Indians Tidbits (2008 season)

[osugrad21]

CPD

Homer off San Diego Padres pitcher Greg Maddux is special to Cleveland Indians' Ben Francisco



Monday, June 16, 2008 Joe Maxse

Plain Dealer Reporter
Ben Francisco said it was not a dream come true. But he admitted having San Diego pitcher Greg Maddux on his mind when he went to bed Saturday night.
When it came time for the reality of facing the future Hall of Famer on Sunday afternoon at Progressive Field, the Tribe rookie outfielder did not let the moment get to him. Francisco sent the first pitch he saw from Maddux in the third inning on a line to the left-field home run porch for a three-run homer.
It put the Indians in front, 3-0, and they went on for the 7-3 win against the Padres.

Cont...

 

[osugrad21]

CPD

Cleveland Indians' four left-handed starters have varying styles


Monday, June 16, 2008Paul Hoynes
Plain Dealer Reporter
Managers and pitching coaches spend a lot of time balancing their starting rotations. They don't like to pitch too many lefties or righties consecutively, especially if they have similar styles and velocity.
The Indians, with right-handers Jake Westbrook and Fausto Carmona on the disabled list, have little choice to who pitches where at the moment. They have four left-handed starters and one right-hander.
The lefties are C.C. Sabathia, Cliff Lee, Aaron Laffey and Jeremy Sowers. Paul Byrd is the lone right-hander. The last time they had four lefties in the rotation was 2003. At various times that year, Sabathia, Brian Tallet, Brian Anderson, Billy Traber, Jason Stanford and Lee formed four-fifths of the rotation.

Cont...

 

[osugrad21]

CPD

INDIANS INDIANS 7PADRES 3Sabathia
Cleveland Indians' C.C. Sabathia hurls a gem in front of scouts to beat Padres


Monday, June 16, 2008Paul Hoynes
Plain Dealer Reporter
C.C. Sabathia tried not to think about it. Just like he tried not to think about fac ing 350-game winner Greg Maddux on Sunday afternoon at Progressive Field.
The scouts sitting behind the plate had no such problems. Every time Sabathia pitches from now until the Indians decide to trade him or keep him for this season, they will gather to chart, gauge and weigh his value. Their two concerns are what can he do for us this year regarding the postseason and what value do we put on him this winter as a free agent?
Sabathia gave the scouts much to consider in a 7-3 interleague vic tory over San Diego. He threw eight innings, striking out 10 and al lowing three runs in 112 pitches to win consecu tive games for only the second time this season.

Cont...

 

[osugrad21]

CPD

Grady Sizemore should remain Cleveland Indians' leading man - Bud Shaw


Monday, June 16, 2008Bud Shaw
Plain Dealer Columnist
Grady Sizemore is a tease.
No, girls, not that kind.
Another muscle flex from the Indians' leading man Sunday gives him 17 home runs, second in the league, and nine in his past 16 games.

Cont...

 

[osugrad21]

Canton

Indians' offense provides support for Sabathia
Monday, June 16, 2008
BY JOSH WEIR
REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER

CLEVELAND The big man was dealing. The bats were rolling.

Games like Sunday's ? and the mediocrity of the Central Division ? offer some hope that the 2008 Tribe season still matters.

C.C. Sabathia outpitched Greg Maddux, and the Cleveland offense backed up its own Cy Young winner in a 7-3 Father's Day victory against San Diego at Progressive Field.

The Indians won for the fifth time in the past seven games, and took their second straight series. They also cut their deficit in the Central to 5 1/2 games with the White Sox losing Sunday to Colorado. The Indians face the Rockies in a three-game set starting Tuesday.

"We're just trying to build momentum, get things going," center fielder Grady Sizemore said. "Now we have to take it to Colorado."

Sabathia (5-8), the 2007 American League Cy Young winner, went eight strong innings, besting his four-time Cy Young counterpart. He struck out 10, walked one and allowed six hits.

Cont...

 

[osugrad21]

Canton

Indians notebook: Choo has a reunion with Korean friend
Monday, June 16, 2008
BY JOSH WEIR
REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER

CLEVELAND Shin-Soo Choo and Cha Seung Baek go back a few years.

"Same town, same middle school, same high school," said Choo, adding that the two natives of Pusan, South Korea, also spent parts of six years together in the Mariners organization.

So Saturday night meant something special when Choo, an Indians outfielder, and Baek, a Padres starting pitcher, faced each other for the first time since a scrimmage 10 years ago at Pusan High School

Choo, who was two grades behind Baek, had an RBI double off Baek in the first inning Saturday. After that, Baek got Choo on a soft line drive to second in the third inning and a strikeout in the sixth inning, part of Baek retiring the last 16 Indians he faced en route to a no-decision in San Diego's 8-3 extra-inning win.

The Choo-Baek head-to-head could be called a draw, but not if you ask Choo.
Cont...

 

[Mac]

Start shopping C.C. now....this doesn't necessarily mean you have to get rid of him at the first offer. But start shopping him to see what kind of return we can get for him + other players

 

[tsteele316]

A slow pitch softball league team of out of shape accountants could tee off on this bullpen most nights. It's unbelievable how this organization cannot keep any semblance of consistency in the pen here. 2003-04: awful, 2005: strong pen, 2006: awful, 2007: arguable the strongest part of the team, 2008: deplorable. It's a joke.

the problem is really twofold:

1. some guys that overperformed last year are vastly underperforming this year (namely the two raffy's). Also the fact that Jensin Lewis' mechanics are caddywhomped to the point that he is topping out at 85 isn't helping. when he hit 88-90 with his motion he was very effective.

2. both adam miller and slocum were going to play roles in the pen this year, and both are done for the season. would they have been effective? i don't know. but they couldn't be worse than edward "i can only throw a straight fastball for a strike" mujica, who is really just the 2nd coming of fernando cabrera. great stuff, no idea how to use it.

 

[LitlBuck]

There is a blog by Peter Gammons :!(for whatever he is worth) saying that there are number of teams interested in C. C. and that Shapiro is actually talking to them. There are the big-money teams but also a couple which you might not expect. I think I would wait until mid July to see where we're year at before I would make a trade because we are only 5 1/2 games out of first and I do not think that the White Sox are that dominating.

I think if our hitting continues the way it has in the past week or so we should stay pat and keep Hafner on the DL and not move C. C. until we know we are out of it but if he does not sign sometime during July I would move him before the trade deadline.

By the way, I take everything back that I said about Carroll. Who would have thought that he would be better than Cabrera, or even Barfield, at the beginning of the season.

 

[tsteele316]

There is a blog by Peter Gammons :!(for whatever he is worth) saying that there are number of teams interested in C. C. and that Shapiro is actually talking to them. There are the big-money teams but also a couple which you might not expect. I think I would wait until mid July to see where we're year at before I would make a trade because we are only 5 1/2 games out of first and I do not think that the White Sox are that dominating.

I think if our hitting continues the way it has in the past week or so we should stay pat and keep Hafner on the DL and not move C. C. until we know we are out of it but if he does not sign sometime during July I would move him before the trade deadline.

By the way, I take everything back that I said about Carroll. Who would have thought that he would be better than Cabrera, or even Barfield, at the beginning of the season.

it's going to be interesting to see what happens. cleveland desperately needs another bullpen arm, and until carmona is off the DL, they can't afford to part with another starter, but the window to make a deal may not be open long term.

but by the same token, the team knows that Sabathia is gone after the season, and they will likely get more in return via trade than they will from 2 supplemental draft picks. besides, this team's drafting is piss-poor anyway, so take some already developed talent.

 

[buckeyemania11]

Gammons' Latest: Sabathia, Dunn, Harden: MLB Rumors - MLBTradeRumors.com

The Indians are "thoroughly scouting" eight teams that may be interested in C.C. Sabathia, including the Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, and Dodgers (the Mets may be another). Gammons agrees with Ken Rosenthal that Mark Shapiro may trade Sabathia soon to maximize his value. Gammons does not see the Yanks jumping in with Phil Hughes or a multi-prospect offer, unless Chien-Ming Wang's injury forces their hand. He does not think the Cubs or Phillies have the goods, but suggests the Rangers as a dark horse.

 

[AKAK]

Now, I'm not 100% sure its time to part with CC right now as has been mentioned.

But, how about this?

Trade Sabathia to whoever for a couple midlevel prospects if they take Hafner's contract, too.

Heresy, I know... but... frees up a lot of money... *gasp* that we might actually be able to use on someone better than David Delucci.

 

[buckeyemania11]

Now, I'm not 100% sure its time to part with CC right now as has been mentioned.

But, how about this?

Trade Sabathia to whoever for a couple midlevel prospects if they take Hafner's contract, too.

Heresy, I know... but... frees up a lot of money... *gasp* that we might actually be able to use on someone better than David Delucci.

nah, shapiro doesnt believe in signing good free agents

 

[Mac]

Honestly, you HAVE to wait until Carmona comes back and is 100%. Because if you do trade C.C. before then and Carmona gets hurt again or is still on the DL, I think you are throwing the season out the door as we will not have the starting pitching. But once Carmona comes back 100%, I'm all for shopping C.C.

 

[NFBuck]

There is a blog by Peter Gammons :!(for whatever he is worth) saying that there are number of teams interested in C. C. and that Shapiro is actually talking to them. There are the big-money teams but also a couple which you might not expect. I think I would wait until mid July to see where we're year at before I would make a trade because we are only 5 1/2 games out of first and I do not think that the White Sox are that dominating.

I think if our hitting continues the way it has in the past week or so we should stay pat and keep Hafner on the DL and not move C. C. until we know we are out of it but if he does not sign sometime during July I would move him before the trade deadline.

By the way, I take everything back that I said about Carroll. Who would have thought that he would be better than Cabrera, or even Barfield, at the beginning of the season.

I think you trade C.C. as soon as Carmona is back if you get an offer worth jumping on. Whether they're still in the race or not, you have to look at the big picture. Is it worth holding onto a guy who could net you some pretty good young players to help rebuild for a shot at the playoffs when you are in no way built for any kind of postseason run? Granted the bats have come alive, but this is still a patchwork offense, and with a completely awful bullpen, they'd be out of it in the 1st round.

As for Pronk, my greatest hope is that his struggles have been a little more physical than I initially thought. He was obviously hurting and hopefully this rest on the DL and some rehab at-bats in the minors will help him regain his stroke. He's only 30, so there's no reason to think he can't get back to the Pronk we knew and loved. Besides, I'll be pissed if I own a jersey of a .230 hitter.