Monday, February 13, 2006
A couple days from Spring Training
So here is a look at what the Tribe looks like going into Spring Training.
Starting Pitching: The strong point of this club. Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia our both bona fide Cy Young contenders. Cliff is a proven winner and if CC can hone in his talent for a full season there is no reason he can't rack up 20-24 wins. Jason Westbrook is a strong #3 starter coming off a 15 win season (at the start of the season many wondered if he would stick around to see the end). Paul Byrd is the #4 as he brings a solid veteran that any team would like to have at the bottom of the rotation. Jason Johnson is another free agent pickup from Baltimore and although his career record is lousy he does rack up a lot of innings each year.
Bullpen: Ouch! It was a bad off season for this once solid pen. A Rhodes and Bob Howry are gone. Riske is gone too but I also thought he was a stiff anyway. Wickman returns but how much will he have left? The Tribes brass is hoping to get something out of two former tribe hurlers Danny Graves and Steve Karsay. Graves got booed out of town in Cincy and Karsay has seldom pitched since 2002 and has had a long history of arm problems. We have ussually suspects M Miller, R Bentacourt, and Sauerback rounding out the staff. The tribe thinks they are gonna get something out of this Mota charactor but he is often injured and well past 30. It looks like the tribe bullpen is suspect.
Catcher: We all know Victor Martinez. Hopefully he will start faster this year because the Indians need that bat in the lineup. Backing him up is rookie K Shoppach who came over in the Coco Crisp trade. Shoppach had a great college career but expecting much out of him this year is probably a bad idea. Lets pray that Victor doesn't miss many games this year.
Ok, so the pitchers and catchers repor this week. Check back on the position players in the next couple days. Go Tribe (and take the Browns and Cavs with ya!)
Starting Pitching: The strong point of this club. Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia our both bona fide Cy Young contenders. Cliff is a proven winner and if CC can hone in his talent for a full season there is no reason he can't rack up 20-24 wins. Jason Westbrook is a strong #3 starter coming off a 15 win season (at the start of the season many wondered if he would stick around to see the end). Paul Byrd is the #4 as he brings a solid veteran that any team would like to have at the bottom of the rotation. Jason Johnson is another free agent pickup from Baltimore and although his career record is lousy he does rack up a lot of innings each year.
Bullpen: Ouch! It was a bad off season for this once solid pen. A Rhodes and Bob Howry are gone. Riske is gone too but I also thought he was a stiff anyway. Wickman returns but how much will he have left? The Tribes brass is hoping to get something out of two former tribe hurlers Danny Graves and Steve Karsay. Graves got booed out of town in Cincy and Karsay has seldom pitched since 2002 and has had a long history of arm problems. We have ussually suspects M Miller, R Bentacourt, and Sauerback rounding out the staff. The tribe thinks they are gonna get something out of this Mota charactor but he is often injured and well past 30. It looks like the tribe bullpen is suspect.
Catcher: We all know Victor Martinez. Hopefully he will start faster this year because the Indians need that bat in the lineup. Backing him up is rookie K Shoppach who came over in the Coco Crisp trade. Shoppach had a great college career but expecting much out of him this year is probably a bad idea. Lets pray that Victor doesn't miss many games this year.
Ok, so the pitchers and catchers repor this week. Check back on the position players in the next couple days. Go Tribe (and take the Browns and Cavs with ya!)
Thursday, February 09, 2006
How I see the Central
Well, I am an Tribe fan but it does kinda scare me with how the offseason developed. Our Bullpen is depleted and we may have a big gaping hole in the outfield. We get rid of Coco Crisp and keep that bum Casey Blake. The press is saying that Detroit is the darkhorse this year. Don't they say that ever year only to see them crash and burn. I feel bad for KC. I know its hard to watch a team that fields a 4A MLB team every year. As soon as a player develops they get shipped off to a great team and they show what they can do (Beltran and Damon). Kinda amazing that they had such a good thing going on there in the late 70's through 80's. Minnesota still is stocked with talent in our division and its amazing that no one is really talking about them. They know how to win the division and could easily challenge our Indians or the Sox. Speaking of the White Sox, doesn't it scare you that they have all kinds of new revenue from that World Series win. I hope Shaprio has something up his sleeve because we are still short on Bullpen help (RIP RISKE-he sucked) and a corner outfielder who can hit 25 HR's.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Indians Preview 2006
Its Feb 7 already. Can you believe that the baseball season is ony 60 days away! Well thats good news for us Cleveland Indians fans. This is the place to get all your Tribe Info! In the next couple of days I will detail the devolpment of your 2006 Cleveland Indians. First I will provide the projected starters, then I am going to give insight on the Rookies to watch out for, detail the problems I forecast on this up and coming team, and overall hope to entertain you all at the same time. So sit back and check back at this blog for your best Tribe coverage on the planet. If you live in Cleveland you have to deal with that hack Paul Hoynes and with me you I won't annoy you half as much. Or better yet if your from out of town and miss Cleveland or your just a displaced Tribe fan this is your number one space on the web for tribe news, rumors, and stats on the web. Check back!
