Thoughts about the Week that was for the Cleveland Indians organization
Winning matters!
The Cleveland Indians entered last weekend at 3-3 and was very impressive in their game against Chicago last Saturday in a split squad affair at their home field in Goodyear, AZ before officially losing in Peoria, AZ in the other game. This game would be the last official win for the team the entire week. I know these games don't count. I have visited Spring Training. The regulars get their work in and often leave before the game is actually over. I get it. Still, for a young team to feel confident, I believe some wins in these meaningless games would build some confidence. For my example, I look at the San Diego Padres of 2010. We all remember how they finished the year, one game from making the playoffs losing in the end to the NL West division rival and World Champion San Francisco Giants. Nobody picked them to be anywhere near contention last year. Yet in these games that "do not matter", the Padres finished on a 9 game winning streak and near the top of the Cactus League standings last year. Arguably this momentum helped propel the franchise to contend all the way through the regular season. I point that team out because many fans have compared us to that type of team if we are going to compete and one day contend again in the AL Central. Hopefully they can build up some wins as we continue on this coming week.
Oh the pitching, the horrendous pitching!
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this past week to see the pitching staff give up a total of 41 runs and have 37 of the runs be earned in the games did not give me great confidence that this staff was ever going to be one to be counted on at all to provide a "winning" record or at least better than last year.
Looking at just the starting rotation competition, we found on Monday, Mitch Talbot, an acquisition from Tampa Bay last year, gave up 9 runs, all earned in 1 and 1/3 innings pitched. Granted there was a wind blowing out. Still, it was not impressive. On Tuesday, the ace of the staff, Fausto Carmona gave up 6 runs, all earned in his 3 innings of work. On Wednesday, the combination of Carlos Carrasco and David Huff combined to give up 6 total runs, all earned in 5 innings of work. From all these runs, I just the Indians were being run out of town altogether. These games were getting uglier and uglier to watch, listen to, and read about. I was almost getting prepared to handle a third major franchise in last place right out of the gate. The way this pitching was performing, it was easy to see us fighting for the basement from the start all the way to the finish of the season. It was hard to see the hope for improvement and the "winning" the Indians were trying to sell us with.
This was almost a no-no!
Thursday I was finally off and able to listen to the game live on MLB.com. I was reeling off the past three games on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and wondering how we would fare against the Cubs. In his last outing on Sunday, Justin Masterson gave up 2 runs both earned in his three innings of work. So I was expecting the trend to continue. The Indians starting rotation candidates mentioned above had 12 strikeouts all together, including Masterson, on Sunday. In Thursday's game, the starting rotation candidates, Masterson and Jeanmar Gomez combined for eight strikeouts and only one hit allowed in 6 innings. 2/3 of the amount of strikeouts the starters had all week were found in this game. It was amazing how much better the pitching was described to be like in this game on Thursday compared to the efforts shown all week. It was a shame we still lost this contest!
Much better, still no win!
The Indians played much better in a 5-5 tie yesterday. This was a game I had circled the calendar on when looking at the schedule when it first was released as a must win for the Tribe! Well, at least it was a game we must not lose because it was against the Seattle Mariners and former Indians manager, Eric Wedge. The effort was much better as the Indians battled back from being down twice. Also the starting pitcher, Mitch Talbot gave up three runs, two earned in his three innings of work. Asdrubal Cabrera hit a round tripper. All in all, it was a sign that hopefully winning would return to the Indians soon.
Comings and goings
The Indians announced that they were sending eight on the roster to Minor League camp. Included among the people were sent to Minor league camp was Drew Pomeranz, the highly touted prospect. The plan is for him to start in Kinston, the Indians high A affiliate. Right-handed pitchers Corey Kluber and Hector Rondon and infielder Jared Goedert were optioned to AAA Columbus. Left-handed pitchers Nick Hagadone and Kelvin De La Cruz were optioned to AA Akron. Bryce Stowall and Chun Chen were also reassigned to minor league camp. Today also was the first appearence in camp for free agent signee Nick Johnson. No timetable was assigned for him to be ready to join the team. However, he hopes to play in some games by late April. Also former Indian Jason Davis was back in camp just to tryout and show the Indians what he might possibly be able to give the Indians but was not signed to any official contract.
Hopefully, these moves and efforts can get us motivated and building in the right direction for winning again here in Cleveland!
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