We are like, literally, exactly, on the dot sort of, one week away from opening night, Phillies Against the Braves.
One day later, the Indians will play.
We are in the home stretch of Spring Training and I'm pretty sure the Indians are glad for that.
Yesterday and today saw a lot of stuff, so apologies for how much this post might cover, I had stuff to do this morning and I was kind of sick last night.
I'm going to start with yesterday's game real quick and hit the points that matter.
Travis Hafner did play in a minor league game yesterday, had six, yes six, at-bats. He had two hits, one of them a triple (wtf?), and two RBI.
Offensively, yesterday's game sucked. Damaso Espino knocked in all three runs.
The real intrigue was with the pitching. It was Zach Jackson and Vinnie Chulk trying to win the final bullpen spot.
Even though it was probably the last shot for both to prove themselves, it wasn't the end-all be-all in the race perhaps.
Zach Jackson didn't look good in the first few innings. AC reports he settled down, but like he said, this is for a relief role, you need to be good quick. Jackson's final line, Four innings, six hits, five runs, but no walks and four strikeouts.
Vinnie Chulk on the other hand was awesome. He didn't walk anyone and gave up just three hits in his three innings. He's proven he can go three innings, which is huge...
But... AC says that Wedge, who will make a decision either tomorrow or Tuesday, is leaning towards Jackson.
It looks like Mujica is out... Sucker... Double Sucker!!!
I think though, even if Chulk doesn't make the roster, we'll see him before that date he has on his agreement.
Paul Hoynes mentioned that the Indians could make a deal for the final bullpen spot, and one name is Luis Perdomo, the relief pitcher we traded to St. Louis for Anthony Reyes. Yeah right...
Moving on to today's game....
Fausto Carmona pitched, went six innings, gave up seven hits, but just one walk that turned into three runs. Two came off a Milton Bradley home run.
I was listening to the game on the way home and apparantly after he hit the home run, halfway through his trot he stared towards the Indians dugout and when he got to home, he pointed at the dugout. Something he did last year with Texas a few times.
What is it with this guy? Has he not gotten over the fact that his career is filled with teams not wanting him because hes a jerky?
I turned the channel back onto the game mid-trot, and they hadn't mentioned his name, but the minute they said someone was "staring towards the Indians dugout" and that "sooner or later, someone is going to peg him" I knew they were talking about Bradley.
Seriously... Get over yourself Milton. We've moved on and so should you.
Back to stuff that matters.
Kerry Wood got in for his first time facing the Chicago Cubs.. He pitched a scoreless inning with a strikeout.
Masa Kobayashi gave up two runs today, not good, but it looks as if he'll remain on the team for now. Eric Wedge has said he'll need to pitch more like when he pitched the two solid earlier this week.
Rafael Perez had a perfect inning with two punch outs to pick up the save.
The real story in this though was the former Cubs. Along with Wood, Mark DeRosa had himself a ball against the team that he played for last year, Bradley wasn't the only one that did it to his former team.
In Rosie's first at-bat, with the first pitch mind you, Mark DeRosa took Ted Lilly deep, a two-run shot to left...
The next at-bat was one I heard as it happened. DeRosa hit a shot so high that Mike Hegan (it might have been Hammy, I forget) kind of hesitated and then blurted out OFF THE TOP OF THE SCOREBOARD!
Then in his third at-bat he hit an even higher shot off the top of a wall in center field. Hegan and Hammy were both shocked it didn't go out. If there wasn't a giant wall in center field, it probably would have been gone.
Victor Martinez, who went 3-5 with a run scored, knocked him in.
Grady Sizemore went 2-4 with a triple. Ben Francisco went 0-2 with a pair of walks..
Jhonny Peralta put up his hat-trick with the three strikeouts... But he also had two hits.. The two-worlds of Peralta meeting up.
Then.... Again.. It was... GEORGE THE LUMBER MAN LOMBARD!
Lombard went 1-2 with a two-run shot, his second on the spring in just his third game.
The Lumber Man too much?
Understandable.
The Indians beat the Cubs by the way... How fun..
So DeRosa is on fire, he was doing well even before the WBC, hopefully it carries into the start of next season. The guy is certainly putting on a power-display, despite the Arizona conditions and all that, he's hit some bombs.
Okay we've got some injury stuff..
I was listening to the game when Chris Antonetti was on and he explained a few things about Adam Miller's injury. Basically the injury is the tip of his middle finger on his throwing hand cannot bend. That could impact, indeed.
But, Chris said Miller threw this morning and actually said his slider was just as good, if not BETTER than it has ever been... What? Really? How?
Who knows, but that's pretty good news. Miller needs to keep up the good progress though and if it gets to the point where they have to decide on surgery or not, and he's at this pace, he obviously won't do the surgery.
You might have noticed David Dellucci was supposed to be in the lineup yesterday, but was replaced. Turns out Dellucci's now in jeopardy of starting the year on the DL.
"I don't know right now, to be honest with you," Wedge said. "It hit us so close to game time [Saturday]. He felt very similar [Sunday]. He's got to get a day of treatment, see if there's any response and then go from there." Tightness in the calf muscle... Ooooofy... Trevor Crowe would be option number one to replace Dellucci. Tony Graffanino would also be there, but Crowe has 40-man roster capabilities. Then again with Edwin Mujica's impending release from the 40-man roster, because he's out of options, that would clear that spot up.
Here is an article I'm too tired to read.. At least I'm honest.
I think Terry Pluto did an excellent job conveying some thoughts I share on Travis Hafner. He's important, but the Indians success doesn't really hinge on him being friggin awesome. Him being awesome would be awesome though and make things a lot easier and probably give us a lot of relief.
Let the man do his thing though. These 56 comments on Pluto's article are hilarious.
On the similar note of Hoynes being dumb, I don't know if I mentioned that earlier, probably didn't convey it when I said "Yeah Right".. There is a new Hey Hoynsieewhatever up and someone asks him when he is going to be twittering.
Just what we need, more Hoynes, in shorter, more annoying spurts. I'd like to mention that this site is on Twitter. Why? Because this site is a whore. I also want to say I flipped a music channel on the radio on between innings and this one guy signed off saying "Check me out on facebook, myspace, youtube, twitter, and blah blah blah."
And you thought this site was bad.
Hoynes' article was like friggin long... Stupid... Wait this entry is pretty long as far as I can tell.. Stupid....
Finally.. The little note at the end of this CastroTurf entry, Hafner and Wood manning middle infield? Wow okay....
My bracket went up in flames with the Pitt loss yesterday. Off to such a great start and looking towards money (in two pools too) and after one game, it's all over.. What a shame...
[BOXSCORE]
Original Story:
http://www.thetribedaily.com/2009/03/...
One day later, the Indians will play.
We are in the home stretch of Spring Training and I'm pretty sure the Indians are glad for that.
Yesterday and today saw a lot of stuff, so apologies for how much this post might cover, I had stuff to do this morning and I was kind of sick last night.
I'm going to start with yesterday's game real quick and hit the points that matter.
Travis Hafner did play in a minor league game yesterday, had six, yes six, at-bats. He had two hits, one of them a triple (wtf?), and two RBI.
Offensively, yesterday's game sucked. Damaso Espino knocked in all three runs.
The real intrigue was with the pitching. It was Zach Jackson and Vinnie Chulk trying to win the final bullpen spot.
Even though it was probably the last shot for both to prove themselves, it wasn't the end-all be-all in the race perhaps.
Zach Jackson didn't look good in the first few innings. AC reports he settled down, but like he said, this is for a relief role, you need to be good quick. Jackson's final line, Four innings, six hits, five runs, but no walks and four strikeouts.
Vinnie Chulk on the other hand was awesome. He didn't walk anyone and gave up just three hits in his three innings. He's proven he can go three innings, which is huge...
But... AC says that Wedge, who will make a decision either tomorrow or Tuesday, is leaning towards Jackson.
It looks like Mujica is out... Sucker... Double Sucker!!!
I think though, even if Chulk doesn't make the roster, we'll see him before that date he has on his agreement.
Paul Hoynes mentioned that the Indians could make a deal for the final bullpen spot, and one name is Luis Perdomo, the relief pitcher we traded to St. Louis for Anthony Reyes. Yeah right...
Moving on to today's game....
Fausto Carmona pitched, went six innings, gave up seven hits, but just one walk that turned into three runs. Two came off a Milton Bradley home run.
I was listening to the game on the way home and apparantly after he hit the home run, halfway through his trot he stared towards the Indians dugout and when he got to home, he pointed at the dugout. Something he did last year with Texas a few times.
What is it with this guy? Has he not gotten over the fact that his career is filled with teams not wanting him because hes a jerky?
I turned the channel back onto the game mid-trot, and they hadn't mentioned his name, but the minute they said someone was "staring towards the Indians dugout" and that "sooner or later, someone is going to peg him" I knew they were talking about Bradley.
Seriously... Get over yourself Milton. We've moved on and so should you.
Back to stuff that matters.
Kerry Wood got in for his first time facing the Chicago Cubs.. He pitched a scoreless inning with a strikeout.
Masa Kobayashi gave up two runs today, not good, but it looks as if he'll remain on the team for now. Eric Wedge has said he'll need to pitch more like when he pitched the two solid earlier this week.
Rafael Perez had a perfect inning with two punch outs to pick up the save.
The real story in this though was the former Cubs. Along with Wood, Mark DeRosa had himself a ball against the team that he played for last year, Bradley wasn't the only one that did it to his former team.
In Rosie's first at-bat, with the first pitch mind you, Mark DeRosa took Ted Lilly deep, a two-run shot to left...
The next at-bat was one I heard as it happened. DeRosa hit a shot so high that Mike Hegan (it might have been Hammy, I forget) kind of hesitated and then blurted out OFF THE TOP OF THE SCOREBOARD!
Then in his third at-bat he hit an even higher shot off the top of a wall in center field. Hegan and Hammy were both shocked it didn't go out. If there wasn't a giant wall in center field, it probably would have been gone.
Victor Martinez, who went 3-5 with a run scored, knocked him in.
Grady Sizemore went 2-4 with a triple. Ben Francisco went 0-2 with a pair of walks..
Jhonny Peralta put up his hat-trick with the three strikeouts... But he also had two hits.. The two-worlds of Peralta meeting up.
Then.... Again.. It was... GEORGE THE LUMBER MAN LOMBARD!
Lombard went 1-2 with a two-run shot, his second on the spring in just his third game.
The Lumber Man too much?
Understandable.
The Indians beat the Cubs by the way... How fun..
So DeRosa is on fire, he was doing well even before the WBC, hopefully it carries into the start of next season. The guy is certainly putting on a power-display, despite the Arizona conditions and all that, he's hit some bombs.
Okay we've got some injury stuff..
I was listening to the game when Chris Antonetti was on and he explained a few things about Adam Miller's injury. Basically the injury is the tip of his middle finger on his throwing hand cannot bend. That could impact, indeed.
But, Chris said Miller threw this morning and actually said his slider was just as good, if not BETTER than it has ever been... What? Really? How?
Who knows, but that's pretty good news. Miller needs to keep up the good progress though and if it gets to the point where they have to decide on surgery or not, and he's at this pace, he obviously won't do the surgery.
You might have noticed David Dellucci was supposed to be in the lineup yesterday, but was replaced. Turns out Dellucci's now in jeopardy of starting the year on the DL.
"I don't know right now, to be honest with you," Wedge said. "It hit us so close to game time [Saturday]. He felt very similar [Sunday]. He's got to get a day of treatment, see if there's any response and then go from there." Tightness in the calf muscle... Ooooofy... Trevor Crowe would be option number one to replace Dellucci. Tony Graffanino would also be there, but Crowe has 40-man roster capabilities. Then again with Edwin Mujica's impending release from the 40-man roster, because he's out of options, that would clear that spot up.
Here is an article I'm too tired to read.. At least I'm honest.
I think Terry Pluto did an excellent job conveying some thoughts I share on Travis Hafner. He's important, but the Indians success doesn't really hinge on him being friggin awesome. Him being awesome would be awesome though and make things a lot easier and probably give us a lot of relief.
Let the man do his thing though. These 56 comments on Pluto's article are hilarious.
On the similar note of Hoynes being dumb, I don't know if I mentioned that earlier, probably didn't convey it when I said "Yeah Right".. There is a new Hey Hoynsieewhatever up and someone asks him when he is going to be twittering.
Just what we need, more Hoynes, in shorter, more annoying spurts. I'd like to mention that this site is on Twitter. Why? Because this site is a whore. I also want to say I flipped a music channel on the radio on between innings and this one guy signed off saying "Check me out on facebook, myspace, youtube, twitter, and blah blah blah."
And you thought this site was bad.
Hoynes' article was like friggin long... Stupid... Wait this entry is pretty long as far as I can tell.. Stupid....
Finally.. The little note at the end of this CastroTurf entry, Hafner and Wood manning middle infield? Wow okay....
My bracket went up in flames with the Pitt loss yesterday. Off to such a great start and looking towards money (in two pools too) and after one game, it's all over.. What a shame...
[BOXSCORE]
Original Story:
http://www.thetribedaily.com/2009/03/...
