs in one inning.
There were not many concerns about the offense other than how Travis Hafner would respond after undergoing shoulder surgery last year. Hafner doesn't quite look like the hitter he was in 2006, but he has been productive, and I wouldn't bet against him getting back to the 30-home run, 100-RBI plateau.
Bad-news bullpen
So we come to the bullpen, the least effective part of the club and the sector that has caused the most grief for Wedge and General Manager Mark Shapiro. Nobody expected the relief corps to be the club's Achilles heel. It was regarded as the one area — more so even than the attack — that Shapiro, Wedge, the media and the fans could count on to do its job.
But if not for the malfeasance by the relievers, the Indians probably would have won four games at Yankee Stadium instead of splitting the series. If the bullpen hadn't been strafed for nine runs, the Tribe wouldn't have gone down 13-7 to the Blue Jays. And just last week, the relievers were saved the embarrassment of wasting a 6-1 lead, when Victor Martinez hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning.
But even this problem has shown signs of dissipating. Jensen Lewis was giving up too many home runs, but he seems to be back on track. Tony Sipp, a raw rookie summoned from Columbus last Wednesday, has the arm and the makeup to compensate for his inexperience.
Rafael Betancourt has been good more often than he's been bad, and closer Kerry Wood has been blowing hitters away with 97 mile-per-hour fastballs. So far, right-handed side-armer Joe Smith has not been effective against left-handed batters, but if that continues, he can make a living retiring batters who hit from the right side.
Masa Kobayashi was vulnerable in spring training and has been worse during the regular season. I don't expect Shapiro and Wedge to give up on him in the next 10 minutes, but he might be done. The tip-off to me is that Japan did not ask him to play on its World Baseball Classic team, even though he was one of the country's marquee relievers before coming to Cleveland.
What's with Perez?
The most troublesome relief pitching has been done by Rafael Perez, who was expected to be a lockdown setup man (along with Lewis). Instead, he has lacked the electric movement on his pitches — including his formerly lethal slider — and his command has been shaky.
What's his problem? I certainly don't know, but apparently he is not suffering from an injury. One theory advanced by Tribe deep thinkers: Perez likes to pitch in cold weather. Maybe that's it.
A theory not being put forth by team officials: Perez might have benefited from the counsel of former bullpen coach Luis Isaac, who was deposed at the end of last season.
It could be that Perez is not yet a finished product. He is still young, and while it doesn't usually take a reliever as long to learn how to pitch as it does a starter, Perez might still be going through the process.
At any rate, this is the wrong guy to go south. The Indians desperately need Perez to become master of those 60 feet, six inches between the mound and home plate, because Jensen Lewis cannot carry the burden of holding leads in the eighth inning by himself.
Sheldon Ocker can be reached at socker@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians blog at http://www.ohio.com/tribematters. Follow the Indians on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ABJ_Indians.
Comments
Click here to post your comments
Bethesda, MD
Posted 08:36 PM, 04/25/2009
Indians are BORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRing!
Bethesda, MD
Posted 08:59 PM, 04/25/2009
Indians simply boring fans to sleep.
Bethesda, MD
Posted 08:59 PM, 04/25/2009
so boring.
cuyahoga falls, oh
Posted 09:59 PM, 04/25/2009
i don't know, eastsidejo, what do you think?
