BASEBALL

Yeah I remember hearing that story on STO and thought it was funny, I kept thinking well they better becareful next time they say that "were going to trade for a big bat" cause that might be just what they get, minus the batter. :guffaw:


ETA: okay what did I or the Tribe do to tick off the baseball gods? In the first we tie it 1-1 on a Dellucci solo homer (his 5th), then were up 2-1 (Dellucci HBP, Francisco singles, Victor Singles Dellucci scores), then 3-1 (Jhonny Peralta solo homer his 10th), then they get one and its 3-2 and then 3-3 in the seventh, then we bring in the relief pitcher just up from the minors, last in the majors in 2003 in the form of Scott Elarton who promptly and actually quickly gives up 3 runs (singles no less). But the bottom of the 12th (not a mistype) Victor singles off Jenks, Carroll Singles off Jenks, Peralta GIDP two down and then Franky stikes out with on on third. This game went about 4 hrs.

Game 1: Tribe 3 - Cws 6

Oh well new day, new game, new challenge.

 

No quite ready to jump yet, this isn't the first time this happened to them, it was more scarey when they did it last season from july through August, them going through this now is alot better. They are competitors, part of the problem is you have players like Cabrera while his defense is fine, is hitting is bad, when people will pitch around any player to get to him, because he is the sure out. When he is up I always say "If he accidently doesn't swing" since he swings at anything. Hafner apparently his shoulder has gotten worse, or he was playing slightly injured and not telling (second day off) but he has some arthritis in his arm. Garko seems to have forgotten how to hit righties, Jhonny has always been streaky 10 home runs mostly solo, I will take that.

Whats up with them, they are pressing, all the pressures are on all of them, they lack confidence/Faith in themselves. Apparently they are taking the load to try and turn this around as a team, but individually it seems like they are not tell the others, I have your back, I know you have mine. Basically they have to find that spark/chemistry they will relax and they will have fun and turn it around. Again I preferre if they are going to slump as a team doing so now better then at the end. The signs of them coming out of it is there, but if they come out to fast its disaster, slow steady and when they do come fully out watch out.

Do you remember last season in july and august the tribe was like one game lead tops then would go even then down one, then even then down by two, then by one, then even, and so on. that I think is more frightening then being back 5.5 (as of 6:51 Tuesday). But the thing is all around the AL and NL the percentages is down everywhere. Its like one of those freaky years that is hitting everyone. But the one thing about the tribe I admire they don't give up, given in, they like winning and when they start getting that mentality that singles, doubles are just as good as homers right now, the rest will fall into place.
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ETA:

Game 2: Tribe 8 - Cws 2
I thought the one game with the rangers was wild errors right and left on their side, this not only topped that one by a freaking mile. Laffey normally solid was shaky, but still doing good and got the win. But... In the first inning, Carroll doubles, a wild pitch ships him to third, a sac fly means 1-0. then they load the bases, and wind blowing in and Franky hits a GRANDSLAM! (his career first), 5-0 with 2 outs. Then this is where it gets wierd. (also in there Cws got two).

In the fifth Cws Quentin fouled off a ball which doesn't seem odd or funny right, except where he fouled it off and that would be in the private (glad he was wearing a cup) area. OHHH yeah that part and he felt it. (okay not wierd just funny).

Inning Six starts out normal Peralta doubles, Garko gets a ground rule double Sends Jhonny home making it 6-2 for us, so still no outs and they get Wassermann whose idea of pitching is wild to say the least. Hits franky right on the side of the knee (got the muscle not the cap whew), Marte bunts Garko and Franky over and Cabrera strikes out two down normal right? Carroll comes up (Dellucci pitch runs for Franky) Hits the ball toward first, looks like out three, BUT ITS NOT, Konerko drops the ball, he is safe, Garko Scores 7-2, Dellucci to third, Sizemore to Second thats normal right? Now its about to get really wierd....

Francisco is batting, the runners are off with the pitch right, welllllll wassermann throws to first, Carroll gets caught in a run down between first and second, looks like an out, but he avoids them long enough, for David to run toward home Konerko throws to home offline. David is safe, grady into third, carroll into second. Now your saying what is wierd about that right? Well it was ruled a TRIPLE STEAL, seems during this play David stole home plate, Grady stole third and Carroll stole second. :lol: ON two outs.

Making it 8-2 and from there it becomes a normal ballgame again. .. I did find out the DFA'd Jorge Julio (the pitcher) with an attitude to make room for Jake Westbrook who has be reactivated from the DL, Though it seems Hafner with the shoulder problem, maybe going on the DL, he was out yesterday, today and will be out wednesday to. Apparently playing injured. Franky was said to be fine, but they will know more when he gets out of bed in the morning lol.

I don't know if this will work its Video of the triple steal play it is so funny to watch. If it doesn't look like it, look for the video "Dellucci Steals Home".

Tomorrow (Wed) is game three, and who knows what the heck will happen.

 

Okay we lost today, Tribe 5 - Cws 6 But I am not as disheartened as I would normally be. We had the lead we lost it, we did get it back, though we lost it again. Now see the reason I am not disheartened, if this was any of the games before while they would have fought to get that back they hadn't succeeded, this time the fight to get it back even after they lost it a second time was strong, you could see they weren't letting go until that last out.

Jake Went about five innings not bad coming off the DL and doing pretty good not quite as when he left off, but very close. Franky is listed Day to day on the quad muscle bruise from getting HBP. Travis says he isn't ready for the DL, and that he expects to be in Fridays game. Just that his shoulder flared up and he needed to take some time to try and give it a break.

As to the batters something was different today before you would see that glimmer of a tiny spark, a lite touch of chemistry. Today that was stronger, the team effort to try and get out of this slump together imo showed. though not totally relaxed they were showing signs. I think part of the problem is you have all these fans with expectations that they will just "snap out of it", and if they don't then what they saw the year before was just their imagination (promptly forgetting the fact that they slumped in july and august last year just like this). The press if they win like last night its said in passing, if they lose it magnified time thirty. And they wonder why the players are feeling the pressure.

They hear and its hard not to unless your deaf, and blind what is said about them, they see the faces of all those counting on them, and thats mega pressure that I can't even imagine, Then the first thing to come out isn't well who is helping this player, its Trade, trade trade. Ben and Michael (Francisco and Aubrey) came up from AAA buffalo, they were doing great, well compared to the majors I guess it doesn't compare, but when they got here they were doing good, but in less then two weeks they are getting weaker and weaker, and here is a question, if your doing good in one zone and you come up to another and suddenly head south, could it be the teacher?

I have noticed that all these guys are up at the plate looking in which is to get signals, instructions, what have you right? except they look over and their faces are blank like okay what do you want me to do here. But I have seen them when they strode to the plate took their spot, didn't look in and they were a hitting. They look and they get this duh look or ticked off one. Like they are being asked to do something that they KNOW won't either work or that they can not adapt to. These players face these pitchers how many times a year? and all the coach gets is reports, so tell me who knows them better, and what would work?

They are keeping players who are barely hitting my weight (119-120) because their defense is good, but someone who is in AAA who is hitting his weight, doing their darnest defensively is stuck because of that mentality. If they have options then send them down and work on them. Give that guy down there a chance to come up. Now one thing that gets me is the ones without options, they came out of spring training knowing for us at least two are without options (one needed rehab "Choo") and the other "Marte" so then someone who is doing good may have to go to make room for them. WTH? Everyone was hooked on this "Choo" being this great bat, turns out it looks like he is headed for a slump, his hitting started out great in AAA but its way down now, and they HAVE to bring him up because his rehab is almost over.

While the rest of our guys are worried about who will be the next to make room. Again more pressure that they don't need. But right now if they concentrate on lighting that spark and realizing that hey small/medium ball works just as well as the long homer then they should relax, its like part of that stunned expression on their faces is someone telling them hit for the hills. But if everyone 1-9 hit singles, or doubles that would get them the runs faster. Right now all hitting for homers is getting them is buckus.

 

I can not believe that Wedge called out Raffie B for that loss. But refused to call out any of the bats, he made Raffie the example, and yet everyone else who screwed up in the bullpen was left alone. That dude has some kind of wierdness to say what I couldn't say. LOL.

We had today off, tomorrow we start a 3 game series with Kansas, 4 with Texas, and 3 with the Tigers, then Home for three with the twins, and then interleague again.

3 with SD, a day off, 3 with COL, 3 with LAD, a day off, 3 with SF, 3 with CIN, and then headed to Chicago. Heaven help us.

 

Well the tribe against Kansas right now is split, we helped them snap their 12 game losing streak. Geez, Some was due to offense, some due to pitcher.

Game 1: Tribe 5 - Royals 4
Game 2: Tribe 2 - Royals 4

We play again Sunday at 2:10 pm, for the last game.

Problem is that they put Hafner on the DL which I can see he is 15 day retro, but they activated Choo, and from what I can tell in the minors he started good then declined fast, so tonight he comes in and goes 0-3 with a walk. This guy was suppost to be "the" spark, then again so was Francisco and he is now averaging .307 - Talk about confusion and I can see why the offense is so bad, they have platoons everywhere. First its Garko, Aurbrey, Blake, Sec. its Carroll, Cabrera, Short its Cabrera, Peralta, Third its Blake, Marte, Carroll, Left Field Delucci, Francisco, Center Sizemore, Gutierrez, Right Gutierrez, Francisco, Choo

While Carroll is a step up compared to Cabrera the only changes that didn't happen is Catcher and that changes usually once every 5 or 7 days from Martinez to Shoppach, to either give Vic M. A break or if there is an injury, sometimes Vic does work First base. Yesterday they showed more of that spark, it wasn't just a flicker, but today someone poured water on it. See I remember Choo from when he was with the team before, and granted back then pre surgery he had some good moments, but his body language and some of his attitude was not a chemistry but more of a I do my thing, you do yours.

This team is built on chemistry and once they get it and light it up they are good to go But the fact that Wedge is standing behind hitting coach Shelton doesn't help, the fact that tonight a couple pitchers were set in patterns and no one noticed, players I could see not seeing it, but the hitting coach should have and should have alerted them, instead they went up as if it were the first inning.

Wedge called out (in the media) Betancourt the other day for not pitching inside (which Raffie Right admits they did and he didn't), so yesterday (friday) he pitched inside as they requested a good pitch in which they hit the other way for a double. I swear if I was this guy I would tell them to shove it. First they put him in the closers role, one in which he didn't want, stated over and over again in the past, but was elected by committee to do it so either you do or you do option. Then they put him back in his regular role when Joey came back, and he was 1,2,3 lights out. Then they turned around and put him in a pre set up role (he is a set up man) and he was having problems.

Last season it went Laffey as long man, Lewis in the Sixth, Perez in the Seventh, Betancourt in the Eighth, and Joey in the ninth. (sometimes Betancourt would pitch the ninth in non save situations and great too). But Wedge messed with the bullpen, then brought in Masa, sent down Lewis to work on his Volicty, and brought up two others who worked I believe once each since they got up here. There have been 48 different lineups in I believe its 56 games for the tribe so no one but Grady Sizemore (lead off) and Victor Martinez (cleanup) knows where they will be batting (if they are) at any given time.

The part that bugs me about that is that you find a player is comfortable in a hole, LEAVE HIM THERE, do not go well maybe we should try him here, and this one there, and then when it doesn't work say, they should have done better, if it worked the night before why mess with it. I swear Wedge, Shelton, Shaprio doesn't want this team to move forward. The catcher and Cleanup guy Victor has 18 RBI's, 0 HR's, this season. I get slumps but who the heck is helping these guys, apparently not the Hitting coach (oh I have confidence they will turn it around) well heck thats a wonderful reason to keep him. Wedge calls out Betancourt and yet Perez, Masa, and Lewis have screwed up and got nothing, heck the night he called raffie right out it was after Perez walked two batters with no outs, and he figured Betancourt should be able to hold them an then get three outs. In the inning that isn't normally his.

Hey if your calling out Betancourt, then call out the rest of the bullpen, and pretty much most of your offense, by name and I don't care if its in ABC order. But don't make an example out of one and let the rest say Whew wasn't me. He tried this with Peralta in 06 and all it did was make him worse and two years later he is I believe tied for fourth in the AL for Home runs with 11 of them. Last year they got through it with the help of Trot Nixon because he refused to let them leave a team meeting until they got at least half of the problems settled, they got an attitude he knocked it off sort to speak. You were family, you were teammates and you feed off each other. So what happens they let Nixon go. :scream:

 

Lets just say game three (sunday) didn't go well Tribe 1 - KC 6

Then came the four game series against the rangers in which you would just like to say :scream: BUT not Monday night.

Game 1: Tribe 13 - Tex 9

Laffey got seriously ROCKED by the rangers, we had an 8-3 lead, and Laffey hands the rangers 5 runs. BUT the upside is we were able to get it back 10-8, but they got a run (10-9), but then we got two (12-9) and an extra for extra measure. But we rocked Mathis so it worked out.

Casey Blake 2 two run homers and a 3 run double.
Ben Francisco hit a 2 run homer
David Dellucci (thought it looked fun and) hit a 2 run homer

Then only one in the lineup to NOT hit but did walk though not score was Grady Sizemore. It was so freaky, usually he hits and maybe another and everyone else struggles. Tonight everyone but him hit and he either walked or struck out. This is actually the FIRST four run homer game for the tribe!

Game two Tuesday sametime 8:10 pm est. though the tribe had some news Jake Westbrook who just came off the DL, is back on the 15 day DL, with inflammation in his pitching elbow. The problem is our first call up pitched 7 innings in AAA sunday, the other just had hand surgery, and third went to AAA bullpen, and the last one just sucks. But we optioned Aubrey back to AAA buffalo and brought up Reliever Mastny, which looks like but not yet confirmed will be the starter for tuesday. Apparently the idea is to start with Mastny and then piece it together using the bullpen. This should be fun. :wtf:
The upside of that is that the rangers are using a AAA player just called up as well. AJ Murray. Either way were going to end up with two AAA pitchers battleing and hopefully our Offense can keep it up. GO TRIBE! .. GO JAYS!

 

Okay could someone just spin me around twenty times and I would be less dizzy. Mastny needless to say isn't a majors starter While I have to admit this was a Bullpen vs Bullpen game (tuesday) it was one sick game as in yuck. Anyway to the merry-go-bullpen.
Mastny and Lewis were brought up for Tuesdays game, they then went back to AAA Buffalo, and in turn they brought up Rick Bauer (a closer) and Brian Slocum (reliever) to help out in the bullpen, as it is taxed.

So here is the stats as of right now.

Game 1: Tribe 13 - Tex 9
Game 2: Tribe 07 - Tex 12
Game 3: Tribe 15 - Tex 9

Thursday they finish this series and head to play a four game series against the tigers. I hope to have all the counts for the Texas game, I can tell you this each game so far is over 3 hrs, I believe as of the end of game three its been about just a little over 10 hrs for all three, what will number four be?

I just hope we win against the tiger and its not like it was with texas start at 8pm and end close to midnight. But I have to admit, this lineup they used Monday and Wednesday did the job they had the spark, and they fed off each other, wedge changed the lineup tuesday and it stunk, Hopefully he has found a place for everyone, only thing that concerns me is that against Righties David Dellucci hits great and is the DH. BUT When Hafner comes back he will want his spot back, therefore they will have to alternate Ben and David in Left, and Franky and Shin-Soo Choo in right.

BTW Garko isn't platooning at first much, unless he serves as a DH in which Casey gets first. Seems they shipped Aubery back to AAA Buffalo. Okay after 1 am going to check the forum and get some sleep.

GO TRIBE!!! - GO JAYS!!! :thumbsup:

 

Split Series:

Game 1: Tribe 13 - Tex 09
Game 2: Tribe 07 - Tex 12
Game 3: Tribe 15 - Tex 09
Game 4: Tribe 04 - Tex 09

Okay headed to Detroit for another four game series (as I mentioned) hopefully we win, I am somewhat happy about the fact that its not an 8pm start but also not thrilled with the time schedules its one night game, day game, day game, then one night game talk about messing with a players internal clock! :wtf:

Also I mentioned posting the Total combined series stats of the Tribe v Texas series. Here they are, four games...
Runs: 78
Hits: 113
HR's: 17
Innings of 3+ runs: 15
1-2-3 innings: 14
Total Pitches: 1,443
Total Game Time: 14 hr 5 mins.

Checking board and try to get some sleep, though its just too hot tonight. 79, feels like 82, Humidity 72%

 

Breath hun remember its a new day and a new game, never know what surprises are in the works. As to the bullpen remember game two for us, it was all bullpen from start to end, and it didn't go very well lol.

As for the tribe first (of four) game against the tigers won it.

Game 1: Tribe 4 - Tigers 2


Congrats to Paul Byrd on his 100th Win (fineally after four tries lol).
Congrats to the Tribe on their 1000th win against the tigers.

What amazes me is that they played texas, left that night arrived in Detroit at 4 am, so they probaby catnapped on the plane (depending alot of them don't because they are still hyped), catnapped before BP and stretches, a little lite catnap before the game. They still looked tired lol. The next two games are day games, then the last a night game.

I am surprised except for one change Wedge hasn't changed the lineup the only change in the last 5 games came by switching one or two people out for someone else who went into their spots. For instance Dellucci is better against Righties, therefore he probably won't be in todays lineup.

GO TRIBE - GO JAYS !!!!! :thumbsup:

 

Phillies have been fantastic of late - although we probably should have lost to Atlanta last night - but they're a horribly streaky team and I could see us going 2-8 or such soon. Tied 2-2 with Atlanta right now.

And, Chase Utley is the man. He's had an exceptional past few weeks, and just got a triple RBI. 3-2! Go Phillies!