Yardbarker: Victor Martinez

Morning Update: Carmona To Start Saturday

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:44:31 -0500

Fausto Carmona is slated to come off the Disabled List on Saturday against the Minnesota Twins. Casey Blake's interest heats up with New York Mets' GM Omar Minaya and Kelly Shoppach could be the full-time catcher to Cliff Lee even when Victor Martinez returns from an injury.

Morning Update: Barfield, Martinez, Carmona Closing in on Action

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 09:48:44 -0500

Updates on Cleveland Indians players including Josh Barfield and Victor Martinez who are a few weeks away from returning, Travis Hafner and Fausto Carmona who will make one more rehab start.

Fantasy Baseball Update: First Half Awards

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 09:43:05 -0500

The All-Star Break gives fantasy owners a chance to rest and gives us a chance to hand out some first half fantasy awards.

Tribe's first half offense - God awful but getting better

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:39:55 -0500

I could sum up the Tribe's first-half offense with one five-letter word. S-U-C-K-S !! But since you came to this Web site for info, I assume you are looking for a little more than that. So here goes.

Break Work: One Sentence to Sum Up Each MLB Team

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 18:13:52 -0500

LA Angels (57-38): Pitching, Pitching, Pitching has the Angels tied for the best record in baseball.

Chicago Cubs (57-38): The Cubs are also tied for the best record, their reason though is that they never ever lose at Wrigley.

Boston (57-40): The youth pitching is once again paying off major dividends for the Sox who behind JD Drew have regained the AL East lead despite the absence of Papi.

Tampa Bay (55-39): If the Rays played all their games at the Trop they would probably be 30 games over .500.

Chicago Sox (54-40): Anybody who said that they saw Carlos Quentin having 70 rbi at the break to help the ChiSox to first place is a liar.

Minnesota (53-42): The Twinkies have gotten solid pitching from a bunch of youngsters and should be bringing Liriano up to increase the push to the division.

St. Louis (53-43): Ludwick and Ankiel both have 20 homers getting the Cardinals to a spot where they probably shouldn't be.

Milwaukee (52-43): CC has already shown his worth in one 1 week, with him and Sheets leading the rotation the Brewers look to be in the hunt for both the Wild Card and the division.

Philadelphia (52-44): After Cole Hamels there's a big gap in the starting rotation that needs to be addressed.

Oakland (51-44): Selling off pitchers despite being 7 games above .500 seems like giving up to me.

NY Mets (51-44): A 9 game winning streak to close out the first half of the season certainly makes the future look brighter.

NY Yankees (50-45): For some reason despite having all stars at every position the Yankees get shut out a lot.

Florida (50-45): Hanley Ramirez is a golden god who can be stopped by no one.

Texas (50-46): Check that, Josh Hamilton is a platinum god who can be stopped by no one.

Detroit (47-47): Dug themselves out of a hole when their bats finally started to heat up, poised for a second half explosion.

Toronto (47-48): The Blue Jays have been terribly inconsistent despite Roy Halladay being a beast.

Arizona (47-48): Starting the NL Western theme the reason the Diamondbacks are under .500 is because they don't have any good hitters.

LA Dodgers (46-49): Rafael Furcal has been a massive kick in the junk to both my fantasy team and the Dodgers who really really really need him in the lineup to score runs.

Baltimore (45-48): Um, I really have no idea how the Orioles are only slightly below .500 this season and I'm guessing they don't either.

Cincinnati (46-50): Edinson Volquez's dominating season has been balanced out by Bronson Arroyo and Aaron Haraang's poor seasons.

Atlanta (45-50): Injuries to the starting rotation and bullpen and an inability to win on the road has plagued the Braves this year.

Pittsburgh (44-50): Snell and Gorzy were both solid last season, this year they both have ERAs well above 6.

Houston (44-51): The questionable starting rotation has not been helped by #1 starters Roy Oswalt's inconsistencies.

Kansas City (43-53): The Royals don't have the worst record in their division which has to be seen as a big positive in KC.

Cleveland (41-53): Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner were terrible disappointments this season, and that was before both got placed on the DL.

San Francisco (40-55): When Fred Lewis, Randy Winn, and Aaron Rowand are your best hitters, you know you're not going to score many runs.

Colorado (39-57): The magical run that was slaughtered by the Red Sox, has remained dead this season.

Seattle (37-58): If anything could go wrong in Seattle, it has.

San Diego (37-58): Once again, hitting is entirely optional for the fathers.

Washington (36-60): A lineup as bad as the Giants and Padres, except with no starting pitching either.

AL All Crap Team

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:09:29 -0500

Screw the All Star Game let's put together a roster from those that have been utter disappointments this season.

C: Victor Martinez - He's supposed to be the best hitting catcher in the league. Instead he doesn't have a single home run this season and has been on the DL for about a month now.
1B: - Paul Konerko - Despite Paul Konerko's miserable .213 average the White Sox still find themselves in first place.
2B: - Asdrubal Cabrera - Last season Cabrera came up and solidified the Indians middle infield, this year he couldn't even hit close to .200 before being demoted.
3B: Jack Hannahan - Not much has been made in the media about the absence of Eric Chavez for most of the year, but his replacement for the A's has been piss poor hitting .222 with only 3 homers.
SS: Edgar Renteria - Renteria was supposed to be another key acquisition for the Tigers, yet it hasn't quite worked out yet as Edgar barely has an on base % above .300 to go along with his .326 Slugging %.
OF: Franklin Gutierrez - It's no wonder the Indians are in sell mode when you look at how many players they have on the All Crap roster. Gutierrez 200+ at bats and has an on base % of .265. Ugh.
OF: David Dellucci - Dellucci also has 200+ at bats this season for the Indians and he too has an on base % below .300 and an average below .225.
OF: Johnny Gomes - He's nothing more than a platoon outfielder for the Rays but he should really be nothing more than a platoon player for their AAA affiliation. He's hitting .186 with only 6 homers.
DH: Travis Hafner - Pronk used to be a consistent beast at the plate. This year he's hitting .217 with only 4 home runs and now finds himself on the DL.

Bench: Kenji Johjima - I was gonna go with V-tek, but Johjima has actually been worse, he has well over 200 at bats and has yet to score 20 runs.
Bench: Daric Barton - The rookie has not been the answer for the A's. In 267 at bats Barton is hitting .225 with only 3 homers.
Bench: Juan Uribe - No longer starting but still getting marginal playing time for the White Sox, Uribe has managed only a .206 average this season.
Bench: Craig Monroe - He has 140+ at bats for the Twins and is hitting a massive .211. Woo go Craig.
Bench: Shannon Stewart - Stewart has never been a masher and he certainly isn't this year with a .303 slugging %, but he used to at least have speed. This year he only has 3 stolen bases.

SP: Jeremy Sowers - The Youngster for the Indians has started 8 games this season and is 0-5 with a 7+ ERA.
SP: Steve Trashbag - He was brought back to the Orioles for a little veteran leadership, but he was designated for assignment in early June after posting a 8+ ERA.
SP: Carlos Silva - Um, why did he get a solid contract? He's never been really good and he's been atrocious with a 5.59 ERA thus far this season.
SP: Phil Hughes - Supposedly the best prospect in baseball Hughes had an ERA of 9 before landing himself on the DL for which he might remain the entirety of the season.
SP: Ian Kennedy - The 2nd Yankees youngster recorded an ERA well above 7 in 9 outings and has yet to manage a victory.
SP: Boof Bonser - The man with the funny name has been relegated from the rotation after posting an ERA well over 6.
RP: Jimmy Gobble - Gobble has come into 29 games from the pen and has an ERA above 7 for the Royals.
RP: Mike Timlin - I guess when you're about 90 you should be losing a little zip on the fastball and Timlin is with his 6+ ERA.
RP: Ross Ohlendorf - One more Yankee 'prospect' that has been a disappointment thus far this season.
RP: JJ Putz - JJ was supposed to be amongst the elite closers. Instead he's been on and off the DL and only has 7 saves.
CL: Joe Borowski - He wasn't very good last year when he recorded a ton of saves but he's been absolutely brutal this season with a 7.56 ERA and only 6 saves.

How to have fun during a ten-game losing streak

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 12:42:51 -0500

For all of those outside of Cleveland, the Indians have now lost ten in a row. We've also lost CC Sabathia, Joe Borowski, Travis Hafner, Fausto Carmona, Victor Martinez, and Jake Westbrook. And Jason Michaels. And last year, with all those players, we were one game from the World Series. Which only proves that this team cannot [...]

Shapiro on CC deal: Now was better than later

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:23:08 -0500

Just got done watching Mark Shapiro's press conference on ESPN. Here, in a nutshell, is what he said. The strongest point he tried to make (perhaps looking at some of the backlash already) is that the trade offers he got now were likely better than what he could have anticipated as the trading deadline approached. That seems counterintuititive (a fancy word for BS), but he did have a viable explanation. Shapiro said there were seven teams involved in the conversation. Two - presumably the Brewers being one of the two - said they were likely to downgrade their offers the longer they had to wait to get CC. Other teams, Shapiro said, were on the periphery of contention and may or may not have remained in the market three weeks from now. It seems as though Shapiro was unwilling to play a game of chicken with the two teams who said CC would be worth less to them as time wore on and just decided a bird in the hand was the way to go. Time will tell. One other interesting note - Shapiro seemed to indicate that the alleged last-gasp effort to sign CC before taking offers never happened. "We felt we thoroughly explored an extension with CC in spring training. CC made it clear that once the season started he did not want to entertain any negotiations. In addition to that, our exploration of a contract in spring training was thorough enough to understand that the combination of our capabilities and CC's expectations didn't align. " The GM would not put any expectations on newly acquired Matt LaPorta, saying only that he would be moved along at a pace commensurate with his performance. As far as whether he would likely be a 1B or an outfielder, Shapiro said the Tribe would move LaPorta from right to left for now and have him take groundballs at 1B. The GM said LaPorta would likely see time at 1B this season in the minors. Shapiro said when LaPorta appears to be on the verge of major-league readiness, the team will look at its needs on the big club at the time and decide from there where to use him. Shapiro also said the player to be named later - whoever that turns out to be - is someone who, if not included, would have caused the deal to go sour. In other words its a serious prospect, though he refused to say too much for fear of giving away the identity of the player. When asked if the team needed a serious overhaul on offense Shapiro said he expects Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner to be back and to contribute as they have in the past - and he said their return later this season will give him a better idea of what to expect from them next year. Still, he said, the team will continue to look to upgrade its offense, as well as the bullpen. There are no current trade talks underway however, according to Shapiro. The GM said he is glad he didn't pull the trigger on any off-season trades because the addition of one more bat would not have made any compensated for the way the offense has produced due to injuries and under-performance.

2008 Fantasy Baseball All-Let Down Team

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 06:29:40 -0500

Fellow fantasy baseball tragics, with the All-Star break fast approaching, I thought it was time to take stock of all those blokes that have collectively made mine and possibly your fantasy baseball season a disaster thusfar.

MLB Rumor Wire: C.C. Sabathia To the Brewers?

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 10:05:56 -0500

The groundwork appears to be laid for a trade of C.C. Sabathia to the Milwaukee Brewers. Milwaukee drafted Matt LaPorta with the seventh overall pick in the 2007 draft, and he appears to be the centerpiece of this possible trade. The Brewers would hate to part with him, but they want to win now. www.rawsportsblog.com

Culture clash behind A.L. Central reversal

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 23:08:03 -0500

The White Sox spent some serious money and mortgaged some of their future this winter, while the Tribe tried to get through this season with a pat hand and keep their future intact. This week's three-game series between the two is a good indicator of which team had the better approach.,

AccuScore: MLB Prospect Watch

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:24:56 -0500

With the futures game coming up, AccuScore fantasy expert Tim Williams look at some current fantasy stars who were former participants of the futures game, and also looks at some of this year's participants who could be future fantasy stars.

AL First Half Review

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 21:52:56 -0500

With the conclusion of this weekend comes the end of the first half of the MLB season. The All-Star game is still a couple of weeks away, but every team has over 81 games in the books. TSP breaks down the highs and lows, beginning with the American League.

The last place Cleveland Indians

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:52:25 -0500

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.

News Flash: The Indians can't hit!

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:08:59 -0500

What the hell is going on in Cleveland? Can the lack of offense be blamed on the injuries, personnel or the goofy decision to bat Sizemore in the leadoff spot? All of the above and a little more is the answer.