Morning Update: Little Jeremy Sowers.. All Growed Up

What the heck is going on here.

Can we play the second half, in the first half?

This team is ridiculous.

Maybe next year with no expectations or pressure on them, they'll actually win.

Now that all the pressure, and I mean all of the pressure, is off this team's shoulders. They seem to be playing better.

And the pressure has to be totally off. Not even a little pressure.

It's silly, but whatever.

Jeremy Sowers did something last night that I'll never understand.

I was totally ready to recap it but then I forgot when I got roped into playing my fake Indians game on Out of the Park Baseball. Yeah I got distracted.

So we've got Sowers going seven strong, giving up just two runs and he got through the lineup three times without imploding.

Jeff Datz attempted to stretch his luck by letting Sowers go out for the eighth inning and go through it four times, but after two runners reached base, that was enough of that.

To be fair, Sowers didn't have many pitches, but you have to cut it off there. Don't press your luck.

Enter bullpen.

Perez comes in and walks the bases loaded. He threw strikes though, and didn't get the calls, so it wasn't one of those, throw strikes you moron things.

Anyway he got a strikeout (Of Thome no less) and infield pop and enter Tony Sipp to get Punch A.J.

Kerry Wood with a rather painless ninth. He did give up a hit and Trevor Crowe's baffling error in which he just dropped the ball, but all is good.

What was with alllll those double plays though!?

Six runs and six double plays? How do you do that.

And Kelly Shoppach loves Chicago and these home runs. Arf.

Let's talk quotes, which will surely be interesting with Jeff Datz at the helm.

"We understand the Trade Deadline and the moves and trades are part of the game," said bench coach Jeff Datz, serving as acting manager on Friday for Eric Wedge, who was attending the funeral of his mother-in-law. "That's the way it goes. These guys are professionals. They come to the ballpark each and every day and go out and try to win a baseball game. That's what they're doing, and obviously we're playing pretty well now. It's nice to see."

Yeah... Thanks Datzy.. Let's talk second half thing I was talking about. We've go the perfect guy to in Sowers. He's crazy like that.

"I know over the past couple of years, we've been kind of a second-half team for whatever reason," Sowers said. "I'm not going to offer any theories to that. Just a lot of our guys are vying, hopefully, for a job next year and are hopefully trying to make a case for that."

I don't have any theories either.. Oh I do.

Anyway about Shoppach again, who went bazerk on the White Sox last night. He might get hot here, but really, let's not get fooled. The more hits though, I think the more we'll get for him in the offseason when we let him go.

And hey look... I love Shoppach. He's just not worth the trouble he brings. He's a typical catcher if you ask me. I'd love to have him as a back-up on my team, but he's going to be making above backup money now and the production isn't worth it. However it's quotes like these that make me love the guy. Total team player.

"You're wasting your time," Shoppach told a reporter who asked about losing at-bats to Gimenez and Toregas following the trade of Victor Martinez. "I'm going to spend these last two months playing as hard as I can and doing the best that I can to help this team win. If you do that, then you can sleep at night."

And now with both of his personal pitchers gone, even more lost playing time. It didn't matter at this point. Carl Pavano is gone, yes we've established that, but why?

"We are quickly approaching the point where we had six guys for five spots that we wanted to give an opportunity to and look at," Shapiro said. "With the regular off-days that we have in September, it would have been a real challenge to keep six guys starting."

No need to explain yourself Mark. We know the reasons here. No reason to hold onto Pavano for the rest of the year. Loved Carl and what he did, he'll always have high-marks from Cleveland, especially me. A shrewd starting pitcher signing by Shapiro worked out once again.

But yes, it does free up a spot for Justin Masterson to make his move into the rotation. He'll do that tonight, but it won't be a full-time move. He probably had side work, but he isn't ready to go full-time. It surprised even Masterson.

"I haven't thrown as much as what was in our plans, but I feel like I'm ready to go," Masterson said. "The body feels good. Everything reacted well, so I think it will be good. I don't know what the pitch count will be, but hopefully we at least get five, maybe six [innings]. And if more, hey, that's fine with me."

Masterson will throw anywhere from 60 to 65 pitches in the game. He'll oppose Carlos Torres, freshly called up to make a spot-start. This was definitely not the projected matchup when the series started.

CPD has a little audio clip of Mark Shapiro talking about the Pavano deal.

He did mention Carlos Carrasco and Hector Rondon could get looks.

As for the salary and the exchange on Pavano. The Twins and Indians will sort of split the costs in regard to the options and other stuff. The Twins will basically pay the incentives that he earns with them and the Indians will pay the ones he earned with them.

The exchange for Pavano will be a player to be named later, which will be chosen no later than September 1st. I'm surprised there, but hey, it's a player. Probably just an organizational pitcher in the end.

And finally...

If you read a ways down in the Pavano link there, Jamey Carroll believes no one needs a player like him, so he isn't going anywhere. I disagree. Anyone could use a player like a Jamey Carroll on their team for a postseason run. He's a valuable veteran and I don't think any team would disagree with that statement.