A Quest Called Tribe

As far as major league debuts go, it could have gone better.  Cord Phelps went 0-for-4 with a striekout in his much anticipated coming out party on the lake.  Phelps, who was added to the active roster at the expense of Shelley Duncan (Alex White was transfered to the 60 day-DL to make room on the 40-man, will platoon with Orlando Cabrera for the foreseeable future.  The fact Adam Everett did not get the axe flat out flabbergasting.  The only explanation is that the Indians' brass must regard Everett as a significantly better defender at third than Phelps.  So why not Austin Kearns?  Oh wait, he's a big money free-agent.  Do not ask me to explain it.  I do not understand it either.  It seems like an awful lot of infielders.



Speaking of third basemen, this happened...

Otherwise, the offense still looks like shite.  Justin Masterson still has not won since April.  And the Tribe dropped two of three to the lowly Twins.  Ugh.

O-Cab is said to be handling his new platoon role "like a professional." Thank goodness, because what does that man have to gripe about.  After all, his OPS (.589) is the 7th worst in baseball for qualifying players.  Veteran leadership only goes so far and can be provided from the bench.

Still, the triumphant return of Jack Motherfuckin' Hannahan (sorry, kids) almost makes it worthwhile.

Cheers.

P.s. MLB.com has yet to post the metafile so I can embed the Manahan's dinger, so let me take a minute to pimp for a new site that I came across today, Dougstats.com.  Doug's page includes plain text MLB statistics through the previous day's games.  For legal reasons, he has to describe them as "un-official," but they are dead on.  This becomes useful as they can be directly imported into Excel and, for a stathead like me, hours of good-time manipulation ensues.  Today, I learned that Orlando Cabrera is actual worse than his raw OPS shows.  If you look at (OPS-(2*AVG)) or what I will call QAB (I dunno if there is already a fancy name), O-Cab is the 4th worst in the game.  QAB can stand for Quality At Bats.  Ideally, it is a measure of whether the batter is making the pitcher work (taking a lot of pitches and drawing walks) and driving the ball for extra base hits or simply slapping the ball for weak singles.  If you cannot follow all of that, it means that Orlando ain't so good with the stick.  Thanks, Doug.

P.p.s  Still waiting, so I will dig into more Tribe draft picks.  At pick #67 (believe it or not, that is the top of the 2nd round as there were a ridonkulous 28 compensatory picks this year), the Indians grabbed Dillon Howard, RHP, Searcy HS, Arkansas.  In a nutshell, he is a beast with mid-first round talent that slipped to the Tribe due to signability issues.  As a Scott Boras client, he will demand a lot of coin and has a commitment to the U of Arkansas as a safety net.

Check out the IPI dissertation here for the whole spiel, but here is some video from MLB because they are a-pissin' me off right now.

Got it. What a project. ;-j

Sad Day @ the Clip Joint

Before we dig into some numbers, let us bid a fond farewell to Wes Hodges.  Wes, a former top 5 prospect in the system who struggled with injuries last season and poor production this, was released to create a AAA roster spot for the rehabbing Nick Johnson (1-for-3, R last night).  Hodges was hitting just .219 with a .601 OPS this year and was mired in a 2-for-20 slump prior to his dismissal.  A player who always had a smile and an autograph for anyone who approached him, I wish the very best of luck to Wes on latching on with another organization and getting to the show.

Among the Clippers that are riding high are former Indians Luis Valbuena and Jeanmar Gomez.  Valbuena is in the midst of a 17-game hit streak raising his season average from .254 to .311.  He is batting .443 with 12 RBI over the span and his OPS sits at a healthy 1.050.  Gomez (2.36) dazzled for the 4th straight start in chalking up his 5th victory on Tuesday.  His seven innings of six hits, one run, two walks and seven strikeouts has come to be the expected.  Since May 19th, Jeanmar is 2-0 with a 1.50 ERA and a .198 OBA.

A couple of troubling numbers at the dish go as follows -- left handed hitting Lonnie Chisenhall (.265) is batting .299 with an .848 OPS against right handers, but just .185 with a .593 OPS against lefties.  This is the kind of dichotomy that will have to be rectified prior to a promotion.  His .338 average with runners in scoring position is nice though.  Also, in 14 games since his demotion, Ezequiel Carrera (.277) is batting just .183 with an hellish .441 OPS.  I know that it must be a let down, returning to meaningless games, but Zeke has to get his head on straight.

David Huff starts tonight at 7:05p as the Clips host Rochester and Twins #1 prospect, RHP Kyle Gibson.

Cheers.

Warning To Young Comedians: This Is Dave Coulier

The Car Crash with Reginald VelJohnson and Dave Coulier - watch more funny videos

Even more awesome, it's the dad from Family Matters!  And Urkel plays the dead Canadian prostitute!  The Fx are amazing!

A Quest Called Tribe

As I resurfaced from my doldrums, I found the least likely ambassador of victory pitching for the Indians.   I guess that the Tribe could have re-acquired Andy Marte and send him to the hill rather than Carlos Carrasco.  Andy could have throw 8.1 3 hit innings and stopped the losing streak that I remain purposefully ignorant as to the length of.  That would have been a slightly less predictable, but not much.

Oh, good lord, winning feels so wonderful.  I had forgotten.

Sure, the good guys managed only four hits of their own in a 1-0 victory. Sure, over the past six games (dammit, I just had to research and discover that the losing skid had stretched to 5) the offense has produced 1.8 runs per and batted at a woeful .184 clip.  Sure, Manny's boys have dropped 10 of 13 and have been left clinging to a one and a half game lead in the central.  But, help, my friends, help and hope are on the way.  While a corresponding roster move has yet to be announced (bye-bye, Adam Everett), Cord Phelps has packed his bags and received his well-wished.  Cord Phelps, ladies and gentlemen, is on the way to Cleveland.  I am not here to anoint him as the savior, though it might seem like that from the build-up accompanying the prolonged procrastination of the Indians front office.  Phelps is here to do three things: (1) hold his own two or three games a week in rotating platoon at second and third, (2) lead the charge of the youth movement (can't do it from the DL, Alex) and (3) most importantly, hit the goddamn baseball.

When last we spoke, before I was once again swallowed by the abyss, I called for three roster moves.  One, now, is done.  Nick Hagadone earned his second AAA yesterday with two scoreless innings and should still be on board by August.  Chad Durbin remains gainfully employed despite not pitching in a meaningful situation in a month.  He has slid into the garbage role formerly held by Justin Germano and, two scoreless innings over the weekend notwithstanding, has continued to pitch like complete refuse.  Carrasco's performance tonight, combined with Zach McAllister's first poor outing of the season on Sunday (5 IP, 12 H, 7 ER) and the seeming regression of Josh Tomlin makes move #3 seem foolish and impulsive.  Even so, I stand by the assertions that Carrasco is a long way from consistent success and McAllister will make a positive cointribution in 2011.

Expect a brief rundown on the Tribe's mid-round picks and round-up of minor league actions tomorrow.

Cheers.

Pretty Girl 06.08.11 - Anna Chlumsky

Um... this is the little chick from My Girl.  Uh... wow.