While We’re Waiting… Passing on McNabb, Book Signings, and More LeBron-NY Talk
April 6, 2010Should the Cavs Rest?
April 6, 2010For your 2010 Cleveland Indians, it was go time. Hope springs eternal. All teams are 0-0, and optimism reigns. I’ve been drnking the Manny Acta Kool-Aid for the last month and a half. Tribe fans like me couldn’t wait to see the start of something new for the first time since 2002. To say the Acta era began with an inauspicious debut is putting it mildly.
On a beautiful day on the South Side of Chicago, The White Sox and veteran starter Mark Buehrle completely shut down the Indian Express in the 6-0 pasting at US Cellular Field. The Tribe offense was stagnant, managing just four singles against the left-hander and two relievers. Jake Westbrook made his long awaited return from Tommy John surgery and the rust showed. Trouble found him just three batters in.
He walked big Carlos Quentin and was touched up for a two run shot by noted Tribe killer Paul Konerko. Trailing 2-0 in the third, Jake loaded the bases with one out one a single, walk, and hit batsman. With journeyman DH Mark Kotsay stepping to the plate, the time was now for a patented Jake double play ball.
He got what he wanted, but the chopper to second baseman Mark Grudzielanek caused a slow back-handed flip to short. Asdrubal Cabrera did his best to fire a bullet to first, but Kotsay narrowly beat the throw, giving the Sox a 3-0 lead. A wild pitch to Alex Rios scored Quentin to bring in another run. With Buehrle dealing, the Tribe looked cooked. He retired the last 10 Indians he faced before leaving after seven innings. The offense had only one real chance all day. Trailing 2-0 with two out in the third, Asdrubal Cabrera singled over Michael Brantley, putting two on for Grady Sizemore. Tribe fans were looking for the big “welcome back” hit from their stud CF. Instead, he weekly flew out to center, ending the threat. ‘
‘We couldn’t do anything against him,” Acta said.
Westbrook in the meantime, was done after loading the bases again in the fifth with nobody out.
His line: 4.0 IP, 92 pitches (47 strikes) five hits, four walks, two HBP, one strikeout. Not exactly what Jake was looking for to start his season. “Chalk it up to I just didn’t pitch well,” he said. “I’m done with the excuses of you haven’t pitched in a year and a half. Now it’s just a matter of getting better.”
Here was his manager’s take: ”Jake threw the ball OK,” Acta said. ”I thought he was a little jumpy and didn’t have his good command. I don’t care what you say or how long a pitcher has been around, when he doesn’t pitch for two years, he’s going to be a little antsy.”
While it’s hard to find positives in a 6-0, four hit shutout loss, I’ll give it a crack.
- Brantley looks like a stud to me. Just look at him and he looks like a ballplayer. Having him in the ninth spot in the order essentially simulates a 1-2-3 of Brantley, AC, and Grady, though he has no pressure down at the bottom of the lineup. He reached base twice, including one of the Indians four hits.
- Though he had just one bloop hit, I thought Travis Hafner swung the bat well. He had two loud outs (I know, I’m reaching here) and said bloop single against the lefty Buehrle.
- I’ve always been in the tank for Aaron Laffey. He showed why the Indians felt they needed him in the pen with the injury to Kerry Wood. Entering a bases loaded, nobody out situation in the fifth, he induced a double play ball and minimized the damage. Only a walk kept him for a perfect two innings of relief. Jensen Lewis also looked good in his one inning of work, striking out two.
- Asdrubal Cabrera’s glovework at short was breathtaking. The guy looks like a young Omar Vizquel out there with his effortless defensive play.
The good news is that there are 161 games left to play. Big leaguers move on from one loss and get ready for the next game. A wise man once said “momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher.” That man for the Indians is the spring training sensation Fausto Carmona. Hopefully we can see a continuation of that form Wednesday night as the Indians face former NL Cy Young winner Jake Peavy.
(AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
29 Comments
For the summer’s sake, I hope the Tribe bounces back. If not, it will be a long time until Browns season
I still stand by my stance from last year…
I dont care if they win or lose…its still baseball and I’ll still happily spend at least 20 games a year at The Jake. (no its not progressive field to me)
people can whine and complain about the $$$ and the Dolans…but its still baseball…and ill still root for my team!
Go Tribe!
Juuuuuuuuust a bit outside
I’ll re-post my comment here… That game sucked, but let’s not all go flying off the deep end. Buehrle must have started out 80-90% of batters with a strike yesterday… he really was in form and seems to have a knack for starting the season off well. The only thing that really concerned me was Lou Marson, defensively. If he has that much trouble blocking the sinker for every game Westbrook starts, the Indians are in deep dog doo. He looked like he couldn’t cover a snail with a satellite dish.
@DK – agreed. All the negativity about the Tribe, although understandable, is getting a bit hard to take. I would rather see the glass as half full rather then half empty.
Re: what DK wrote, yeah! My sentiments exactly.
On a day that I might be grumpy because the rich just got richer (BoSox re-sign Beckett), I’m just happy that it’s spring time and that it’s baseball season.
Go Tribe/Cavs/Browns!
Also, I completely agree with TD about Laffey… that was a solid effort. The walk that he gave up seemed to happen because he was pitching around a right-handed batter to get to a left-handed batter, and with first base open and his command looking good, I think that was a nice call. I also agree with DK and everyone else… it’s not time to panic about scoring zero runs against a pitcher who has recently pitched a perfect game on opening day and really had his command working. The Indians will hit this year, and I was encouraged by the way our bullpen pitched. The White Sox had one run off our bullpen… a mistake over the plate by Tony Sipp who looked solid on every other pitch.
I’ve always been big on Asdrubal, and have never thought Jhonny was anything special.
Sadly the media and the Indians are only catching on after signing Jhonny to a big contract and getting nothing for it. We built the infield around the wrong one.
reason 342 why I’m not excited about this season. I can easily see starting 0-15.
I’m happy to see there are a few fans who love the game for the game itself, and dont concern themselves with payrolls and concession sales, etc…its still baseball!! i dont care if theyre 30-132…ill still watch em…i still recall watching the tribe being built with subtle moves in the 90s…if it happens again, fantastic, if not…ITS STILL BASEBALL!!! 🙂
With the pitching rotation that’s in place, this team isn’t built for long winning streaks. So if we start the season 1-7 again, you can pretty much stick a fork in em. But at least I get my box score fix every morning now.
Good news: the Indians are projecting better for the rest of the season than they were after one game last year.
So we’ve got that going for us, which is nice.
It’s pretty interesting to see this outbreak of optimism. Makes me feel like the title of this article is spot on: the weather was good and it made everyone feel warm and American.
If we had played at home in the Snow Bowl, I could see a different vibe prevailing.
Fact is, baseball is not fun to watch anymore. When your team doesn’t have a chance from day 1, it’s pretty hard to get involved.
You guys keep saying “baseball is baseball.” But that’s not true anymore. Baseball WAS baseball when it was a game of parity. An equal opportunity venture that mirrored the same ideals that we so ardently espoused in the good ol’ U S of A. I guess it mirrors US ideals now though…
…cheat. Use drugs. Lie about it. Protect yourself.
…cheat families, kids,and the people who care about you most.
…make money at all costs even if you simultaneously are undermining the entire foundation which has so so generously served you.
…crush those with any sliver of competing while dangling the unattainable carrot that is based on some form of branding and irrational hope.
Welcome to Wall Street, gentlemen.
It’s just not fun anymore.
(Purposefully bombastic…)
sliver of hope*
It’s always nice to have baseball back on opening day unfortunately that feeling seems to die away fast for Indians fans due in large part to horrible Aprils. Lets see what happens after all it was just one game. That being said I think the Indians offense will continue to be a question mark especially against the better pitching opponents in the league.
I can’t believe you didn’t mention Buhrle’s absolutely ridiculous play. If you haven’t seen it, it’s still rotating on the mlb.com homepage. Most absurd play I’ve ever seen by an infielder, and the pitcher nonetheless. When you can pull that off, you know you’re having a good day. When the dude’s on, there’s little you can do to score off him. Wednesday will be different, if Fausto from Arizona shows up we might be able to turn the tables real quick.
Fact is, baseball is not fun to watch anymore. When your team doesn’t have a chance from day 1, it’s pretty hard to get involved.
@Jack – I still tend to lean towards enjoying the game, not only for the game itself, but for the smell of the ballpark…the sounds of the PA system…the banging of the drum…maybe to you, its all about winning, but you cant sway people who truly enjoy the entire experience…and enjoy baseball for baseball…
feel free to not watch, whine, complain…find fault…its still not gonna stop people who like the game for the game…because after all…its a game…sure people cheat, but what profession DOESN’T have that? name me one.
Church? no.
Schools? no.
Gov’t? no.
Cops? no.
honesty is no longer the norm, its the minority. get over it, get used to it, or get off it.
i still love baseball regardless of anything. 🙂
“Fact is, baseball is not fun to watch anymore. When your team doesn’t have a chance from day 1, it’s pretty hard to get involved.”
You make this sound endemic to baseball. What about the Rams and Browns? What about the Nets or Knicks? What about whoever has to play the UConn women? All sports have teams that aren’t projected to win anything. Fans watch because they like the sport, or feel a connection to the players. I think that’s what a lot of the comments were meant to portray. Baseball is fun to some people, whether we win or not. It’s not like we’d not prefer to win 100 games every year, but we can appreciate the sport and the weather (and, for people like me, the numbers). Those are good things to some of us, and it’s nice to see some others enjoying them.
I love baseball being at a game is 100x better then watching on TV but it never hurts feeling like you can win. The days when the Indians were feared or a threat are gone and we’ve returned back to the more HOPEFUL ways. The game of baseball is great as are the prices, for the most part, unfortunately the financial injustices for the teams not named NY, Boston, Los Angeles and the rest are terrible. These other teams have to hit homeruns off the field in order to just contend meanwhile these other teams can outspend their mistakes. Until baseball does something to level the playing field you’ll just have to continue to hope you get hit by lightning, I mean success.
@DK – Yeah, I thought I had written this in, but I guess I didn’t. I thought it at least. I meant to say that it’s not really fun to watch “unless you’re at the ballpark.”
Going to a ball game is still great, but it’s hard for them to hold my consistent television viewership or entice me to buy Season Ticket like I have done in years past with the current setting.
@Jon Steiner – Jon, I obviously didn’t get into it my post, but the sports are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT because of the financial structures. Why should I watch the Indians and enjoy it and get attached to my favorite players? We are just going to have to trade them because we don’t think we will be able to afford them…we don’t even get a CHANCE to compete in Free Agency.
And even the draft offers no hope because we avoid drafting certain players JUST BECAUSE WE CAN’T PAY THEM.
What about the Rams and Browns? They can turn it around via the draft and free agency. They can hold onto players with whom I develop a “relationship.” The Knicks, Nets, Wolves? These teams can change their fortunes with just ONE DRAFT PICK. Look at what the Cavs did with LeBron.
The other sports, by virtue of their business structures, still preserve some sort of parity or cyclicality. Baseball does not. The Indians have no chance to compete maybe ever again. And even if they do, they can only compete for a 1-2 year window. Like what will happen to the Rays if they don’t compete out of the gate. OR what would have happened to Minnesota had they not broke the bank. Or what’s happened to the Marlins for the past 5 years.
Why should I watch Matt LaPorta? Or Brantely? Or Cabrera? I’d love to follow these guys…but then I’m forced to follow them out the door.
@Jack – I can understand people enjoying the live experience better than on TV, but its still the same game…it makes no difference to me…but i can understand someone not liking to watch it on TV…
what I dont quite understand is your logic…you say that you dont want to watch the great players we currently have…again, I go back to the norm/minority argument….most players (again, MOST), will change teams a couple times in their careers…its just what happens with the way sports teams value their players…sure there are the Jeters, Kobe’s, and Peyton’s of the sports world…but think about their talent levels…there’s probably no one better than them for 10 yrs at their respective positions…doesnt mean they didnt need a supporting cast for those years…O’Neill, Shaq, Marvin…sure theyre typically around other Hall-of-Famers, but Shaq started in Orlando…so its not always the same…
guess what I’m saying is, I’m not a fair-weather fan (not accusing you of that necessarily, as I can understand your point), and I’m inclined to cheer when Manny, Omar, and Thome come back thru, even if other dont…I remember when they were here…I remember alot of the former Wahoos…doesnt mean that I cant root for the current team, as its been more often that its not the same, and im fine with that…if they are able to lock up core players with good contracts and build a championship, that means more to me than buying my way to one…just my opinion…
@ Jack: I guess we’re probably not going to agree on this. Obviously the sports’ salary structures are different. I’m not saying they’re the same. I’m just saying the MLB has as much or more parity/competition as any other sport (more than the NBA; about the same as the NFL). Drafts matter in baseball too, and Shapiro should be held accountable for his terrible draft record over the last decade.
But the bigger point is that your praise of “parity” contradicts your hatred of “competition windows”. When there’s parity (which you like) teams win for awhile, then other teams win for awhile (called a “competition window” which you deride as the Indians’ biggest problem).
But I know we won’t agree in the end: springtime baseball makes me happy. It makes you sad. That’s not easily resolved–nor should it be.
@ Jack – if you look at the NBA, though there are differences in the salary rules, it’s certainly been trending more towards MLB in terms of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. The Cavs got Jamison for a first rounder and the rights to some Euro-dude. The teams that are willing to spend the luxury tax do exceedingly well, and then there are those stuck in perpetual reboot.
I get that in baseball it’s just a blank slate and the Yanks, Mets, Dodgers, and Red Sox spend laps around everyone else – but the difference isn’t as stark as you’re making it to be.
@DK – My frustration has obscured my actual tone, which is just one of nostalgic longing, etc.
I mean, I watched every single pitch yesterday. And I’ll still watch the Tribe. I just don’t enjoy it as much. Instead of being excited by possibility or potential, I feel this sense of inevitability that nothing good will come of these efforts and the players I will try to support will once again bolt.
@Jon Steiner – I have to disagree (which you expected I would) a great deal about the comparison between sports. Baseball definitely does not have near the parity of the other two sports. At all. There are so many quality NBA teams that can compete from year to year. Right now, the East has 4 teams who can compete for a championship and the West will have all of its playoff teams winning 50+ games perhaps.
The NBA is moving towards parity. The NFL – enough said. Greatest parity of the three major sports. Now, I’m looking at the present (last couple years) and into the future. In the 90s baseball had greater parity than it does now, or ever will. The internet, television rights, and global marketing has changed sports forever. And while its impact is felt in all sports, it is felt the most in the sports without a salary cap. You mentioned the talent level of Kobe, Jeter, etc…what about the talent level of Ramirez (top ten hitter maybe ever), Thome, CC, Cliff, Vic, etc. We haven’t been able to hold onto cornerstone pieces. And, unlike with the Cavs and Bron, the structure of MLB offers NO incentive at all for stars to stay. The NBA at least allows the team that owns the Bird Rights to offer more money.
Baseball has changed drastically in the last 2-3 years and will continue to move sharply away from parity. Do you realize that of the 8 playoff teams last year, only the Twins and Rockies were outside the top 8 in payroll? Would’ve been 7 of 8 if the Twins hadn’t edged the Tigers. The Moneyball days of the early 00’s have come and gone. You can’t compete unless you spend. This year, the top spender in each division is projected to have the most wins in that division. Last season, the Yankees came in at over $200 million and the Mets, I think, were a distant second with 135-140 million. Now, the median spent in the league was $75m. That means, the difference between payrolls 1 and 2, the difference, was more than most of the teams in baseball spent on their whole payroll.
When it gets away from you like that, you don’t stand a chance. Every team will continue to lose it’s young stars and be destructively penalized if they have to overpay younger guys long term hoping that they pan out, instead of paying them once you actually see they earned it. This is a big big problem.
You also brought up the 1-2 year window v. parity thing which seems like a contradiction, but it’s not. Not nearly nuanced enough. There is a difference between being an automatic (like the Yanks were last year…and competing). Look if a team is the best, they’re the best. But other teams should have a CHANCE to to compete. When you are 1 win away from the World Series, you shouldn’t be a bottom-feeder the next year because you couldn’t afford to keep any of your players. For me parity is cyclic. A team is good for 5-6 years when their core talent is there…not a championship winner every year, but they compete. Then a new cycle of teams will come in. The ups and downs should be more consistent…not the peaks and valleys so many teams face.
This is what’s happening in the NBA. As the Lakers, Celts, Spurs, Suns, and Mavs all fade away. The Cavs, Magic, Blazers, Hawks, and Thunder are rising. This cycle may have existed in baseball in the past, but it hasn’t recently and will not in the future…unless something is fixed.
@Jack – I can honestly understand what youre saying, and I can see your point..maybe its just a perception issue, where I always hold out hope that they’re going to win, against the odds…it makes the wins more fun for me, and the close calls a glimmer of hope…will the Indians win the World Series this year? Probably not…but there’s always a chance…anytime you say never, youre bound to be humbled when it happens…are they going to win 100 games? probably not…but they might…
sure, monkeys *might* fly out of my butt, but probably not…but there’s always a chance… 🙂
there’s also a chance that they will lock up Choo, Cabrera, and the arms on the farm, Rondon, Knapp, and Hagadone will be dominant, and we can have a good team for a window of 3-5 yrs…I’m fine with that…
what people tend to forget is tht when we did sign hafner and westbrook to long term deals, they were producing and no one can predict injuries…freak things happen…I have no issue with them trying to build a team around a power hitting lefty who can also hit for average, and an inning eating, DP machine at the time…they seemed to be sound investments…
have they had bad ones? sure they have…Delucci, Michaels, etc…but such is the gamble you take…drafts were not that good, and we traded away some great talent too, but I dont have any issue with it, as to me, its still baseball, and its still one of the most fun things to follow…and I’m a HUGE Buckeyes fan, as well as Browns and Cavs…I dont think I have a preference, as I love supporting my town’s teams, regardless of anything…if LBJ leaves, fine…If Holmgren stinks at building a franchise, fine…I’ll still have my butt in the stands!
Go Tribe! 🙂
@DK – I feel that. And I’m good natured. And I’ll watch. And I still get that exciting feeling. It’s tempered by fear of the MLB system.
Just a final note, and it goes to my convo with JS as well…I thought it was interesting how you were signing off. “If LBJ leaves, fine…If Holmgren stinks at building a franchise, fine”
Me too. In those two sports. Why? We had a chance. We brought in big names for LBJ. Signed everyone we could. Can offer more money. We had a chance. Same with the Browns. If Holmgren blows it, it was our call. We had just as good a chance as anyone. I can live with that…and can’t fault the league for one second.
But when the Indians lose Cy Young winners in consecutive years, then it’s harder to support the league, because we NEVER had a chance at keeping those guys. Never had the same chance as everyone else.
I don’t need to win. I just need to feel like my team has the same CHANCE as everyone else. What they do with it…that I can live with.
Viva Lou Marson!
And yeah, I’m using the first-person plurals loosely.
@ Jack – I dunno that a 65 yr old Shaq and a “point” guard that is a SG really qualifies as big names…Andy is a great player, but not a star…I think they brought in people that play well around LBJ…until they sign another giant star a la Bosh or something, I will disagree with ya on that 🙂
As far as Holmgren, its not really our call per se, its the franchise that decided after 9 yrs of futility and horrible decisions to finally entice someone to come in and clean house…again, regardless of win/lose, I will still support em…even if its brutally hard to watch! (and yes I know you didnt mean we as if you had a vote..just saying, regardless, its never really our decision until we become bajillionares and buy our own team…or become the Packers)
I do appreciate the discussion though, as I can understand your points, I just respectfully disagree on the basis that no matter the argument, no matter the perception…I’ll still enjoy sports in spite of whatever the owners choose to do with their little bit of power…if theyre a behind the scenes owner that spends freely, or theyre a Mark Cuban…it dont matter to me…its all part of the game and the entertainment…sports are like their own little countries…you never know when a Luxembourg is gonna beat a Russia…or a Jamaica is going to beat a Japan…it makes it more fun!
Wow, all these comments because we lost one baseball game out of 162 where the opposing pitcher was just other-worldly and it was an away game to boot. There are so many games in a season that you can’t even tell how good a team is after a month of play! I watched every pitch of the game… Buehrle was hitting spots as well as anyone in the game ever has. In this one start, he was Greg Maddux in his prime.
Jack, you might contend that you would have felt the same way, win or lose, but I’m willing to bet that you would have been optimistic and hopeful had the Indians eked out a win on a Willie Mayes-Hayes type of accidental single. I just don’t see the point of the negativity… the Indians were able to contend a few years ago and were one bad start from Sabathia away from going to the World Series. The parity is there, unless you’re a Pirates fan or a Yankees/Red Sox fan. Every other team seems to have ups and downs. Just look at the Rays… they were the laughing stock one year and were legit contenders the very next year with just a few changes to the roster.
I’m not going to come from the angle of “baseball is fun regardless” because I honestly don’t have nearly as much fun when the Tribe sucks, namely because I live way too far away to go to the games, but there’s still plenty to be optimistic about this season.
@DK – I certainly don’t want to take sports love away from anyone.
Brief notes:
1) Yes, that’s why I said “big names.” Shaq and Jamison are big names, though they don’t necessarily produce like the once used to. Just bein’ sly y’all.
2) As to Holmgren, that’s why I said I was being loose with the first person plurals…”we” and “our.” I know it’s not “our” decision…it’s just easier than typing ‘the Browns,’ etc. and our conversation was bending towards fan/team ‘relationships/intimacy’ anyway.
Enjoy the lovely weather, y’allz.