Found August 05, 2009 on The Tribe Daily:


Called-Up to Cleveland...Five!

Get ready for a new culture of ridiculousness with the addition of Jess Todd.

The nickname within a name is here and with a fictional television character that shares the name, expect nothing less than this.

Jose Veras out, Jess Todd in.

Veras has finally been DFAed and so goes the final awful relief pitcher that this team acquired for no reason this year.

Our bullpen is finally looking not like a safe-haven for flailing AAAA relief pitchers.

Winston Abreu, Jose Veras, Matt Herges, Mike Gosling, Greg Aquino, and Luis Vizcaino. Just awful.

I like Vinnie Chulk so I'm not throwing him in there. You cannot hate Chulkamania.

This is good though. Let the movement continue. The Todd Time is now!

Bullpen Improvement Five!

Jose Veras said that if he does pass through waivers, he'll report to Columbus, if the Indians want him to that is.

Speaking of Bullpen, Justin Masterson's stay in it might be a rather short one.
"It could be as early as next time around [the rotation]," Wedge said. "We'll have him work out of the bullpen at least one more time and work from there."
Masterson said he's been blessed with a rubber arm in his opinion. And if you saw the pregame interview he did yesterday before the game, you could just imagine the facial expression he had when he said that. He's' a great interview, a real funny guy. Easy-going and very confident in my eyes. I really think we got a winner here. Heck with Buchholz, I'll take this kid and the prospects we got.

With Masterson and Carlos Carrasco though, they are both being looked at to be short-term answers to not only help ease the loss of Cliff Lee, but also add to a suspect rotation.

"We've gone out and added some plus arms and some guys already developing Major League pitches," Willis said. "We like the people that are going to make the crowd."

"I'm never going to be comfortable, pitching wise," Shapiro said. "But I am much more comfortable now than I was a month ago. I think we will continue to infuse more pitching talent and add more pitchers, maybe via free agency."

Hey I'll give Shapiro his due. He's always said that about not being comfortable about his pitching staff and the one year he said he was remotely comfortable with the bullpen, look what happened.

Now Eric Wedge is on record that he is going to give Marte a shot. He talked about his rookies, but also mentioned Marte and Trevor Crowe specifically.
"They're going to get regular work," said Wedge. "I'm hesitant to say they're going to play every day because everything is subject to change."

"He's been more under control at home plate," said Wedge. "This time, more than at any point in time for him, he really went down and got better. He approached some of the things that he learned up here, applied them down there, and got back up here."

"I just want to see Marte a little bit more," said Wedge, when asked to compare this year's version to last year's. "I've seen him take some good swings. I just want to see how consistent he can be and how he handles the pitching up here.

If you want to see Marte a little bit more, you better play him consistently. I've got a strict eye on that. If he isn't in the lineup tonight, expect a lashing.

Crowe has said that the awe of being in the big leagues never got away from him the first time around and he thinks that's why he was the way he was in the first go-around.

Ok let's get to last night... Which I don't even remember.

Five hits, two by Peralta and Hafner, one by Marte. Yikes...

David Huff was just... Bad.. Period, he was bad... Not good, yukkie, crud, stanky, just bad.

If David Huff is going to be good though, this is a learning experience he needs, because every pitcher, at least in my mind, needs to be humbled as a major league player before they can be successful.

"I didn't do my job," Huff said. "I need to be more efficient with my pitches. I'll learn what I can from this and go from there."

"It wouldn't be three, four or five [rough starts in a row in the Minors]," he said. "It would be one, then I'd figure it out and come back the next time. It happens. It's a learning process."

And nothing helped matters that Scott Baker always seems to have the Indians number. Those types of pitchers always seem to do. Baker was on his game last night.
"Baker was really good," said Wedge. "He did a great job of coming right after us and moving that fastball around up in the zone. He puts the ball in spots where it's tough to lay off of."
And we're now brought back to the realization that the Indians are starting three rookies at times and have guys like Marte in the lineup.

And there are still some rational fans out there.

A new Indians Inbox is up and AC lead off with a fantastic e-mail.

Why are all these "fans" so vindictive of the trades made by the organization these past few weeks? Sure, Cliff Lee was nails on the mound every fifth day and Victor Martinez was the face of this franchise. But Tribe fans need to ask themselves if they would rather watch Lee win 10 or 12 games and Victor hit .300 for one of the worst teams in baseball for the next year and half, or suck it up, bite the bullet and trust that the organization is trying to build us all a winner over an extended period of time.

Tribe fans are all shouting, "We will never go to a game again!" Well, congratulations for contributing to the reason we cannot keep players, because nobody came to games while Lee and Martinez were here, anyways.

We all have to remember that we are Indians fans first. Don't spite the team for trying to create what you want. Players come and players go, but Chief Wahoo is forever.
-- Andrew, Erie, Pa.

Bravo... Bravo... Couldn't have put it any better myself.

Then we've got comments like this.
I have always loved the Tribe. Please tell me why I should continue to care?
-- Shannon P., Columbus, Ohio
MAYBE BECAUSE YOU LOVE THE TRIBE AND THE GAME OF BASEBALL?!

Hey, far be it for me to tell you to care, but you know what, if you have to ask, maybe you shouldn't. I don't understand how you can go from loving the Tribe, to thinking, hey maybe I shouldn't anymore.

I've maybe made jokes in the past about killing myself or maybe even said something like, "Maybe I'll be a Pirates fan today!" But never ever ever ever, would I seriously consider doing something like this comment.

I mean really now...

As AC said, It's baseball... And that's all that needs to be said.

It's baseball... Continue to care, because it's baseball and you should care about baseball. And this going to sound slightly Kenny Mayneish..

But if you care about baseball, then you watch baseball. But if you don't care about baseball, then you don't watch baseball.

And as one commenter pointed out in the section of this inbox.. I'm not affiliated with the Indians and I'm echoing everything AC said and really, I'm going to be even more vocal and outgoing about it.

Finally... I just have to laugh that Albert Belle is a angry and bitter man still. Maybe he and the group of Indians fans that don't want to care anymore can be best of friends.
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