While We’re Waiting… Tressel Resignation, Buckeye’s Future and Bad Break for Tribe
May 31, 2011Ohio State and Jim Tressel Just the Latest Victims of a Flawed System
May 31, 2011
11 days ago, I wrote a piece for Cleveland.com saying that danger time was approaching for the Indians. With the brutal schedule, injuries to Travis Hafner and Grady Sizemore, and the fact that they weren’t going to continue on a .700 winning percentage pace, the other shoe was going to drop at some point. If they could just stay afloat and get through this brutal stretch and stay far enough ahead of the Detroit Tigers, they could be alright in the end.
I expected to see some sort of swoon, and it appears that it has finally arrived.
Yesterday’s 11-1 loss in Toronto was the Tribe’s fifth in their last six games. Luckily for them, the Tigers haven’t exactly been lighting the world on fire either. They have gained just one game on them in the last week and sit five games back. Despite the struggles, the Tribe still carry the largest lead in any division.
There are many concerns right now.
The defense, which has been rock solid for most of the season, seems to have fallen apart over the last two weeks. Yesterday’s physical error by Orlando Cabrera on a double play grounder with the bases loaded and one out in the fourth was bad enough. But he compounded his mistake with a mental error, losing his concentration and allowing Rajai Davis to score all the way from second as he had his back to home plate, angry with himself. That turned a 4-1, manageable deficit to 6-1. Then the most dangerous hitter in the game right now, Jose Bautista, threw salt in the wound with a two-run double. Two batter later, JP Arrencibia doubled in Bautista and just like that it was 9-1 and the Indians were done.
It wasn’t just an isolated incident with OC’s error. His second base range continues to look worse by the day, Going to his right seems to be a problem for him. There is no doubt he is one of the clubhouse leaders of this team and has done wonders working with Asdrubal Cabrera, but it wouldn’t shock me to see red-hot Cord Phelps (.319/7 HR/38 RBI in 47 games) come up from AAA in the Adam Everett roster spot and take some AB’s from both OC and Jack Hannahan, who’s defense is solid, but bat has significantly slowed.
Cabrera is far from the only defensive culprit. Its kind of become contagious.
Of more concern to me however is the pitching of alleged “ace” Fausto Carmona. The big right-hander has been wildly inconsistent this season. He will go two weeks where he looks like Fausto version 2007. Then he will go two weeks where his sinker won’t sink and everything is up. Last night was again one of those nights.
Its one thing to get beaten by Bautista. Its another when Jayson Nix and Davis are lighting you up. If the Indians are going to see this season through, Fausto has to step up his game.
“I don’t know, man,” Carmona said. “I tried to keep the ball down. I missed a couple pitches up. A couple pitches, down in the count, I threw them right down the middle.”
Fausto went just four innings, allowing nine runs (seven earned) on nine hits. For the season, he is now just 306 with an ERA north of five.
It was just not a good day for the Indians in any facet of the game. While they had eight hits, they were 0-7 with runners in scoring position, and got just one run, a Shelley Duncan fifth deck bomb, off of a pitcher (Jo Jo Reyes) who hadn’t won a decision in 28 starts, tying the all-time Major League record.
Now they must turn to the shakiest starter of them all, Mitch Talbot (1-1, 5.87 ERA) to try and stop the bleeding. He will face hard-throwing righty Brendan Morrow (2-2, 4.38) in Toronto. First pitch is set for 7:07 EST.
“Every team goes through some of those,” Manny Acta said. “Some of those big clubs already have gone through longer losing streaks. We’re scuffling this week, but … we’re still hanging in there. It’s a matter of time. We’ve got to be patient and continue to work and our offense will be back.”
(AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette)
15 Comments
Bring Jason Donald in. Platoon him between 2nd and 3rd to get the old guys off their feet, as they are playing almost daily right now.
This road trip can’t be over fast enough. The hitting is light. The starting pitching is awful. Come on home and right the ship.
It all starts with the starting pitching. If those guys can get things back on track they’ll come out of this I think.
That said, this lineup needs some pop somewhere. The lineups they’re throwing out there aren’t scaring anyone. We just lost to a guy who hasn’t won a game in nearly 3 years. Alarms should be going off somewhere.
I’ve already smashed the panic button it’s broken.
@Karsten: Donald is hurt. The person you are looking for is Cord Phelps, who is demolishing AAA pitching.
It’s the offense that has me the most worried – they look pathetic.
The bat phone for Cord Phelps is ringing
was waiting for this. Recovery from this will tell us just what kind of team this ballclub is. A team we were quietly hoping for, or the team ESPN and anyone outside of CLE wrote them off as being.
What I have taken away from the past two weeks other than OldMando Cabrera’s poor range….
1. Carmona is not a #1 MLB starter. He has 3 wins in his last 10 starts with an ERA of 5.31. This has officially past the “rough couple of starts” point.
2. Carlos Santana needs to spend some time Columbus. There i said it. it took a lot for me to get this this point; but it’s obvious now he needs to see AAA pitching and the ball flying off his bat to regain some composure and confindence at the plate. yes i know it sounds weird; instill confidence in a MLB player be sending him to AAA but I think his injury last year did more damage than we thought. He came up last year confident and ready, then he lost a ton of time seeing MLB pitchers and just cannot pick them up right now.
All that being said we have two 7 game homestands coming up that might be the perfect time to see what Phelps and Chiz can do at the plate and while we’re at it bring up Hagadone in Durbin’s spot as well.
@9 – Totally agree with the Carmona sentiment. As far as Santana goes, I just have no idea who you can count on for power in the lineup if you send him down. I know he’s not hitting but no one else is either. I really dread seeing a lineup consisting of Marson, Kearns, Buck/Duncan. This team needs Hafner back in the worst way.
What has disturbed me are the bone headed plays, both in the field and on the base pathes. You can’t beat yourself like that.
Man, what happened to Carmona? I thought he was going to be a Cy Young caliber guy after ’07.
I agree with stin about Sanatana. Yes, he’s been disappointing and yes, he could use some time in AAA. But I don’t think that’s a luxury when can afford right now. He’s going to have to learn the hard way. In his favor, he has had a (slightly) better May than April.
Amazingly, over the last 10 games, despite a 5-5 record, the Indians have gained ground in the race, because everyone else in the division is either 4-6 or 3-7 over their last 10.
but this team does need a spark, and there’s no real sense in trading the youngsters to bring in a rental, when we do have a few there who can probably help out right now, on the cheap.
The biggest concern for me is the defense. We knew the pitching would level out at some point. But, the defense was outstanding early on and its been pretty lousy lately. When you have a bunch of contact pitchers, and we do, you need excellent defense and we arent getting it right now.
The offense will come around, but we do need Hafner. And we need some help in the rotation. I think Carmona is who he is at this point. This isnt a slump or a bad stretch hes going through. Truth is, Fausto has had his moments here and there, but he hasnt been very good overall since 2007. Hes got great stuff, but unfortunately he doesnt have the command, composure or the consistency to be a reliable starter. Sometimes hes going to look great, and sometimes hes going to get shelled.
Id like to see them call up Zach McAllister before anyone else at Columbus. We need another arm in this rotation especially with White being out for awhile, and who knows what to expect out of Talbot and Carmona at this point.
I do also believe that its time to start thinking about Phelps and Chisenhall. Ive defended Hannahan and Cabrera but, their bats are starting to become a major liability. Hannahan is down to .227 and hes hitting .173 since April 29th. I hope they keep Jack around as a utility guy because his defense has been excellent, but hes just not hitting enough.
adding onto ‘b’ above.
despite how doom and gloom things seem. even at 12-12 since May 3rd. that’s probably good enough if we can keep it up the rest of the year.
I love the AL Central 🙂
Yeah thats the silver lining in this, we play in the Central. If we played in the AL East I might be a little more concerned. The Tribe has played like crap for the last week, but Detroit has only gained 1 game on them. That and the Sox are still struggling, and thats the team that scares me the most. Despite out struggles Chicago is still 9 games back.
We’ll be ok. We knew this would happen and we knew this was more like a 90 win team than a 100 win team. They’ll get it straightened out.