Larry Hughes Looks Back
June 25, 2008NBA Draft: A Kink in the Plans?
June 26, 2008Giants 4, Indians 1 (box)
Welcome to last place, Tribe fans! You read that right. Last place. After being one game away from the World Series and making next to zero moves to improve going into this season, we are officially half of a game behind the Kansas City Royals.
Given that it’s borderline worthless to even write a recap of last night’s game – another loss – at the hands of the San Francisco Giants, I thought that it would be a good time to do my best impression of the fellas at Fire Joe Morgan. Professionals, these guys always provide entertaining analysis of publications; pointing out the redundancies, poor fact-checking, and downright ridiculousness of most would-be objective analysis.
I’ll warn you, I’m nowhere near as talented at writing as the FJM guys, so don’t dive into this expecting much. But instead of discussing how Barry Zito’s third win of the season came against the Indians who only managed six hits over the entire game, I present you with the following:
“Maybe he found his groove a little bit tonight,” second baseman Jamey Carroll said of Zito. “We were totally ineffective against him.”
Others in said zone: Johnathan Sanchez, Chad Billingsley, Jeff Francis, Greg Reynolds… At some point, you just have to admit that the team is offensively inept.
“Frustration,” Carroll said, “is creeping in.”
Welcome to the party, Jamey. Glad you could make it.
“We never made any adjustments against [Zito], and he just kept going,” Wedge said. “If [opposing pitchers are] having success, they’re not going to change anything until we force them to.”
Who’s job is it to implement these adjustments? If the Cavs come out flat in the third, we look to Mike Brown. If the Browns all of a sudden cannot run the ball in the second half, we look to Romeo Crennel. Hey Eric, how about getting your guys to force said changes?
“Anytime you pitch good,” Jeremy Sowers said, “especially if you get yourself out of a couple jams, it’s going to bring some confidence.”
When you walk five and allow nine hits in seven innings, I’m not sure you can speak about “pitching good.” Forget pitching well. Or speaking well for that matter.
“In order for us to win ballgames, we’ve got to be consistent in all areas,” Wedge said. “That’s what we need to do with the people we have here. They’re the ones who need to go out and get it done and do a better job.”
Pointing fingers, are we? I’d argue that we have been the model of consistency. The starting pitching has been great all year. The offense and bullpen have been awful all year. Not much wavering from the mean on any given night. Single-digit hits, at least a run or so allowed in the eighth or ninth innings. I think that’s consistency at it’s finest.
It’s consistency that has us one game ahead of the Giants in terms of record, with one game to play. Oh, and it’s also the reason that we’re in last place within our division, with only the Seattle Mariners below us within the American League.
While I continue to cast stones at Eric Wedge, he’s redirecting them at the team. You be the judge.
4 Comments
The Indians did do something last night that no National League team has done for three years…
They made Barry Zito look good…
time to trade cc
I’d prefer if we trade Wedge.
Fire Wedge because he isn’t giving himself or the team a fighting chance. Shapiro is also borderline at this point but it really falls on Dolan. Spend some money or should I say force your GM to spend money on real players not suspect veterans.