Indians Confidential

Coming off their awful 0-6 road trip, the Indians look as if they will make some roster moves that could help the bullpen, and possibly the offense. Paul Hoynes’ Insider today says that the team will activate closer Joe Borowski today, this after he pitched a scoreless inning Wednesday night for Akron. Jo-Bo also looked close to ready when he pitched Monday night in Lake County. With the hitting null and void, the bullpen has also started to scuffle as of late, leaving the team hoping that Borowski, despite his issues already this season, can add a spark to the team. It’s been said all along that he’ll be the closer upon his return.

As for the offense, Eric Wedge also said that we could see our first appearance of outfielder Shin-Soo Choo in 2008 soon. Choo is on a 20-day rehab assignment in Buffalo, and could be with the team shortly. You can also expect Jake Westbrook to be back soon, meaning that Aaron Laffey’s spot in the rotation will be gone and he’ll likely be back at AAA Buffalo. As for who goes where when Borowski and Choo may be ready - Michael Aubrey, who showed some pop in his bat with two homers on this recent road trip, will probably go down. Hoynes also says that it could be time to cut the cord with Andy Marte. He has no options left, meaning that the team can’t send him down unless they designate him for assignment and he’d likely get picked up by another team.

Dr. Cliff Lee was back in his office Wednesday night, otherwise known as the pitchers mound, once again performing surgery as he continued to look more like the best pitcher in the Majors than a pitcher who actually struggled in Triple A last season. In last nights 3-0 shutout of the Yankees, Lee was at it again, with seven shutout innings, six hits allowed, seven strikeouts and zero walks. The win puts him at 6-0 on the season, the best start for an Indians pitcher in 20 years (Greg Swindell 1988).

Lee dropped his ERA to 0.81, and what he continues to do start in and start out is get ahead of hitters, and once again vs the Yankees that was the case. He also has been dead on with location, allowing just two walks this season and four earned runs in 44.2 innings pitched. No one could have possibly expected Lee to get off to this type of start, but so far in this rather inconsistent season, he has been the brightest of bright spots for the Tribe.

The team was also on offense finally able to get to Yankees starter Chein-Ming Wang, who shut them out last Sunday at Progressive Field 1-0. The scored a run in the first after Grady Sizemore walked, went to second on a single, third on a fielder’s choice, and home on a sac fly by Victor Martinez. That run held up till the fourth, when Casey Blake singled in Jhonny Peralta with two outs to make it 2-0.

With Lee setting down the Yankees with what looked like ease, two runs were more than enough, but the team did add another in the fifth, when with one out David Dellucci hit a shot up the middle that brought in Andy Marte, who had actually got a hit, to make it 3-0. Lee did allow two singles in the 5th, and runners to reach second and third in the 6th, but was able to get out of both jams.

The bullpen for the second straight night did its job, as Rafael Perez pitched a scoreless 8th allowing one hit with two outs, and Rafael Betancourt earned his 4th save with his second straight 1-2-3 ninth. The win puts the Indians at 16-17, and it is their first season series win over the Yankees since 1992. They have not swept the Yanks in Yankee Stadium since 1989, but can do so today with Paul Byrd taking on Mike Mussina at 1:05pm.

You can do a lot passing the time waiting for a rain dealy to pass. While the delay never ended Friday night, I had the pleasure of dining with two of my favorite vets in the Cleveland media - Paul Hoynes of the Plain Dealer and Greg Brinda, sports talk host of ESPN 850 WKNR. While it was fun to trade some personal stuff with these solid vets, we also talked some Indians. Here is a quick set of highlights of our discussions:

Travis Hafner - We all agreed that the issues that are hindering Hafner are not issues that are going to be solved quickly. Travis’ problems that started last year are far and away a complete mystery as to not only why they started, but what he can do to get it turned back around. Hoynes compared Hafner’s sudden lack of power to fomer Indian Carols Baerga, whose issues off the field and lack of production eventually got him traded to the Mets in 1996.

The Closer Role - We all agree that putting Joe Borowski right back in the closer role is a risky call, but as Paul pointed out - could it get any worse than it is right now? We also all came to the conclusion that one wild card in the closer mix could be Masa Kobayashi, who seems to have adjusted nicely in the Majors. One thing appears for sure - Rafael Betancourt, Rafael Perez and Borowski don’t appear to be the answer.

Adding a Spark to the Offense - Hoynes thinks that Mark Shapiro is going to have to make a move and add a bat to the lineup, and I don’t disagree with that. Bringing up Ben Francisco and keeping him on the Major League roster is something that should be done soon. As far as some of the players that could be on the bubble of being sent elsewhere or even being shown the door include Jason Michaels (.207), Andy Marte (.077) and maybe reduced playing time for Jhonny Peralta (.229).

The Indians seemed to have the hot hand this year when it comes to hitting homers.  Today’s Spring Notes, which the team sends out to the media, states that the Tribe has hit 33 homers in 22 games this spring, which is tied for first among all AL teams in the spring with the Tigers.

Grady Sizemore leads the team with five homers this spring, and Andy Marte, who really needs to play well to probe his worth, has 4 homers, which is tied for third this spring in the AL.  Today the Indians play at 1:05 vs the Rays (remember, they are not the DEVIL Rays anymore) at Chain of Lakes Park - Paul Byrd starts for the Indians.       

If Cliff Lee was set to be the #5 starter for the Indians in two weeks when the season starts, one has to wonder if that was blown yesterday in the teams loss to the Phillies. Lee was not very good, allowing six runs on 11 hits over four innings. Eric Wedge gave him a vote of confidence in the post game, but bottom line is this looked like the Lee that got shelled enough to eventually put him in the minors last season.

Lee didn’t get any help from Andy Marte at third, who basically ole’d two balls in the second inning that allowed the Phillies to score five of their total six runs. Marte allowed one past him by Jimmy Rollins that allowed two runs to score, and then Shane Victorino hit one that Marte couldn’t come up with that allowed two more runs to score.

Some other notes from the loss: Jorge Julio left the game in the 8th with a blister on his right index finger. Aaron Herr hit a homer in the 9 hole for Lee in the fifth to make it 6-3. Victor Martinez also homered for the Indians in the 9th to make it 6-4, it was Victor’s first spring homer. Jhonny Peralta went 2-for-3 with a double and is hitting .296 for the spring. The team is off today, and will be in Port St.Lucie tomorrow to play the Mets.

Indians.com’s Anthony Castrovince popped out a new article today on the site about the third base and first base spots and what options the team has going into 2008. First base seems pretty simple - you have Ryan Garko coming off a pretty solid season (despite some lapses) and Victor Martinez can play there as well to give his knees a break and when Gark is out of the lineup. At third, things are a bit more tricky. The famous Casey Blake debate rolls on, as I have heard more back and forth over the years on if he’s good enough to be an everyday player or not it makes me drive off the road. He’s never going to be A-Rod with the offensive numbers, but hey, he’s had some pretty big hits over the years for a guy that is supposed to be a “stopgap” year after year.

Andy Marte’s (remember him?) name comes up in the article as well, as Anthony talks about the team needing to find out once and for all what type of future this kid has, and if being a member of the Wahoo is going to be in his future long-term. “He’s going to be a part-time player,” Mark Shapiro said of Marte. “He has to win at-bats.” That tells me for now, expect to see Blake get the job out of the Spring, with Marte on the MLB roster getting to play 1-2 times a week. Link to the story is below.

Around the Horn: Corner infielders