The last place Cleveland Indians

With another inspired and inspiring performance tonight at Progressive Field the Indians find themselves in the basement of the A.L. Central.

If not for the Seattle Mariners, the Tribe would be the worst team in the A.L. right now.

Banging out four big hits against Barry Zito - of all people - over 6 2/3 innings, and six hits overall, the Tribe put a big one-spot on the board in their loss to the Giants.

Hey, look on the bright side. They only struck out four times tonight.

Unlike last night, when the game was exciting before it became nauseating, tonight the Tribe showed no life at all. Nothing.

They sent up three hitters in four of the nine innings and four hitters in another four innings. The only time more than four Indians hit in an inning was the seventh, when five guys made it the plate and one made it all the way home.

Talk about going through the motions. Did anyone see anybody who looked like they gave a damn tonight? Maybe Jeremy Sowers who battled his way through a decent start, but no one else seemed to care.

It is time to start lining up the deals.

Let's get some new blood in here and see what we have for next year, because right now that picture aint pretty either folks.

At this moment the Tribe has a three-man rotation for next year - Aaron Laffey, Cliff Lee and Fausto Carmona, assuming he has no lasting effects from this year's injury.

The bullpen? Kobayashi and Raffy Perez. Beyond those two, who do you see as a likely success in the pen next season? And even that duo has question marks.

Let's assume for a minute that both Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner come back as their old selves next season, not a small assumption.

Whose your 1B? Ryan Garko? Are you sure? I'm not.

2b? Who the heck knows. Asdrubal Cabrera is likely to be at SS next season so that leaves Jamey Carroll and Josh Barfield. Feeling confident there? I personally like Carroll's type of player and I think Barfield may still pan out. But I wouldn't put a nickel down to back up that bet.

How about SS? Cabrera will field the ball, and I think he'll hit. He may be the closest thing to a sure thing in the 2009 infield. And isn't that a scary thought?

What about the hot corner? Although Andy Marte has been given little chance to prove himself, when he has had the opportunity he has only proven himself to be a stiff. Casey Blake? Do we have to? Again? Jhonny Peralta? With any luck he'll be gone by July 31. If not, there's no way to know if he can play 3B, though I suspect that is where he'll be come August if he is still on the team.

The outfield - with Grady Sizemore, Shin-Soo Chu, Franklin Gutierrez and Ben Francisco - seems to be in decent shape. But will Gutierrez figure things out and start hitting again? Will Francisco and Choo face the adjustments next year that Gutierrez is seemingly not making this year.

Well, at least we have two catchers. Maybe!

The Tribe is 8 out as I write this, with four teams ahead of them in the Central. They are 10 1/2 out in the wild card race - with ten teams ahead of them (not counting the three current division leaders).

There are those still holding out hope for this season. And to those who are - God bless you.

I'd say, though, it's time for the Tribe's management to start figuring out how they're going to fill the considerably large number of holes the Tribe will have next season.