You're Waiting For a Train...: May 23, 2011

Monday, May 23, 2011

While I Was Sminking - Tribe Style

The Tribe swept the Reds! I hanging out in the mezzanine for the sold out Saturday affair. A better game you will never see. Josh Tomlin is not just the 5th pitcher since 1919 to pitch 5+ innings in his first 21 MLB starts. The man is beginning to look unstoppable. On a day when he was not as crisp as normal (only 57 of 85 pitches for strikes), he still allowed just a run on 3 hits over seven strong innings. That run would not have even come across had Orlando Cabrera done his job and cleanly started the double play to close the 7th. Of course that would have taken all of the magic out of Travis Buck's go ahead bomb. As my buddy said, "I'm so glad that Carlos Santana struck out." Tomlin's WHIP this year is a phenomenal 0.821. That is best in the bigs. Just for the sake of reference, the all-time season WHIP record is 0.737 (Pedro Martinez, 2000) and only Martinez and Greg Maddux (1995) have had one lower since 1913. Chris Perez earned the save while throwing 9 balls and 8 strikes, thanks for the adventure. Oh, and Vinnie Pestano is nasty.

Ezequiel Carrera and Josh Judy made their major league debuts. In one of the gutsiest calls that I have seen since April 7th, Carrera laid down a drag bunt on the first major league pitch that he saw. With two outs and runners on the corners with two outs, Zeke had to beat it. He did... by narrowly avoiding a diving Joey Votto and nearly running outside of the base path.

Judy's debut was not nearly as dramatic, but he did strike out the first hitter he faced and tossed a clean 9th on Sunday despite allowing a pair of hits. Asdrubal Cabrera likely added quite a few All-Star votes after scoring his first career five hit game and first career multi-homer game. Overall AzCab (.302) was 5-for-5 with two dingers, five RBI and a stolen base. After dramatic victories in the first two games of the 12-5 thrashiing of Cincy yesterday was a welcome chance to breathe easy. The sweep was the Tribe's 6th three gamer of the still young season as opposed to just 4 in all of 2010.

Manny Acta said today that Grady Sizemore will not need a minor league rehab stint before returning to the Indians lineup. Sizemore, eligible for activation from the DL on the 26th, will probably be the everyday DH for a couple of weeks to reduce stress on both of his knees. When Grady comes back, the Indians will have a difficult decision to make. Do they send Carrera back to AAA or do they finally cut ties with Austin Kearns? Regardless of the good will that Kearns built up last season, the need for a right handed bat cannot be filled by someone hitting .200 with a .577 OPS. His offensive WAR this season is -0.2. That means his bat is costing the team wins. Done and done.

The faint silver lining surrounding the injury to Alex White (a sprained ligament in his right middle finger) is that the Indians avoid having to make a definitive move concerning Mitch Talbot. He will now easily slide back into the rotation as opposed to a possible long man position or even a demotion to Columbus. Although the rotation will eventually have to be finalized, the situation gives the organization to see if Talbot's success before landing on the disabled list (1-0, 1.46) was an abberance or the emergence of reliable starting pitcher. Hopefully, it is the latter as White is expected to miss at least two months and, perhaps, the remained of the 2011 season.

More to come.

Cheers.