A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
The MLB offseason has just gotten underway, and the Indians were the first team to make a major move. It was announced Monday afternoon that the Indians had traded for Derek Lowe of the Atlanta Braves. In exchange, the Indians sent minor-league reliever Chris Jones to Atlanta.
Grady Sizemore returned to the Indians’ starting lineup for the first time Sunday after having mircrofracture surgery on his knee. Grady hit leadoff and went 2-4 with a double and had a solo home run.
Michael Brantley, who had been hitting leadoff all year, was benched so Sizemore could get the start. This switch was announced before the game and some fans and radio personalities weren’t pleased by the move.
Grady Sizemore is scheduled to return to the Indians’ lineup on Monday in Kansas City. He is returning to a team that is 10-4 and tied for first in the AL Central.
His return should help the team, but at the same time it could mess up their current chemistry.
We are still in April, which is far too soon to overreact, but it certainly is not too soon to react if the price and opportunity is right to deal or acquire a player who may be underperforming or overperforming expectations.
Below is a table that analyzes some notable names that you may thinking about selling, or acquiring if you are an astute fantasy baseball player.
Success in fantasy baseball is a lot like success in the stock market: you want to buy low and sell high whenever you can.
So for guys like Mark Teixeira, Grady Sizemore, and Gordon Beckham, should you buy low or stay away and let someone else deal with their struggles?
The following tweet by our friend Scott from Waiting For Next Year perfectly summed up my thoughts regarding the Josh Cribbs trade rumors floating around right now:
As little underlying support there is, these Josh Cribbs rumors are not fun
He is exactly right.
Who knows how legitimate the Cribbs-to-Miami or Cribbs-to-whomever talk is, but there is nothing fun or exciting at all about the Browns’ clear fan favorite being mentioned in the same sentence as the word “trade.”
All the rumors about Cribbs got me to thinking: is he the second most untradable sports figure in Cleveland?
(I think we all know who the first is.)
Despite the carefree days of summer kicking off, these are not happy times for sports fans in northern Ohio. The Cavaliers followed the lead of Cleveland teams before them, with a debacle the past fortnight, falling to the Orlando Magic in six games — all of which they could easily have lost. With 66 wins, Cleveland’s hoops squad was the NBA’s best team all season, but as this excellent analysis says of their series with Orlando, they were “never even in it.”
Most honest folks with whom I’ve spoken lay primary blame on head coach Mike Brown. Personally, I wonder if a coach of the year has ever been fired the ensuing offseason. Doubtful this will occur, but now would be the fairest time, as the Cavs won’t go anywhere with this guy “in charge.” I use quotes because he does not coach, lets his assistant draw plays (this was clear to anyone watching the series) while he chats with fans and allows Lebron to do whatever The King chooses. I’ve never seen two offenses look so different. Stan Van Gundy sets up plays and coaches his team. It’s clear Mike Brown rarely does.
Of course, few in the media castigated Brown. The generic opening of the aforementioned piece is:
“There was no drama and no last second suspense. The Orlando Magic came out of the locker room ready to advance to the NBA Finals and they took no prisoners. It was the Cavaliers who gave the Mickey Mouse effort and they paid for it with their playoff lives as the Magic won going away 103-90.”
Somehow, the article fails to call out the coach.
Long-time Cleveland columnist Terry Pluto, one of the best in America, also seems reticent to point his finger at Brown, though he does a bit at the end of this otherwise sound write-up. Other local media members rightly refuse to call the loss a choke (it was not, as the better TEAM clearly won), but still barely mention Coach Brown’s lack of any adjustments through six grueling games.
To no one’s surprise, the politically correct national media, like Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel, gets generic by focusing on Lebron and “the future,” with little analysis other than the mundane cliché of “Cleveland had the best player in this series. Orlando had the next four.” I heard that sixteen times on my 25-minute ride to work Friday morning, Dan. I didn’t even bother to read what sophomoric essay ESPN would have. Let’s just hope “witty” self-aggrandizer Rick Reilly’s not involved. {Ok, he isn’t yet, but irresponsible ESPN did focus on Lebron, naturally}
Speaking of bad “leaders” in Cleveland, despite my pleading three weeks back, Eric Wedge still has a job, regardless of his very-talented Tribe occupying the cellar in a bad division. It seems he’ll be the skipper the rest of 2009 and beyond. Too bad for fans of the Tribe. And now, Indians star centerfielder Grady Sizemore hit the DL this weekend
“The Indians say Sizemore has struggled with elbow discomfort for most of the season.”
There’s always an excuse. Sizemore, who is on the Disabled List for the first time, is having a terrible first
eight weeks. It happens. I’m not so sure he’s hurt or he would have hit the DL earlier. Additionally, Travis Hafner has “suffered a setback” in his rehab. This I believe, since he was tearing up the minors prior and is injury prone.
It’s been a tough season for Wedge and his club, but other teams, like St. Louis, somehow persevere through bigger challenges year in and out. 2008 Cy Young winner Cliff Lee has been solid of late but has little to show for it. Cleveland is still waiting for Fausto Carmona to be the 2007 version rather than the ’06, ’08 or ’09 version. And while Carl Pavano has been adequate, especially Sunday versus his former team before the piteous bullpen coughed up his lead despite Cleveland’s eventual triumph, Jake Westbrook cannot return soon enough.
On the opposite end of I-71, the Reds, once off to a strong start, fizzled this weekend in Milwaukee. And now their best player, Joey Votto, is out for mysterious reasons. Psychological injuries are often worse than physical ones. This could hurt.
The Reds still sit a few games over .500; they have a dynamite pitching staff sans fifth man Micah Owings (headlined by Johnny Cueto, 12 wins already from Bronson Arroyo & Aaron Harang, and the return of Edinson Volquez), and one of the best road records in baseball. But they also play, as of May’s end, in the NL’s premier division and arguably the best in baseball, so it’ll be tough. I’m no fan of Dusty Baker’s managerial skills either, as Chris Dickerson seems to be this year’s Corey Patterson (a guy who should be in the minors but is playing nearly daily and killing the team), and Baker could not care less.
Thankfully, it’s a long way to October.
[Editor's Note: And to add to the misery of the state of Ohio this weekend, the Ohio State Buckeyes' baseball team played a couple of games this weekend in the College World Series. To say that they did not go well would perhaps the understatement of the century.]
Living in Dallas, one of the most famous local sports radio segments of every week during the NFL season is Randy Galloway’s “Overreaction Monday” on 103.3 the day after Dallas Cowboys games. Overreaction Monday is especially entertaining after Cowboys losses as the hosts and fans completely and unabashedly overreact in counting out the many reasons why this particular Cowboys team is horrible and will never win another game. (Tongues are often planted firmly in cheek, but there is still plenty of legitimate overreacting going on.)
Seeing as how it is Monday, and my beloved Chicago White Sox are currently riding a three game winning streak that has them back in their rightful spot atop the AL Central standings with K.C., allow me to indulge in a little bit of my own Overreaction Monday. But first, allow me to set the stage.
I hate the Cleveland Indians.
Not a little bit, but a lot.
You see, during my formative years as a Chicago White Sox fan, the mid- to late-90s, the Cleveland Indians were unbelievably good. They had guys like Kenny Lofton, Carlos Baerga, Manny Ramirez, Albert Bell
e, and Jim Thome, and they dominated the White Sox seemingly every season. At that time a guy that my dad worked with was also a big Indians fan, and an annoying one at that. (My apologies for being redundant.) The Indians’ on-field superiority over the White Sox the majority of that time, combined guys like Paul Sorrento, and mixed in with my dad’s co-worker’s complete arrogance all coalesced to form a severe hatred for all things Cleveland Indians that continues to this day.
To put it into perspective, I don’t hate them as much as the Cubs — but it’s close.
So it is with great joy that I look at the current AL Central standings and see the Cleveland Indians, many experts’ preseason AL Central favorite, sitting at 1-5. The White Sox, last year’s AL Central champion and a World Series champion this decade, got no love heading into this season. The Indians, however, a franchise that consistently underperforms expectations and that has proven itself incapable of winning a championship, was fawned over all offseason as an up and coming AL contender.
If the Indians end up losing tonight and fall to 1-6 (currently they are down 4-0 to the Royals as I write this) you can stick a fork in them. I know it’s early and that there are still over 150 games left and blah blah blah. Cleveland may very well win a bunch of games again in August and September when they already have a double-digit deficit in the standings to get close to .500 (sound familiar?), but the odds say they won’t be sniffing the playoffs.
With all of this being said, this post is about to take a decidedly depressing turn for me.
You see, as much as I cheer against the Indians, that is how hard I cheer for the Cleveland Browns. And as much as it pains me to relive the awful memories of last season, I am about to delve into a comparison of the eerily similar 2008 Cleveland Browns and 2009 Cleveland Indians. In fact, you may have noticed that up and to your right in the sidebar we have begun a 16-game countdown to see if the Indians can outperform the Browns’ putrid 4-12 season from a year ago. So far, as bad as the Browns were in 2008, the Indians have been worse.
Call them the anti-Cavs. Seriously, what would Cleveland do without LeBron and the Cavaliers?
Anyway, let’s go through some of the reasons why the 2009 Indians are much more like the 2008 Browns than they would ever want to be.
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including tickets to Indians games. Be there when the Indians lose another one!
Lofty Preseason Expectations that Came Crashing Down Immediately
The Browns were a trendy pick to compete with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC North heading into 2008, on the heels of a surprising 10-6 2007 season that finished on the doorstep of the playoffs. However, the Browns opened up the season with a trouncing at the hands of the Cowboys, then lost a close, disgusting game to the Steelers, and then got absolutely dominated by the Baltimore Ravens. Not even four weeks into the season and the Browns were already doomed to playing an unwinnable game of catch-up for the entire season.
The Indians were a trendy pick to compete with the White Sox, Indians, and Twins in the AL Central heading into 2009, on the heels of a strong second half in 2008 that saw them reach the .500 mark after a horrible start. However, the Indians opened up the season losing 9-1, 8-5, and 12-8 in a three game sweep at the hands of the Texas Rangers, one of the worst teams in baseball for the last half of this decade. Then the Indians laid a 13-7 egg in their home opener against Toronto, followed up by a 5-4 loss to fall to 0-5. Not even a full week into the season and the Indians were already doomed to playing an unwinnable game of catch-up for the entire season.
Cliff Lee is Derek Anderson
Derek Anderson entered the 2007 season for the Cleveland Browns as a lightly regarded former Ravens cast-off who had a strong arm but a future as a back up QB at best. After Charlie Frye looked like Soliel Moon Fry in the
Browns’ first game of the season, and then was subsequently traded, Derek Anderson stepped in and proceeded to author one of the most unexpected Pro Bowl stories in the history of the NFL. For all of his efforts though, he faded a bit down the stretch and the Browns fell short of the playoffs.
Unfortunately for Anderson and Browns fans, 2008 had to start. In 2008, Anderson looked like a shell of the player we all saw in 2007 and ultimately lost his job to Brady Quinn after being booed off the field in his home stadium. From rags to riches and back to rags, and now he enters the 2009 season locked in a QB battle with Brady Quinn that very few Browns fans hope he wins.
Cliff Lee entered the 2008 season coming off of a 5-8 season in 2007 in which his ERA was 6.29 and he spent time in the minors. Yes, Lee had won 14 games or more for 3 straight years (including a very solid 2005 campaign in which he went 18-5), but many in Cleveland were ready to write off Lee’s future as a front end of the rotation starter. Then, out of nowhere, Cliff Lee put together a 22-3, 2.54 ERA season, authoring one of the most unlikely Cy Young stories in the history of Major League Baseball.
Unfortunately for Lee and Indians fans, 2009 had to start. In his first two outings of this season, Cliff Lee is 0-2 with a 9.90 ERA and looks a hell of a lot more like Derek Anderson circa 2008 than he looks like Cliff Lee circa 2008. Lee certainly has a chance to turn things around, and very likely will. But let’s remember that Derek Anderson’s worst start of the year was his third, against the Ravens. How will Lee’s third start go? Indians fans better hope it’s a lot better.
Grady Sizemore is Braylon Edwards
This one is sure to piss off all of the Indians fans.
Braylon Edwards was one of the 20 or 30 best players in the NFL in 2007. After steadily improving from his rookie to sophomore campaign, Edwards exploded with 80 catches and 16 TDs in 2007. Then in 2008, inexplicably, Edwards turned into…
***We interrupt this post for a special bulletin. At this very moment, as I write this, Joakim Soria just struck out Jhonny Peralta looking to close out a 4-2 Royals victory over the Indians, dropping Cleveland to 1-6 on the season. Be right back. Time to go update the sidebar.***
…Travis Hafner circa 2008. (You remember Travis Hafner right? The guy who hit .308 with 42 HRs in 2006 and then hit .197 with 5 HRs in 2008?)
Entering 2008, Braylon Edwards was a can’t-miss future superstar who had supposedly only scratched the surface of his potential in 2007. He was being talked about in the class of WRs just below Randy Moss and Larry Fitzgerald. He was a sure-fire Pro Bowler and a rock for the Browns to build upon for the future. Now, after 2008, the Browns seem to be just waiting for the best offer before unloading Edwards and his massive ego and stone hands.
What a difference a year makes, huh?
So all of the Indians fans are now wondering how exactly their beloved pretty boy Grady Sizemore is like Braylon Edwards. Well, have you seen Grady Sizemore’s stats so far this year? He is hitting .207 with 12 Ks and an OBP of .324, which is far less than his career OBP of .370.
Hmm…Grady Sizemore is a 26-year old, can’t-miss, sure-fire superstar. Braylon Edwards is a 26-year old, can’t-miss, sure-fire superstar. Edwards was pathetic (by his own standards) in 2008, especially at the start of the season, and his team severely underachieved. Sizemore has been pathetic (by his own standards) in 2009 at the start of the season and his team is severely underachieving. Notice a trend?
In all actuality, I don’t think Grady Sizemore is anything like Braylon Edwards. I hate Grady Sizemore because he’s an Indian, but I respect his ability and would take him on my team any day. Braylon Edwards? Not so much. He is certainly talented, but with far too big an ego for so little professional achievement. (Truthfully, the more apt comparison for Braylon Edwards would have been Travis Hafner, but he’s actually having a halfway decent start to this season…and it’s more fun to piss off Indians fans by going after the Golden Boy.)
I am sure there are probably more comparisons I could make between the 2008 Browns and 2009 Indians that might get Cleveland fans riled up, but what’s the point? The purpose of this exercise was to create a long and drawn out way to say that the Indians suck and appear poised to follow the 2008 Browns in woefully underperforming expectations, and I think I accomplished that. (And, for what it’s worth, my next comparison was actually going to be a positive one for the Indians: Shin-Soo Choo is Jerome Harrison — get this guy at bats! — and I don’t feel like being positive about the Indians. They suck, are diminishing the reputation of the AL Central, and made me think about the 2008 Browns season. Screw the Indians.)
The question now becomes can the 2009 Indians win more games in their first 16 than the 2008 Browns won in their 16-game slate? And after that, can the Indians actually make a run to get back in the playoff race? I don’t know the stats on 1-6 teams making the playoffs, but they can’t be good. You can say it’s early in the season, and you’d be right. You would also be saying the same thing that Browns fans were saying early last year, and the Browns actually battled back to be 3-4 after 7 games. 1-6 sucks no matter how you want to rationalize it.
All I know is that I can’t wait for May 11-13. Sandwiched between a tough home series against the mighty Texas and a road tilt against AL East stalwart Toronto are four off days for the White Sox players to get a little rest, recovery, and relaxation; and, on three of the days, a little record and stat-padding.
Ah yes, that first series against the Indians will be nice.
Thoughts?
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After six losses in their first seven games, are the Indians' hopes of competing in the AL Central already buried?
- Yes (44%, 7 Votes)
- No (19%, 3 Votes)
- Whoever wrote this garbage post is dumber than Eric Wedge. (37%, 6 Votes)
Total Voters: 16
Grady Sizemore photo credit: Joshua Gunter/The Plain Dealer
With 61 of the 65 college basketball teams now seeing their seasons end, and despite not quite spring-like weather here in Central Indiana, baseball season has come to the forefront of my sports mind. Since we don’t have a major league squad in Indianapolis, my interest goes east to Ohio’s two teams.
Unfortunately, the media has already predicted major attendance drops for the national pastime, but with attendance records actually broken the past few seasons, the jury is still out on that capricious assessment.
I will preview the two teams I’ll follow this season, beginning with Cleveland today. (Cincinnati will follow later this week)
The Indians have an even-odd year thing going in terms of success the past half-decade, so 2009 looks promising if that holds. They won the division in 2007 and exceeded all expectations in 2005, while ’04, ’06 and last season were grave disappointments.
But it could be tough for the Tribe, as they face their first full season without C.C. Sabathia; an injury that will keep number three starter Jake Westbrook out another few months; Fausto Carmona and Travis Hafner trying to regain prior form; and Cliff Lee needing to prove his 2008 Cy Young season was no fluke. For Lee, if spring is an indication, his disastrous 2007 that landed him in Buffalo seems more akin to his success level. “Fans of the Feathered” surely hope not.
Last year’s surprisingly effective fifth starter, Aaron Laffey, will start the season in Columbus (that’s the new Cleveland Triple A team, as they now “control” eastern Ohio baseball from Lake County to the Mahoning Valley and west to Akron and Ohio’s capital city) due to the emergence of Scott Lewis and Saint Louis’s 2006 World Series hero Anthony Reyes. Reyes, after going 4-15 for the Cards in 2007 and 2008, had an ERA under two in six late season starts for the Indians last season.
The decision to make Lewis — a 25 year old native Ohioan who attended Ohio State — the fifth starter was enabled by Laffey’s ineffectiveness, including a six runs-in-two-inning outing last week. Laffey, who will still be just 23 on Opening Day, probably had the edge at the beginning of camp, but was too inconsistent to hold the spot. He had an ERA near seven this March.
If you had to place an early bet on which starter would be the first recalled, it may not even be Laffey, but lefty Jeremy Sowers. A day after he was demoted, Sowers threw five scoreless innings in a minor-league game. Sowers was a bright spot in a dismal 2006 for Cleveland, winning seven of his 11 starts, but has lost 15 of his 20 the past two seasons with an ERA near six. The 25 year-old first round pick from Vanderbilt had an ERA just under five with the Tribe this spring.
Reports are that ex-Yankee Carl Pavano has shown an excellent change-up and good bite on his slider, but his fastball has not yet hit 90. The big league average is 90 mph, thus Pavano really needs to get it up there if he expects to compete against the best teams. But the good news is Pavano has been healthy after 2007 elbow reconstruction surgery, which is good since Jake Westbrook will push for this spot upon return.
“Jake Westbrook threw off the mound in a bullpen session and you’d never guess that he had reconstructive elbow surgery last June 12,” Akron Beacon Journal columnist Terry Pluto noted last week. “His fastball was in the upper 80s. He is beginning to throw a few breaking balls. Something can always go wrong, but so far, this is very promising.”
Westbrook’s goal is to be starting rehabilitation games in the minors by May, and to be back with the Tribe by June 12 — the one year anniversary of his surgery.
“If that happens and he is anything close to the guy who had a 3.12 ERA in his first five starts last season (or 46 wins between 2004-06), the rotation can suddenly look a lot better,” Pluto added.
Offensively this spring, Jhonny Peralta and Grady Sizemore have been crushing the ball, hitting over .400 with power. Asdrubal Cabrera, thankfully, looks far more like the 2007 version, or the guy who hit .320 after the All-Star break last season, than the 22 year-old who opened the 2008 season at .184, and therefore had to spend a month in Buffalo to regain his focus at the plate.
First baseman Ryan Garko has shed 15 pounds, and showed up early to spring training to learn the outfield in order to potentially spell starters Shin-Soo Choo, Sizemore and Ben Francisco. Twenty-four-year-old Super prospect Matt LaPorta, who the Indians obtained in the Sabathia trade last summer, is being groomed for a quick promotion. LaPorta, a first baseman by trade with questionable defense, will spend time in right and left as well. It appears the idea is to prepare the phenom to play different spots as needed in Cleveland.
by Jerod Morris
I received a message this evening from MSF.com Featured Author Ryan Russell informing me that he would be writing a Cleveland Indians blog tomorrow. There is no chance that I will allow the first post about the Cleveland 4thplacers to be positive.
So, to ensure that this does not occur, I am posting my own Cleveland Indians blog. There is so much venom, so much hatred, so much loathing that I feel for this entire franchise I could write for hours. I finally decided that the theme of my post would be the first thing that comes to mind when I think of the Cleveland Indians. That was easy. One very simple, accurate word:
Losers.
So without further adieu, I give you the Top 10 Losers in the last 15 years of Cleveland Indians sucking, in no particular order:
