While We’re Waiting… A WFNY Brew, Tough Draft Position, and Tall Cavalier Tales
June 11, 2009Browns Considered to Be Worst in the NFL
June 11, 2009And just like that, we’re back in the cellar.
It was not all that long ago when the Kansas City Royals were criticized for giving Gil Meche a five-year deal worth $55 million. Last night, the Indians managed to make that look like it was worth every penny as Meche fanned a career-high 11 batters in his seven innings of work. He walked three and allowed only four hits.
And while most teams would improve after said successful starting pitcher was removed, not these guys. Ron Mahay and Kyle Farnsworth came out of the Royals bullpen to toss two innings of hitless ball, striking out one more Indian for good measure.
On the other end, Carl Pavano – he of the mildly successful first half – was lit up for 11 hits and nine earned runs in his four and two-thirds innings of work. Three of the 11 hits came via the home run. In fact, things may have been even worse if not for Shin-Soo Choo firing an absolute bullet to Kelly Shoppach to nail Tony Peña Jr at the plate as he tried to tag up from third.
Choo, Victor Martinez, Mark DeRosa, Luis Valbuena and Kelly Shoppach all struck out twice. Shoppach is now batting .204 on the season – .133 over his last nine games – furthering the pain that we now endure after not selling high on him after last season. Jamey Carroll (.325 avg.) struck out once in an 0-for-4 evening, and managed to leave seven men on base.
If there is any good to take out of this one, Jensen Lewis allowed one hit while fanning four Royals in his three and one-third innings. Joe Smith tossed a one-hit inning as well, his first inning since April 28th. Oh, and I guess we can add the fact that Travis Hafner did not strike out at all in this one, despite going 1-for-4. I’ll take the minor victories wherever I can.
The rubber match kicks off at 7:05 PM as we get to take on the 8-2, 1.55 ERA Zach Grienke. The man with the task of trying to better him will be the 1-3, 5.40 Jeremy Sowers.
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(AP Photo/Tony Dejak)
13 Comments
I guess we tripped on the top step of the cellar.
At least we have Sowers going tonight.
Getcha Long Relief ready…
And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Pena was only on base because Choo completely misplayed a line drive that was hit his way, allowing Pena to wind up with a double…
At least he made up for it.
So much for winning the series…and it might be time soon to sell “high” on Pavano before he gets hurt and slides back to mediocrity.
Boom was thinking the same thing. Reminds me of the offseason when everyone and their grandmothers said sell high on Shoppach and look how fast his value plumetted in only a 1/3 of the season. Conversely, kinda glad we did not trade Lee, as he a legitimate one/two pitcher. But feel Pavano will milk the market adn price us out anyhow next season if his fairy tale ride continues so really a no-brainer given the season looks lost. Should get good value for him. AI
After last night’s game, I’m 0-5 at games I’ve attended with the Tribe scoring 1 run or less in 4 of them.
@Boom- I was starting to think it was just me….but then again you are more likely to see a Tribe loss this year than a win.
That’s OK. We’ll make it up against The Machine and the rest of STL this weekend.
/sarcasm
So with Shoppach sucking it up, do we still look at trading Martinez? I also though we should have moved one of them in the off season and that at the time Shoppach had real value. Now that he doesn’t get us anything in a trade but a sandwich, what should the front office do?
I still think we should trade Vic, but if Shoppach sucks, are any of our young catchers ready to take over in the bigs? I am not sure about that. But I don’t want Vic getting hurt and then we lose the value he has right now either.
Carlos Santana, Wyatt Toregas and Chris Gimenez are probably not at the level required to play everyday in the major leagues just yet. It was a good idea to trade Vic maybe months ago, but nobody in the Cleveland organization will entertain that though anymore the way he has been playing.
Santana is the future at catcher, but he won’t be ready until next year at earliest.
It would be really, really hard to watch Vic get traded away.
Break up the Royals!