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.
Monday, May 23, 2011
Pretty Girl 05.23.11 - Evangeline Lilly
I'm starting to think that she will never win another role, but still a looker.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Pretty Girl 05.22.11 - Brandy Ledford
Saturday, May 21, 2011
I Didn't Do It
BANNED by 5secondfilms.com - watch more funny videos
But I do need to become a magician.
Friday, May 20, 2011
Tickets Punched
2. Luis Valbuena optioned back to AAA after 1 day.
3. Ezequiel Carrera and Frank Herrmann recalled.
4. Nick Hagadone from Akron to Columbus.
5. Eric Berger demoted. Not released?
Columbus continues to play one man down.
"Footprints In the Sand... How Retarded"
Kiss your loved ones folks, the whole shithouse is goin' up in flames.
A Quest Called Tribe
Earned Runs: Vs. White Sox (18 in 8 IP) - Vs. Everyone Else (16 in 56.1 IP)
ERA: ChiW (20.25) - [Bos, LAA, Bal, Min, KC, Oak] (2.56)
W/L: ChiSox (0-2) - Not ChiSox (3-2)
OBA: Pale Hose (.405) - Other Hues (.207)
WHIP: Guillen (2.63) - Sane Managers (1.03)
Suffice to say that Fausto (4.76 ERA) had better get it together because he might have to face Chicago a few more times. It was so bad tonight that Chad Durbin was up and throwing in the 2nd inning.
Wait, why was it Chad Durbin throwing in the 2nd?
And why am I so relatively calm about an 8-2 loss and a two-game "sweep" at the hands of the StankSox?
Oh I dunno, maybe it has something to do with the fact that Justin Germano got his @$$ DFA'ed today. I all but screamed out in ecstasy. No self respecting contender can have a Germano in the pen. His departure makes all of this Fausto inflicted insanity a bit easier to swallow.
The corresponding recall is a bit odd - Luis Valbuena. Luis made it known yesterday that he was headed North, but the move is more about replacing non-DL'ed position players than adding Valbuena's talents to the major league roster. With Travis Buck a scratch with turf toe, Orlando Cabrera off in South Carolina finalizing his US citizenship and the walking bruise we call Travis Hafner still nursing an oblique strain (that kind of thing can last weeks, I smell the DL coming), the Tribe bench was seriously undermanned. My guess is that Luis makes a quick return to AAA and Mitch Talbot is activated to be used as the long man. I certainly hope that Acta does not take a page from Ozzie Guillen's playbook an try to use a six man rotation.
The game wasn't a gaping black hole. Matt LaPorta (.275) did crank out his first bomb of May. And there was this...
Oh, and the California Faith Ministry might be right, Austin Kearns (.185) had two hits, including a double. A surer sign of the apocalypse I have never seen.
That's all I got, kids.
Cheers.
P.s. Word on the street is that Ezequiel Carrera is ready to jump to the bigs should Buck or Hafner take to the disabled list, although if it's Pronk, Chad Huffman might make more sense.
Pretty Girl 05.20.11 - Emily Browning
Clip Joint Is Dripping Wet
It took three hours and the Clippers only got in three and a half innings. Still, what we did get was fun to watch. Mitch Talbot looked sharp in the four innings of work that became his second rehab start. Mitch only got to throw 54 pitches, but he did so effectively. Outside of a first inning solo dinger by Josh Reddick (it was monster), Talbot was only in trouble once, using a strike out and a ground ball to strand runners on the corners. He allowed four hits and a walk while striking out five. He induced four more outs on ground balls, including a double play, and kept the PawSox off balance by consistently changing speeds in spite of the nasty weather.
The game was suspended halfway through the fourth inning with Columbus ahead 2-1. Those runs came courtesy of back-to-back long balls from Jason Kipnis and Cord Phelps to lead off the contest. Phelps' was his 7th of the season, one short of his career high set last season.
The game resumes at 5:05p tomorrow and will be played to full nine-inning completion. The regularly scheduled game will follow, but will last just seven frames as in a MiLB double header. Only in the International League folks.
Other Minor Points of Interest --
Joe Gardner delivered an excellent start (6 IP, 4 H, R/ER, BB, 5 K) in the first game of an Akron twin bill to earn his first win in more than a month and raise his record to 3-2. Gardner (2.70 ERA), a third round pick in 2009, has stymied opponents to the tune of a .227 OBA.
Beau Mills, the #13 overall pick in 2007, made his season debut today after spending the first six weeks of the season recovering from a left Achilles injury. Mills, who is beginning his third season at AA, singled and laid down a sacrifice bunt in five official trips. Once a top five organizational prospect, Mills is now considered marginal at best following OPS seasons of .724 and .689 at Akron.
Cheers.
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