I think this is all Chuck Hernandez's fault and that's not even a joke. I think this team will be alright but the staff looks like the Tigers of 2008 and that is not a good thing.Is it time to fire Wedge?
THE BIG STORY: The bullpen pitched so badly, the entire season is about as close to being over as it can be after only one month. It has seemed at times that the whole team was struggling, but in truth, the lineup was going through only minor doldrums, scoring exactly 4.5 runs per game — below expectations, but certainly not bad — while the rotation stabilized nicely. Lee has returned fully to Cy Young form, while Pavano, Reyes and Laffey have each produced exactly two quality starts in their last three outings, leaving only Carmona, who has pitched decently though not exactly well. The bullpen, however, has a 7.13 ERA over the past 14 games, repeatedly pushing the Indians into the loss column in close contests.
Statistically, the typical Indians game since April 20 has featured:
• The starter going six innings, maybe a little more, while allowing about 3 runs.
• The lineup scoring about 4.5 runs.
• The bullpen allowing about 2.3 runs over three innings of work.
• The team losing by a score of about 5.3 to 4.5.
For those who buy into the wear-and-tear argument, consider that just eight days ago, five Indians relievers combined to hold the Red Sox to just one run over seven innings, giving the team an improbable 9-8 victory after Reyes started the game with a seven-run, two-inning train wreck. Since that night, the bullpen has failed in nearly every game. Over the last eight games, the bullpen has directly and decisively handed the club four losses, while blowing leads in two other games that our hitters eventually came back to win. (That last bit is worth remembering, as we consider throwing the whole club under a bus.)
Over a 14-game stretch, it doesn't look quite so terrible — we've been outscored by 13 runs and unsurprisingly went 6–8 as a result. Fact is, with so much disastrous pitching in high-leverage situations, it's a small miracle we won six. (We managed it with a handful of gritty performances early on, plus those two extra-inning wins.) The real problem is that it follows an 0–5 start to the season. For a couple of weeks, we stayed in the periphery of the divisional race by virtue of mediocre competition, along with our own improvement to .500 ball. We were in fact only 2.5 games behind with a 6–10 record. It was inevitable; however, that one or two of our rivals eventually would start winning games, especially in a part of the schedule when two intradivisional games are being played every night. We are now 4.5+ games behind two rivals and 2.5+ games behind all four of them. Essentially, our first-week rotation blowup cost us three games, and our fourth-week bullpen blowup cost us another three — and the lineup has not done anything superlative enough to counterbalance those big faults.
It goes without saying that the season is lost if the bullpen cannot be stabilized. Beyond that, if the club's management cannot manage to produce fewer than four historically bad bullpens in six seasons, then they need to seriously consider the way they're doing things in this area — or, possibly, step aside.
That was Al Polowski subbing for Matt Underwood. MU was celebrating Mother's Day weekend with family, I guess.Indians TV announcers on the Granderson catch:"It's......GONE!!!! ......no it isn't. (sigh)"Whatever happened to that Indian Summer guy?
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While I was out of town and didn't hear Al calling the game, I can only imagine he's an upgrade from Underwood. Fire him and Wedge!That was Al Polowski subbing for Matt Underwood. MU was celebrating Mother's Day weekend with family, I guess.Indians TV announcers on the Granderson catch:"It's......GONE!!!! ......no it isn't. (sigh)"Whatever happened to that Indian Summer guy?
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The Curse of Chuck Hernandez lives on.I think this is all Chuck Hernandez's fault and that's not even a joke. I think this team will be alright but the staff looks like the Tigers of 2008 and that is not a good thing.Is it time to fire Wedge?
PM sentBTW, anyone want a voucher for 2 free mezzanine tickets to a Tribe game this month? I got it at a Tribe Shop a while ago and I'm probably not gonna use it. PM me if you want it.
Did you post this at Waiting for next year blog?Random thoughts...
LaPorta needs to be starting 5-6 times a week to justify this call up.
Sizemore needs to be moved to #3 with Victor hitting cleanup. For good.
# 9 RockKing Says:
May 12th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Here’s a post from a Yankee fan on a message board that I subscribe to. He has a couple Indians on his fantasy team, and I think he sums it up pretty well:
“Dear Eric Wedge (an open letter),
Go kindly [EXPLETIVE REDACTED] YOURSELF!
Now I could give two [expletive redacted]s about where the Indians fall this season, but for the purposes of my imaginary baseball team, I care very much about your managerial decisions.
So you call up Matt LaPorta, who you traded the farm for, and you never [expletive redacted]ing use him. Either play him every day or send him back to AAA, [expletive redacted]face! He hits a home run in his second game and hasn’t been heard from since.
And Grady Sizemore should be hitting third, [expletive redacted]! He’s arguably the best OF in the whole AL and he’s wasting a million RBI opportunities hitting leadoff. Put him in front of V-Mart and make people pitch to him.
Wedge, I hope you get fired and they hire Matt LaPorta’s mom as manager so she lets him hit cleanup every day.
Signed,
Me”
Even Yankees fans get it.
And Dye's been thrown out of the game!! He hasn't been hitting Lee anyway!!!
Haha, nope not a Yankees fan thank goodness. And I could care less from a fantasy perspective. I don't really think I went out on a limb with my thoughts though.Did you post this at Waiting for next year blog?Random thoughts...
LaPorta needs to be starting 5-6 times a week to justify this call up.
Sizemore needs to be moved to #3 with Victor hitting cleanup. For good.
# 9 RockKing Says:
May 12th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Here’s a post from a Yankee fan on a message board that I subscribe to. He has a couple Indians on his fantasy team, and I think he sums it up pretty well:
“Dear Eric Wedge (an open letter),
Go kindly [EXPLETIVE REDACTED] YOURSELF!
Now I could give two [expletive redacted]s about where the Indians fall this season, but for the purposes of my imaginary baseball team, I care very much about your managerial decisions.
So you call up Matt LaPorta, who you traded the farm for, and you never [expletive redacted]ing use him. Either play him every day or send him back to AAA, [expletive redacted]face! He hits a home run in his second game and hasn’t been heard from since.
And Grady Sizemore should be hitting third, [expletive redacted]! He’s arguably the best OF in the whole AL and he’s wasting a million RBI opportunities hitting leadoff. Put him in front of V-Mart and make people pitch to him.
Wedge, I hope you get fired and they hire Matt LaPorta’s mom as manager so she lets him hit cleanup every day.
Signed,
Me”
Even Yankees fans get it.
I knew you weren't a Yanks fan; I figured you were "RockKing" who found the post.However, the sentiment is (I think) universal: Play LaPorta.Haha, nope not a Yankees fan thank goodness. And I could care less from a fantasy perspective. I don't really think I went out on a limb with my thoughts though.Did you post this at Waiting for next year blog?Random thoughts...
LaPorta needs to be starting 5-6 times a week to justify this call up.
Sizemore needs to be moved to #3 with Victor hitting cleanup. For good.
# 9 RockKing Says:
May 12th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Here’s a post from a Yankee fan on a message board that I subscribe to. He has a couple Indians on his fantasy team, and I think he sums it up pretty well:
“Dear Eric Wedge (an open letter),
Go kindly [EXPLETIVE REDACTED] YOURSELF!
Now I could give two [expletive redacted]s about where the Indians fall this season, but for the purposes of my imaginary baseball team, I care very much about your managerial decisions.
So you call up Matt LaPorta, who you traded the farm for, and you never [expletive redacted]ing use him. Either play him every day or send him back to AAA, [expletive redacted]face! He hits a home run in his second game and hasn’t been heard from since.
And Grady Sizemore should be hitting third, [expletive redacted]! He’s arguably the best OF in the whole AL and he’s wasting a million RBI opportunities hitting leadoff. Put him in front of V-Mart and make people pitch to him.
Wedge, I hope you get fired and they hire Matt LaPorta’s mom as manager so she lets him hit cleanup every day.
Signed,
Me”
Even Yankees fans get it.
I think there are some that are starting some pretty strange rumors about Lee and Victor. If they totally want to implode everything, then yeah I guess go for it. But Shapiro better be given the opportunity to rebuild it all then. Wedge I could care less about. The fan base here is rather fragile right now especially with the Cavs and the Browns (ya the Browns stink, but they still garner strong attention of fans year round). I think media jumped a bit early on the rather public fact that the Indians and Lee are not close in extension talks, let alone having them, and the Indians horrible record. But, it's probably true he would bring in more before this deadline than before the 2010 deadline.Time for CLV to move Lee?
Now, thats why we got rid of WoodThanks for blowing the W for Lee and I.
This is shtick right? Your team brought Wood in with two outs in the bottom of the 8th with nobody on just to plunk Upton. And you wanted Percival thrown out?Wish VMart would have had the chance to crack Maddon's glasses.Plus, how does Percival (I think) not get tossed when he plunked DeRosa? Nearly head hunting too. At least Wood was throwing waist high.
Posted by walkaway on 05/18/09 at 11:04PM
Good observations above... Wedge has absolutely no clue how to handle the lineup. One change that is clearly obvious - move Sizemore out of the leadoff role - is ignored by Wedge. In the world of Wedge we have Choo at cleanup and a .230 hitter leading off. Unbelievable. The changes compliments of Wedge are arbitrary and without logic. Wedge managing is no different than giving a blind man a shotgun to shoot at birds ~ both are clueless and both look like idiots.
The fact that Hoynes or anyone from the PD will not publically ask for the dismisal of Wedge and Shap is another mystery. I do notice how Hoynes feels it is necessary to bring up the Garko issue - no doubt a bad call but not the true reason for the loss. PD never brings up the bad calls that sometime help the Tribe and certainly would never minimize a win by addressing a call favoring the Tribe. No reason to bring it up other than to covertly plant the seeds of excuses. Hoynes and the PD must be getting $ from Dolan ~ $ Dolan refuses to spend on players or coaching.
A bit thin-skinned, aren't we Paul?Posted by heyhoynsie on 05/18/09 at 11:33PM
walkaway,
Beat writers, a dying breed though they may be, cover ballclubs. They write about rumors and trades, wins and losses, pulled hamstrings and tommy john surgery. Rarely, if ever, does a beat guy call for a manager to be fired. It's his job to find out when he's going to fired and who is going to replace him. It's not his job to stand on some roof top and scream that the manager should be fired. that's what columnists do.
As for Dolan paying me, he couldn't afford me (that's a joke). Seriously, get a clue.
paul hoynes
Tom Servo said:Not just abut a great one.
OK, not totally. If Wood was throwing at Upton, it was probably more to do with Victor getting thown at than BJ stealing bases.I mean, you are seriously going to defend Percival not getting tossed? If I was a Devil Rays fan I would care less if he got ejected and we both probably agree with what he did or tried to do (besides throwing at somebody's head twice, which is inexcusible once). Both teams were warned, why then was Troy not tossed? Your boys skirted the issue after the game just as much as Wedge did. Nobody threw at anybody, right?This is shtick right? Your team brought Wood in with two outs in the bottom of the 8th with nobody on just to plunk Upton. And you wanted Percival thrown out?Wish VMart would have had the chance to crack Maddon's glasses.Plus, how does Percival (I think) not get tossed when he plunked DeRosa? Nearly head hunting too. At least Wood was throwing waist high.And all of this because BJ stole two bases while down 9 runs in the 5th (or 6th) inning. I prefer my team not to quit with 4 innings left, thanks.
Joe Borowski made an appearance last night.Didn't think the team could go further down than rock bottom, but alas, they've managed to dig deeper.![]()
Here's what's up...What's up with Jhonny? This is two days in a row that he's out of the lineup.
Jhonny Peralta was once again out of the lineup and once again available off the bench. Wedge said he didn't want to push Peralta, who jammed his right wrist sliding into third Friday night, because Peralta was just beginning to find his swing. Wedge didn't want Peralta to compensate for the soreness and alter his swing. Peralta hopes to be back in the lineup Monday.
Did you really leave? That is one of those games you'd never forget even if you only had a handful of memories.Was there last night.Left after it was 10-0 and a seagull crapped on me.![]()
Yep. Wouldn't have been there for the 9th regardless as I had to pick up the kids.Did you really leave? That is one of those games you'd never forget even if you only had a handful of memories.Was there last night.Left after it was 10-0 and a seagull crapped on me.![]()
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43 in a row!![]()
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SWEEP!43 in a row!![]()
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The David Dellucci era is over.
Dellucci, signed to a three-year contract before the 2007 season to be a platoon outfielder, was designated by assignment by the Indians on Friday, as the club recalled left-handed reliever Rafael Perez from Triple-A Columbus.
Perez, once a dominant setup man, struggled at the outset of the season and had to go to Columbus to refine his slider and regain his confidence. If the numbers are any indication, he's done so. Perez threw nine scoreless innings for the Clippers, going 1-0 with a pair of saves.
On a side note, I'm reading in the PD today that Grady has had a sore left elbow for "about a couple weeks". How many times are we going to see Wedge and staff drag these guys out too long when it's clear they are not right? Sometimes the 15-dl (retroactive if you give a guy a few days off and still has soreness) is a good thing.
St. Louis general manager John Mozeliak is looking for a third baseman. And in describing what he's looking for to reporters earlier today, he might as well have just said, "Mark DeRosa."
The Cardinals need a third baseman because Troy Glaus has shoulder ligament damage. The most updated timetable for his return is mid-July or early August.
Basically, what Mozeliak is looking for is a right-handed bat (check) who can play third base (check) until Glaus returns, at which point said bat can slot in elsewhere in the field (check).
The Indians, as you know, have had DeRosa basically on the block for a couple weeks now, because his value to them isn't anywhere near what it was before Jhonny Peralta moved to third base. So this could be an interesting situation to watch in the next couple days.
In return for DeRosa, the Indians would want Major League-ready pitching. I'm told the Cardinals could potentially make right-handed starter Mitchell Boggs available in a trade, but what the Cards really have to offer is an army of right-handed relievers, such as P.J. Walters or Chris Perez . Jason Motte is probably less likely to be dealt.
We'll see what happens, if anything.
In the meantime, just a note that I will not be with the club in Minnesota, so the blog will be lineup- and minutia-less for a few days.