Morning Update: Breaking Down the Losses

It's a rather short morning update because of the off day worth of no news, so I created some.

Even before I read this Terry Pluto piece, I had this idea pop into my head to break down the Indians losses. Why? Because It's fun.

Pluto basically pointed out the main flaws of this team so far. The defense for the most part has been below average, the pitching has been neh, some of the offensive performances, just bad. But the one point that he made needs to be echoed and it's been something I've been thinking about for some time now and I've hinted at it with my "the players trust Wedge" comments.

What good does firing Eric Wedge do?

Replace him with Joel Skinner or Jeff Datz?

Really, that's just going to piss the players off. There is no Buck Showalter in the front office that can take over. Firing him now is stupid and it isn't warranted because newsflash, as Terry said, THE PLAYERS AREN'T GETTING IT DONE!

Daaaaaaaaf.

Here is my breakdown. Some games have two causes.. Not easy to pinpoint some, but otherwise some really are.

Starting pitching
Offense
Bullpen
Defense

Apr 6 @ Texas L 9-1 0-1 Millwood (1-0) Lee (0-1)
Wed, Apr 8 @ Texas L 8-5 0-2 Padilla (1-0) Carmona (0-1)
Thu, Apr 9 @ Texas L 12-8 0-3 McCarthy (1-0) Pavano (0-1)
Fri, Apr 10 Toronto L 13-7 0-4 League (1-0) Perez (0-1)
Sat, Apr 11 Toronto L 5-4 0-5 Halladay (2-0) Lee (0-2)
Sun, Apr 12 Toronto W 8-4 1-5 Reyes (1-0) Purcey (0-1)
Mon, Apr 13 @ Kansas City L 4-2 1-6 Greinke (2-0) Carmona (0-2)
Tue, Apr 14 @ Kansas City L 9-3 1-7 Davies (1-0) Pavano (0-2)
Wed, Apr 15 @ Kansas City W 5-4 2-7 Lewis (1-0) Farnsworth (0-2)
Thu, Apr 16 @ NY Yankees W 10-2 3-7 Lee (1-2) Veras (0-1)
Fri, Apr 17 @ NY Yankees L 6-5 3-8 Bruney (2-0) Lewis (1-1)
Sat, Apr 18 @ NY Yankees W 22-4 4-8 Carmona (1-2) Wang (0-3)
Sun, Apr 19 @ NY Yankees L 7-3 4-9 Albaladejo (1-0) Lewis (1-2)
Tue, Apr 21 Kansas City W 8-7 5-9 Laffey (1-0) Ponson (0-2)
Wed, Apr 22 Kansas City L 2-0 5-10 Bannister (1-0) Lee (1-3)
Thu, Apr 23 Kansas City W 5-2 6-10 Lewis (2-2) Meche (1-1)
Fri, Apr 24 Minnesota L 5-1 6-11 Blackburn (1-1) Carmona (1-3)
Sat, Apr 25 Minnesota L 7-1 6-12 Slowey (3-0) Pavano (0-3)
Sun, Apr 26 Minnesota W 4-2 7-12 Laffey (2-0) Perkins (1-2)
Mon, Apr 27 Boston L 3-1 7-13 Delcarmen (1-0) Wood (0-1)
Tue, Apr 28 Boston W 9-8 8-13 Wood (1-1) Lopez (0-2)
Wed, Apr 29 Boston L 6-5 10th 8-14 Okajima (2-0) Lewis (2-3)

Starters: 4 Games
Offense: 5 Games
Bullpen: 6 Games
Defense: 2 Games

I mean that's just from memory. Pegging defenses are harder.. So are games in which the offense didn't show up but guys like Pavano and Carmona at least kept the team in the game (the two weekend losses to the Twins for instance).

So the blame is all around and I can't think of any reason to pin that on Eric Wedge. He's made some silly choices that I didn't agree with, but not many if any that directly implicated the games lost.

A new Indians Inbox is up and one of the main topics is Johnny Peralta.

Look, Peralta will be fine.. As Castro pointed out, he's always started off rough in April (who on this team hasn't?). I saw someone drop Peralta in one of my fantasy leagues and immediately laughed. Then proceeded to claim him on waivers.

I mean come on now, it's one month, he isn't garbage. He's having a bad start, but he's shown before what he is capable of and I trust him to make adjustments.

Don't worry about Peralta.

But by far the best part of this inbox.

Hey Anthony, do you Twitter? Do you know if any of the Indians tweet?
-- Casey W., no location given.

I twitter with excitement when the Progressive Field press box has peanut butter cheesecake. Other than that, the CastroTurf blog, I hope, gives you more than enough access to the excruciating minutia of my daily existence.

To the best of my knowledge, none of the Indians are on Twitter. But LaPorta is. You can follow him under the screen name "Gator4God," and I'd assume he'll have a message at some point this season that says, "Called up to the big leagues... and eating Fruity Pebbles."

Didn't I say that we'd find out LaPorta has been called up via Twitter this year?

Mark it down and check Matty's twitter like a little kid waiting for a magic set in the mail.

Castrovince has a nice long piece on Tony Sipp and where he's come from. Just awesome stuff. Tony's story is great and you don't realize what kind of awesome human being he is until you read this.

"I wouldn't push anybody through the same thing I've been through," he said. "It's hard, and I've seen so many guys not make it."

"I tell my brother all the time that I'm more proud of him than I am of myself," Sipp said. "This talent I have was God-given. I didn't have to wonder where I would apply myself to make a living. When it comes to intelligence, you've got to figure out what you're going to apply it to. I respect that more than I respect my talent."

We all had our different kinds of ways to play baseball as kids.. Using makeshift bases, bats and balls. Tony Sipp and his friends had theirs.

Anyway his hometown was one of the places hit by Hurricane Katrina a few years ago, and now he's looking to give back. AC covers Tony's journey from "catball" to Community College and finally to Clemson and how he started out playing organized as a shortstop. It's always nice to learn a little about the newer major leaguers like Sipp.

So today we begin a new month and hopefully it is way better than this past month. Really it just.. Argh.. Expecting a roster move(s) today in the afternoon relating to Rundles getting called back down and an extra bench player coming up. I think I'll be fine with whatever route the Indians go, but I can't decide what I want.

I'd love to see Barfield get the call, just because I think it's time to get him back up here and get Crowe back down to Columbus. He's not really lighting the world on fire with the stick and all that anyway. But all signs point to Dellucci for now and I guess I'm alright with that as well.

As long as it isn't LaPorta, because he simply won't get regular playing time and that isn't the right way to go right now.