Indians Confidential

With all the criticism Tribe G.M. Mark Shapiro has received lately for trading away three Cy Young award winners (Bartolo Colon, Cliff Lee, and C.C. Sabathia) over the last few years with little big league help in return, there is one trade he made last year that has flown under the radar.

The Kelly Shoppach for Mitch Talbot trade may prove to pay huge dividends for the Indians in the long run. Coming into spring training this year not many people, including myself, even thought he would make the rotation, let alone be leading the staff in wins.

He is 6-3 with a 3.73 ERA in nine game started. He has even impressed his opponents with Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen saying, ”He pitched very well for them and throws strikes, and that’s very important”. Out of the seventy-seven pitches he threw last night, only twenty were called balls.

Last night’s opposing pitcher Jake Peavy was even impressed with Talbot’s performance last night saying, “Mitch was very good tonight”. Lets just hope today’s starter Jake Westbrook can finish the series win today against White Sox ace Mark Buehrle

When Cliff Lee walked two of the first three hitters on Sunday night, it looked like it was going to be one of THOSE nights for the Indians and last years Cy Young award winner. What we all didn’t know was that 8 innings later, Lee would still be throwing without allowing another walk, and even better, not allowing a hit.

For the first time in quite awhile, an Indians pitcher flirted big-time with a no-hitter, as Lee took a no-no into the 8th inning as he finally got some run support as the Tribe won another series, topping St.Louis 3-0. Lee finally allowed a hit with no outs in the 8th, giving up a clean double off the wall to Yadier Molina.

The funny thing is that Lee wasn’t phased by the hit, and knew that he had to keep throwing zeros, as the Indians held the three-run lead, but he wasn’t secure in thinking that the game was over by any means. He was able to get the last six outs, and ended up allowing two walks and three hits in the shutout win.

For Lee it was his 3rd career shutout, 8th career complete game, and he’s now 4-4 with a 2.07 ERA over his last 12 starts. The club has won 12 of their last 20 games, and have won 10 of their last 15 at home, which is a nice sign for a team that couldn’t win anywhere early in the season.

The offense didn’t let Lee hang on for some runs too long, as Mark DeRosa hit a two-run homer in the first off of Chris Carpenter for a quick Tribe lead. Kelly Shoppach, was was thrown out at the plate earlier in the game, hit a solo homer in the 5th to round out the scoring.

Carpenter was no pushover for Indians hitters, as coming in he was 4-0 with a 1.23 ERA. The Indians should be proud with the fact they have won games the past few days going up against two of baseballs best – Carpenter and KC’s Zack Greinke.

Back to the offense, DeRosa is hitting .340 in his last 12 games and has hit safely in 10 of his last 12 games, with three homers and 10 RBI. Over his last four games he has gone 6-for-1 with a homer and two RBI.

The Indians will look to keep the wins at home going on Monday, as they start a three-game set vs the Milwaukee Brewers. Now at 29-36, the club is in last in the division, but just 6 games out.

It’s no secret that Indians starter and last season Cy Young award winner Cliff Lee hasn’t gotten much run support in 2009. That stat once again reared its ugly head at Progressive Field Friday night, as the Indians win streak was snapped at four in a 3-1 loss to the New York Yankees.

Lee had to battle, but still managed to wait out a 1 hour 25 minute rain delay to throw six innings, allowing three earned runs on 9 hits. He walked two and struck out five, and threw 112 pitches. He admitted after the game that his control was off, and it was one of those nights where he simply had to try and grind it out.

On the other hand, it seems like when Lee gives up 2 or more runs, the game is a lost cause. The Indians have scored 29 runs in 10 games when Lee takes the mound total in 2009 (2.9 runs per game), and if you take away the 10-run effort in New York on the opening of Yankee Stadium, that stat would go down to 19 runs in 9 games, an anemic 2.1 runs per game average.

Friday night was much of the same for the Indians offense, as they didn’t do much against Yankee starter Andy Pettitte, who despite being older than dirt (okay, he’s really just 36, but seems much older), was able to hold the Tribe to just one run in 5+ innings before leaving with a stiff back. He got out of trouble a couple of times, and held the Indians to six hits, five walks, and one strikeout.

New York took a 2-0 lead off of Lee in the 2nd with a Derek Jeter RBI single and a Mark Teixeira ground out that scored a run. They added another run in the third when Nick Swisher hit a sac fly to deep center that scored Robinson Cano.

The Indians had their shots, as they loaded the bases in the third but on a 3-1 pitch Mark DeRosa hit a weak grounder to second to end the inning. They came back with the bases loaded in the 6th with no outs, and Kelly Shoppach struck out looking, Shin-Soo Choo hit a sac fly for a run, and Asdrubal Cabrera grounded out to end the frame.

Overall the Indians left 11 runners on base.

The team falls to 21-29 on the season, and Saturday night will take on old friend C.C. Sabathia (4-3, 3.42) at 7:05pm, as Fausto Carmona (2-4, 6.42) goes for the Indians.

Coming off Monday’s improbable 11-10 win over the Rays, it would have been hard to outdo that on Tuesday night. Thanks to starter Carl Pavano, the Indians didn’t have to. Pavano was on his game, throwing 7 solid innings, and the offense hit four homers as the Tribe cruised to their 15th straight home win over the Rays, winning 5-1.

Pavano was the story. He’s now won five games in May, and his fastball was solid, keeping the Rays off target pretty much all night. He is 5-1 with a 3.58 ERA and only seven walks against 30 strikeouts since May 1st, when he got his first win of the season in Detroit.

The offense gave him all the help he would need against Rays starter Matt Garza early. Ryan Garko’s homer swing was in effect again, as he hit a solo shot in the 2nd to quickly make it 1-0. Asdrubal Cabrera hit a solo homer in the 3rd to make it 2-0, and then in the 6th, Mark DeRosa slammed a two-run shot to give the team a commanding 4-0 lead.

Carols Pena made it 4-1 with a solo homer off Pavano in the 7th, but then in the bottom of the inning Kelly Shoppach wrapped up the scoring with a solo homer to make it 5-1. The Indians only had 6 hits all night, but considering four were homers, that is all that really matters.

The team has won 5 of their last 7, and a win Wednesday secures the series win over the Rays. They are now 19-28, and drop the Rays to 23-25. They are still 7.5 out in the AL Central, but now at least seem to have some momentum, and we’ll see if Wednesday’s starter – Zach Jackson, can keep it going.

Leave it to a former Indian minor league player to end what was yet another awful April for the Tribe. You probably don’t remember Jon Van Early, but he was in the Tribe’s minor league system for a number of years, only to never get a shot. Tonight, he took a shot against his former team, sending a Jensen Lewis pitch 420 feet into centerfield for a game-winning homer that sent the Indians to a 6-5 loss.

The loss hurt in a number of ways. The team blew what seemed to be a safe 5-0 lead entering the 6th. They had a shot in the bottom of the 10th down 6-5 as Mark DeRosa hit a long out to center that could have tied the game, and once again, Lewis couldn’t keep the ball in the park, sending the team to their toughest loss of the season.

Fausto Carmona started and looked great for the Indians. He at one point set down 12 straight Red Sox, but then with a 5-0 lead started to wither away in the 6th, as Boston got two back to make it 5-2. In the 7th, he got the first two outs, but then a single and a walk and he was out of the game.

The Indians got out of that inning, but in the 8th, the Sox made the terrible Tribe bullpen pay once again, this time in the form of Rafael Betancourt, who allowed three runs to cross, which eventually tied the game at five. Lewis saved Bentancourt that inning, but the Indians couldn’t mount a rally, and eventually Lewis gave up the game-winning HR to his former roommate in Van Early.

The game started out great for the Indians, as they looked like they were ready to win a home series, go 5-4 on the homestand, and get out of April with two straight wins. That of course is before the roof caved in on them. DeRosa and Kelly Shoppach each homered for the Indians to help them get to 5-0, but it was all for not.

The Indians outplayed the Red Sox in the three-game set much like they outplayed the Yankees before the homestand started. Just like that series though, the team was unable to pull out some tough wins, that would now have their record look a lot better than 8-14.

So about the only positive is that April is now over. The team cannot start over, but they can start fresh on Friday night in Detroit against the team that is tied for first in the division with the White Sox at 11-10.

If May is as bad as April, it’s going to be quite the long summer for Indians fans.

As another fellow pointed out to me just minutes ago in the Indians press box – “This is going to be a long season.”

I’m not ready to give up just yet. After all, they are 0-5, have had good days of hitting, and some shallow moments of pitching, and there is a lot of baseball still to be played. On the other hand, this is getting frustrating.

Saturday was met with more concern over last seasons CY Young Winner from the AL – Cliff Lee, who was again not on, and was beat on for four runs on 7 hits in just five innings. His control was off again, walking four and striking out five. Lee threw 102 pitches in 5 innings, 57 strikes.

Lee has for some reason looked more like the 2007 Lee than the 08 Lee, and that is already a major concern. He is not hitting his spots, and in his first two starts the Rangers and Jays batters are catching up with him WAYYYY too much.

Kelly Shoppach didn’t exactly have a great day either. Dropping a ball on a sure out at home, striking out twice (once with two on with no outs), and then hitting into a 4-6-3 double play in the 9th, the catcher wins my vote as “goat of the day.”

The rest of the Indians offense didn’t give any support to Lee or the other two Indians throwers till the 9th, as they pushed across just one run, and that came when the team was already down 4-0 in the fifth. You had a sense that the game was already decided once Jays starter Roy Halladay and the team got that lead off of Lee.

It was good to see the team fight back in the 9th, as if it were not for Shoppach’s double play, the team likely would be celebrating their first win of the season. Mark De Rosa finally got a hit that meant something, as his two-out double got the team to one, but Victor Martinez’s strikeout allowed the Jays to escape 5-4.

So now this team really needs a win. Tomorrow Anthony Reyes gets his first start of the season, and he threw well at the end of last season. He goes up against David Purcey at 1:05pm.

The Cleveland Indians today signed CA KELLY SHOPPACH for the 2009 season, avoiding arbitration.

Shoppach hit .261 (92-352) in 2008 with 27 doubles, 21 home runs and 55 RBI in 112 games (.348OBP/.517SLG/.865OPS). He led all American League catchers in home runs, also finishing 3rd among big league catchers with his 21 round trippers. His 55 RBI were the 4th highest total among AL backstops despite having at least 100 fewer at bats than the top 3 RBI finishers. Shoppach is currently training in Goodyear, Arizona in preparation for the 2009 season.

Shoppach was the club’s only member of the 40-man roster who was arbitration eligible.

AUBREY OUTRIGHTED TO AAA COLUMBUS

The Cleveland Indians today announced that INF MICHAEL AUBREY cleared waivers and has been outrighted to AAA Columbus. He has been invited to Major League camp as a non-roster player. Aubrey was designated for assignment on January 6 when Carl Pavano was added to the 40-man roster.

DANA POINT, Calif. — Mark Shapiro and Chris Antonetti have been thinking about it for a while.

Are the Indians a better team with Kelly Shoppach catching and Victor Martinez playing first base or are they better if they trade Shoppach to fill a need and keep Martinez behind the plate?

The Indians feel they have enough depth if they have to trade a catcher for an infielder or closer. They have Chris Giminez, Wyatt Toregas and Carlos Santana, the man who has done nothing but hit since being acquired from the Dodgers for Casey Blake, behind Martinez and Shoppach.

On some days, the Tribe’s general manager feels his best lineup would be Shoppach catching and the versatile Martinez playing first. Then Shapiro thinks about a bullpen without an established closer and an infield one player short.

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