Indians Confidential

The Indians bullpen has been underachieving all season, and today the team made it’s first major move to rebuild and look ahead for the 2009 season. The moves comes as follows: the team has recalled relievers Brian Slocum and Jensen Lewis, and designated relief pitchers Joe Borowski and Rick Bauer for assignment.

The biggest move in the bunch is finally calling it quits with Joe-Bo. This season has basically been a nightmare for Borowski, as he went 1-3 w/a 7.56 ERA in 18 games (6SV, 10OPP, 16.2IP, 24H, 14/RER) with the Indians this season. His real undoing came early in the season in blowing a save to the Red Sox when he allowed former Indian Manny Ramirez to blast a homer to lose a game it appeared the Indians had in hand.

It is uncertain who the closer will be from here, but right now that’s the last of the Indians problems. I guess they will throw Rafael Betancourt in there again, if and when the Indians ever have another save situation. They could also use Masa Kobayashi, but he’s struggled a lot as of late just in the bullpen role he has now.

Bauer posted an ERA of 13.50 in 4 relief appearances (8.0IP, 10H, 9R/ER). Lewis has split the 2008 campaign between AAA Buffalo and Cleveland. At Buffalo he has gone 1-2 with 1 save and a 3.60 ERA in 11 relief appearances (20.0IP, 16H, 8ER, 8BB, 18K) and has not allowed a run on 2 hits in his last 4 outings (6.0IP, 5K). Triple A hitters have hit .219 (16-73) off him with right-handed hitters batting .189 (7-37). Over the first two months of the season with Cleveland he posted a mark of 0-2 w/a 3.82 ERA in 21 games (30.2IP, 32H, 13ER). He will again wear #50.

Slocum has spent the majority of the season at AAA Buffalo and has flourished since being converted to a relief role three weeks ago. At Buffalo he has gone 3-5 w/a save and a 4.62 ERA in 18 games/11 starts (62.1IP, 59H, 32ER, 33BB, 55K). As a reliever, he has 1 save and a 0.69 ERA in 7 outings (13.0IP, 8H, 1R/ER, 3BB, 10K), limiting Triple A hitters to a .182 (8-44) average out of the ‘pen. Overall left-handed hitters have batted .206 (27-131) off him on the season at Buffalo. This will be his second stint at the big league level in 2008 as he did not appear in a game during his first stint with the club from June 4-6.

Make no mistake, this will be the first of many roster moves as the team begins to officially declare 2008 over and start looking ahead to 09.

The Indians made a pair of expected roster moves today to get some fresh arms in the bullpen. Below is the press release from the team sent out about 5:20 this afternoon.

CLEVELAND, OH — The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has recalled RHP BRIAN SLOCUM and purchased the contract of RHP RICK BAUER from the AAA Buffalo Bisons. To allow room for Slocum and Bauer on the Major League roster the Indians optioned RHP JENSEN LEWIS and RHP TOM MASTNY to AAA Buffalo.

The Indians 40-man roster now stands at 40.

For the 2nd time in 2008 the Tribe is placing Jake Westbrook on the 15-Day DL, this time with swelling in his right elbow. The team is also getting Jensen Lewis back to the Major League roster. Below is a presser from the Tribe about the move:

The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has placed RHP JAKE WESTBROOK on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to Wednesday, May 29th with a right elbow inflammation. To replace Westbrook’s spot on the Major League roster the Indians recalled RHP JENSEN LEWIS from AAA Buffalo.

Westbrook has made 5 starts for the Indians so far this year as he is 1-2 with a 3.12 ERA (34.2IP, 33H, 13R/12ER, 7BB, 19K). He experienced some soreness in his right elbow following his last big league start of May 28 vs. Chicago, a 6-5 loss to the White Sox (5.0IP, 5H, 3R/ER, 2BB, 3K). Today marks the 2nd DL stint (April 20-May 28 w/ left intercostal strain) of the season and the 6th DL stint of his Major League career.

Lewis began the season with the Indians going 0-2 with a 3.58 ERA (27.2IP, 29H, 11R/ER, 15BB, 19K) in 20 appearances before being optioned to AAA Buffalo on May 24th. While at Buffalo he has made 2 appearances going 0-0 with a 4.50 ERA (4.0IP, 5H, 2R/ER, 2BB, 6K). He wears #50 and will be in uniform tonight when the Indians take on the Texas Rangers at 8:05PM EST in Rangers Ballpark in Arlington.

The Indians sent the presser out a few minutes ago about the injury to Fausto Carmona, as well as a roster move to help the bullpen. Here it is:

CLEVELAND, OH— The Cleveland Indians today announced a pair of roster moves. The club has placed RHP FAUSTO CARMONA on the 15-day disabled list with a left hip strain. Also today, the Indians purchased the contract of RHP SCOTT ELARTON from AAA Buffalo, recalled RHP EDWARD MUJICA from AAA Buffalo and optioned RHP JENSEN LEWIS to AAA Buffalo.

Carmona left last night’s start in the 3rd inning vs. Texas (2.0IP, 5H, 6R/ER, 2BB, K), a 13-9 loss to the Rangers in Progressive Field. So far this year he is 4-2 with a 3.10 ERA (58.0IP, 54H, 22R/20ER, 38BB, 23K) in 10 starts for the Indians. His 3.10 ERA is currently 9th best in the American League. This marks the first career stint on the Major League disabled list for Carmona.

Elarton, 33, was signed to a minor league free agent contract with an invitation to spring training by the Indians on February 8. He has made 15 appearances out of the bullpen for the AAA Buffalo Bisons going 1-2 with a 2.45 ERA (25.2IP, 21H, 9R/7ER, 7BB, 18K). Elarton limited AAA hitters to a .223 (21-94) average and has yielded just 1 earned run in his last 8 appearances (13.1IP, 9H, 3R/1ER, 4BB, 9K) at Buffalo.

He owns a career Major League record of 56-60 with a 5.31 ERA in 224 games/170 starts since beginning his career 10 years ago with the Houston Astros in 1998. Elarton pitched with the Indians in 2004 (3-5, 4.53 ERA, 21GS) and 2005 (11-9, 4.61ERA, 31GS) and spent the 2006-2007 seasons with the Kansas City Royals. He underwent shoulder surgery in August 2006 that curtailed the start of his 2007 campaign before making 19 starts between AA Wichita, AAA Omaha and Kansas City in between a pair of stints on the disabled list (shoulder rehab, right foot sprain). He finished the 2007 season in the AAA Buffalo Bison bullpen (1-0, 2.50ERA, 9G, 18.0IP, 17H, 5ER, 5BB, 14K) after being released from Kansas City at the end of July. Elarton has not pitched in the Major Leagues since July 24,, 2007 vs. the New York Yankees (GS, 1.2IP, 6H, 7R/ER) and has not appeared in relief since September 6, 2003 vs. the Los Angeles Dodgers (1.0IP, 1H, 2R/0ER) while with the Colorado Rockies. He will wear #39.

Mujica, 24, has spent the entire 2008 season at AAA Buffalo after being optioned out of spring training on March 15. At Buffalo he was 0-2 with 4 saves and a 4.15 ERA (26.0IP, 29H, 14R/12ER, 10BB, 27K) in 18 appearances out of the bullpen. In his last 13 appearances (17.1IP, 17H, 4R/2ER, 7BB, 18K) with Buffalo he allowed just 2 earned runs. Last year, Mujica split the 2007 season between AAA Buffalo and Cleveland. He was with the Indians five (5) different times (May 7-22, June 20-24, June 27-July 8, July 27-August 25 and Spet. 4- end of season) going 0-0 with a 8.31 ERA (13.0IP, 19H, 12R/ER, 2BB, 7K) in 10 appearances. He wears #49.

Lewis appeared in 20 games in relief for Cleveland going 0-2 with a 3.58 ERA (27.2IP, 29H, 11R/ER, 15BB, 19K). Last night against the Rangers he pitched 2.1 innings, allowing 1 run/earned on 3 hits while walking 1 and striking out 1.

The Indians currently have 3 players on the Major League DL (Fausto Carmona, Shin-Soo Choo & Jake Westbrook).

You know it’s bad when even Cliff Lee can’t stop the bleeding.  Sunday in Cincy, Lee was hit hard for the first time all season, allowing a couple of homers and six runs as the Indians were swept by the rival Reds 6-4 at Great American Ballpark.  Lee lost for the first time all season, allowing six runs, five earned in 5.2 innings.  He gave up 10 hits, walked one and struck out two.  He falls to 6-1 on the season, and his ERA finally moves over 1, at 1.37.

There were able to get a few runs off of Reds starter Edinson Volquez, who came in at 6-1.  The Indians got to hiim for two runs on four hits on 6 innings.  They got two more runs in the bottom of the 6th when it was 6-2 Reds, as Jamey Carroll and Victor Martinez got singles off of the Reds pen to make it 6-4.  The bullpen for Cincy was able to close it out, giving them their 21st win against 23 losses.  The Indians fall to 22-22 on the season.

The offense pounded out nine hits in the loss.  Carroll was 2-for-4, while seven other players each had one hit.  The pen did a good job, as Jensen Lewis, Rafael Perez and Jorge Julio held the Reds to just one hit over the last 2.1 innings.  They did allow two walks, but neither were able to score, so they meant little.

The road trip continues for the Indians as they move to Chicago for a three-game set vs the White Sox on Monday night.  C.C. Sabathia (3-5, 5.47) takes on Jose Contreras (4-3, 3.35) at 8:11pm.

In their first interleague game of 2008, the Indians offense went back to sleep walking, having one big inning with fireworks, but otherwise taking the night off in a 4-3 loss to the Reds.  Falling behind early 3-0, the Tribe rallied behind three solo homers in the 6th, as Casey Blake, Travis Hafner and Jhonny Peralta all went deep to tie the game at three.

The offense managed two hits after that, but could not put a run across, as the Reds put together a rally of their own to put across the winning run vs Jensen Lewis in the 8th.  Brandon Phillips drew a walk with one out, Joey Votto smacked a double to left that put runners on second and third. Edwin Encarnacion drew a walk to load the bases and then Adam Dunn drew yet another walk to win the game.  Lewis did get out of the inning, but the walks haunted him and the Tribe was not able to generate any offense whatsoever.

Jeremy Sowers started for the Tribe, getting the call up earlier in the day.  He was not as effective as his prior start, going five innings, allowing three runs at five hits.  He gave up two homers (Phillips and Dunn), and walked two and struck out two.  The three relievers used were good minus Lewis, as Jorge Julio and Rafael Perez went 2.1 innings, not allowing a base runner and striking out four.

The offense struck out 12 times, left seven men on base, and the top four in the lineup went a combined 1-for-14 with four strikeouts and six men left on base.  It was not the best of nights at the plate to say the least.  On the positive side it was good to see Hafner hit his first homer since April 17th vs the Tigers.  The team falls to 22-20 on the season, the Reds improve to 19-23.  Saturday in game two of the three game set it’s Fausto Carmona for the Indians vs Aaron Harang at 3:55pm.

Good times continued on Saturday at Progressive Field, as the Indians wrapped up their fifth straight win with a gutsy 4-3 victory over the New York Yankees. They got another solid outing from a starting pitcher, this time it being just called up Jeremy Sowers. They earned the win with getting out of some tough jams by a bullpen that was led by Jensen Lewis and Masa Kobayashi, who earned his first win in the Majors.

Back to Sowers, who went 5.1 innings, allowing three runs on seven hits. He walked just one and struck out three. With the news coming out that Jake Westbrook will miss four weeks instead of just two, having Sowers on the Major League roster pitching well is an added bonus. The bullpen did its job, with Lewis and Kobayashi going a combined 3.2 innings, allowing no runs on five hits with five strikeouts.

The offense put up three runs in the second, as Grady Sizemore walked in a run, David Dellucci hit a sac fly, and Travis Hafner singled in another. Sowers did a great job of making that hold up until the Yankees tied the game with three runs of their own in the 6th. It stayed tied till the Indians pushed a run across in the ninth.

With one out, Sizemore singled, Dellucci singled, and then both advanced on a wild pitch. They walked Hafner, and then Victor Martinez singled to left the game-winning run. The win puts the Indians at .500 at 12-12 for the first time since they were 4-4. They also move within a game of the first place White Sox, who fell Saturday. Sunday it’s C.C. Sabathia vs Chien- Ming Wang at 1:05pm.