Indians Confidential

The Cleveland Indians today announced they have acquired RHP CONNOR GRAHAM from the Colorado Rockies in exchange for RHP RAFAEL BETANCOURT.

Graham, 23, a 6-7, 235-pound right-hander, has spent the entire 2009 season with the Modesto Nuts (A-Advanced) in the California League going 7-4 with a 3.14 ERA (80.1IP, 68H, 35R/28ER, 41BB, 87K, 2HR) in 16 starts. He currently owns the 6th best ERA (3.14) in the California League and has limited hitters to a .225 (68-302) average against with just 2 home runs allowed. In his last 3 starts with the Nuts, Graham is 3-0 with a 0.59 ERA (15.1IP, 12H, 3R/1ER) as he has walked just 4 batters while striking out 24. Since June 6, he is 5-2 with a 2.97 ERA (39.1IP, 35H, 15R/13ER) and on the year has limited left-handed batters to a .213 (32-150) average against while fanning 9.8 batters per 9.0IP.

A Bowling Green, OH native, Graham was selected in the 5th round of the 2007 June Draft out of the University of Miami (OH). Last year, in his first full professional season, he went 12-6 with a 2.26 ERA (147.1IP, 99H, 50R/37ER, 83BB, 138K, .189 avg) in 26 starts at Asheville in the South Atlantic League. His .189 average against led the South Atlantic League and was the 7th best in all of Minor League baseball. He also ranked 2nd in the South Atlantic League in ERA (2.26), T3rd in wins (12) and 4th in strikeouts (138). Following the 2008 season, Graham was named the 12th best prospect in the Colorado organization by Baseball America. After being drafted in 2007 he went 1-0 with a 2.37 ERA (19.0IP, 23H, 7R/5ER, 6BB, 18K) in 6 games/4 starts at Tri-City.

Betancourt made 29 appearances this year with the Indians going 1-2 with a 3.52 ERA (30.2IP, 25H, 15R/12ER, 15BB, 32K).

The Indians will make a roster move in the coming days to replace Betancourt on their active 25-man roster.

The Indians take it – the Indians give it away. The nice thing about this first game in Toronto, they at the end of the night were able to take it once and for all. And get a win out of it.

They were down to one strike before a loss in the 9th, only to then be saved by a huge hit by Asdrubal Cabrera, followed by hits by Victor Martinez and Shin-Soo Choo to give them a 6-4 lead entering the bottom of the inning. Enter Kerry Wood.

The Indians closer was able to get to two outs with runners one, and then with the game on the line, Jose Bautista was able to tie the game up with a two-run single that made it 6-6. Despair once again.

The nice thing though is on this night the bullpen (other than Wood) was able to do what they get paid to do – get outs when they need them. Rafael Betancourt pitched two scoreless extra innings, then after the team was able to pound out three runs in the 12th, Rafael Perez of course gave up a run, but then Jensen Lewis came in and got the final three outs to earn the save.

The 9-6 win came about with that three-run 12th that included a single by Josh Barfield that scored Mark DeRosa, and then Grady Sizemore doubled to right, scoring Barfield and Lusi Valbuena to give them the lead that would end up finally holding up.

Betancourt got the win to move to 1-1, and Lewis got his first save of the season. The game also featured Matt LaPorta’s first Major League homer, and the team pounded out 15 hits total. Brain Tallet, a former Indian, no-hit the Tribe for the first 6 innings until the team got to him with LaPorta tying the game at two with his first homer, and then the team scratched out another run to take a lead.

The win improves to 10-16 on the season, dropping the Blue Jays to 18-10. The team will play a 12:37pm game Tuesday before heading to Boston for three games to wrap up the road trip.

Another day, another bullpen disaster. Yes, welcome again to the Indians 2009 season, as today, it was Rafael Betancourt’s turn to implode in the Tribe bullpen, as he turned an 8th inning Indians 7-6 lead into a Tigers 9-7 victory. Thanks to Betancourt allowing a Curtis Granderson two-run homer, followed by a sack fly by Carlos Guillen to tack on an extra run in the latest Indians loss.

The setback was most frustrating as the Indians came back from a 4th inning 5-0 deficit, tied the game at 5, lost the lead a 6-5 in the 6th, got it back with two runs in the 7th, then Betancourt gave it right back as the team fell to 9-15 on the season, allowing the Tigers to escape to improve to 12-11.

This tune is getting old. The bullpen that has been the worst I have seen in awhile is never going to allow this team to get back to .500, much less be a true contender in the American League. Eric Wedge said it all in the post game when he said that they simply have to find a way to get past the 7th and 8th innings in order to get to Kerry Wood with a lead in the 9th.

Here’s an idea – put Wood in the game in the 8th. Why not at this point? What’s the worse that can happen? If Wood allows the lead to be given up, at least your best is the one that gave it up. I’m sick and tired of seeing the following bullpen throwers blow the lead – Betancourt, Rafael Perez, Jensen Lewis and Joe Smith (at least we won’t see him anytime soon as he’s on the DL).

About the only two arms that seem to be able to get anyone out are Vinnie Chulk and Tony Sipp. Problem is – that’s only two relievers, and you need a lot more than that in order to get the job done. On the offensive side, six players each had two hits, as the team put up 13 hits, 7 runs, and still found a way to lose.

Aaron Laffey, who had been the best starter on the team as of this point, wasn’t very good. He couldn’t get his slider down, and paid for it as he couldn’t get the ball over the plate. He lasted just 3.1 innings, gave up 5 runs on six hits with five walks and one strikeout. The big blow was a grand slam he allowed to Adam Everett that made it 5-0 in the 4th.

Cliff Lee will look to win the series on Sunday for the Tribe at 1pm.

With the month of April gone, the Indians looked to start May on a high note. Well, it wasn’t exactly the way they wanted it, but they got the job done on Friday night in Detroit, topping the Tigers 6-5. The game seemed similar to the one they lost Wednesday vs the Red Sox, as they had a 5-0 lead before Boston came storming back and eventually got the win.

This night, the Indians got that big 6th run in the 7th, and even though they led 6-0, they would need them all by the time the “bullpen from Hell” almost gave it all back. Detroit put up a five-spot in the 8th, as (who else) Rafael Perez and Jensen Lewis gave them almost enough runs to tie the game.

Thanks though to Rafael Betancourt and then Kerry Wood to close it out. Betancourt got the last out in the 8th, and then Wood recorded his 5th save of the year with three outs in the 9th to get the Tribe the win. They move to 9-14 on the season, and drop the Tigers to 11-11.

There were some offensive highlights that deserve mention:

Jhonny Peralta had a RBI single in the second, then hit his first homer in the 3rd to make it 5-0.
Mark DeRosa was 2-for-5 with two runs scored
David Dellucci (a sight for sore eyes), played his first game coming off the DL and was 4-for-5 with a run scored.

Overall the team put up 12 hits, and put up plenty of chances to score, but in the end were able to push across 6 runs to get the win. Another positive was the pitching of Carl Pavano, who got his first win as an Indian. He went 7.1 innings, allowing two runs on 5 hits. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out three.

While he’s had his moments, there’s no denying how bad this bullpen is. Why Eric Wedge keeps running Perez out there is beyond me, and he’s going to lose games the more he puts him out there. Let’s look at Perez – he wasn’t able to get an out, allowed two hits, two runs. He’s got an ERA of 13.50, and in 11 games has given up 15 earned runs. If this guys doesn’t get sent down to AAA soon, it’s a joke.

Okay, let’s stay positive here, the team got win one of the road trip out of the way, and game two tomorrow will see Aaron Laffey, the teams best starter so far this season, against Zach Miner at 3:40pm.

The month of April has come to a close for the Indians, and just like the past few seasons, the team has come out of the gates very slow.  With a mark of 8-14, the club is 4 games back in the AL Central, which could be worse if one of those teams like the Tigers or White Sox had gotten off to a better start.

The club was 5-7 at home, 3-7 on the road.  They ended the month losing 6 of their last 10, and were 4-6 vs the East, 4-5 against the Central, and 0-3 vs the West.

Here are some highlights and grades from the first month of the season:

Best Win: 4/18 at New York 22-4 – By far this was the teams shinning moment of the month.  They put up a crazy 14 runs in the second inning, and on the day scored 22 runs on 25 hits.  The sad part, they lost the next day after Carl Pavano’s best start could not be closed out by the bullpen.

Worst Loss: 4/29 vs Boston 6-5 - Fausto Carmona was dominating the Sox through five innings, but the wheels started to come off, and by the time Rafael Betancourt left the game, it was tied at 5.  Then in the 10th inning former Indian farmhand John Van Early hit a towering homer off of Jensen Lewis to win the game.  Sure would have been nice to win this game to start getting some momentum going for May.

Grades:

Offense – C-: The team was so inconsistant this month, it’s hard to give them anything better than this.  They had their moments, like the 22-run game vs the Yankees, and a couple of games vs Texas (8 runs), KC (8 runs), NYY (10 runs) and Boston (9 runs).  The problem right now is you just simply don’t know what your going to get.

Some of the key players on the team that were being counted on for offense did nothing.  Jhonny Peralta is lost at the plate (.211 this month, 0 homers, 6 RBI).  Kelly Shoppach is hitting just .231, 2 homers, 6 RBI, and one guy that was starting to show some life – Travis Hafner, .270 with 4 homers and 8 RBI, is on the DL for at least the next two weeks.

Starting Pitching – C: The starters had their major issues early, but did start to come on late, with Cliff Lee (1-3, 3.94) and Fausto Carmona (1-3, 6.28) pitching a bit better.  Lee threw 8 scoreless vs the Red Sox Monday, but the offense couldn’t score.  Who would have known that Aaron Laffey, who didn’t even start the season with the club, would be the best starter in April.  He’s 2-0 with a 2.41 ERA.  Carl Pavano (0-3, 9.50) and Anthony Reyes (1-0, 7.58) have done little to give much hope for the rest of 2009.

Bullpen – D: If it were not for Tony Sipp and Kerry Wood, this would have been an F for sure.  Sipp has been outstanding in 3 shots out of the pen, not allowing a hit and walking one and striking out 6.  Wood has 4 saves and an ERA of 6.75, but seems to have the look of the closer the team has needed.  Vinnie Chulk threw away a possible win in NY, but otherwise has been good in 6 outings, throwing an ERA of 1.93.

Jensen Lewis has allowed 5 homers in 12.1 innings, Rafael Betancourt has given up 11 hits and 6 earned runs in 10 innings, Joe Smith has been pretty bad, and Rafael Perez is awful, with an ERA of 11.70 allowing 13 earned runs in 10 innings.  If this unit does not get better, this team is going to struggle all of 2009.

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.

It was a wasted day in NYC, as the Indians had all the momentum going their way to walk out of the Big Apple with a 3-1 series win over the Yankees, and also some much needed lift going into a big 9-game homestand starting Tuesday night at Progressive Field.

Welcome to The Bullpen from Hell 2009.

It was that awful pen that allowed New York to push six runs across in the final two at-bats to turn a 3-1 Indians lead into an eventual 7-3 setback. Sure the offense only managed four hits all day, but two big homers (Choo and Garko) had the team winning entering the bottom of the 7th.

That’s when Eric Wedge gave the ball to Rafael Perez, who really should get a tune-up in the minors at this point. He gave up two hits and a run, then Jensen Lewis allowed a two-run homer to Jorge Posada to give New York the lead for good. Rafael Betancourt made sure the Indians had no chance of a comeback, as he gave up three runs in 1.1 innings to make it the final of 7-3.

Let’s see the ERA’s of our wonderful pen – Perez: 16.17. Lewis: 8.10. Betancourt: 6.14. Need I say more?

This team is never going to challenge anyone unless they get some help from their bullpen, and Eric Wedge and Mark Shapiro have to know that. Perez really needs to get his head checked at this point, as he can’t get anyone out, and Lewis has already allowed four homers in 7.2 innings pitched. Ouch.

Props to Carl Pavano, who did a nice job getting the Indians to the 3-1 lead in the 7th. He allowed just one run on four hits in 6 full innings. He walked one and struck out four, and has made some impressive strides since that first bombing he took in Texas the third game of the season.

So now the team will come home, unpack their bags for the first time in two and a half months, and settle in for a long homestand. Let’s be optomistic that the club can go 7-2 in the 9 games vs the Royals, Twins and Red Sox, and if that comes about, they will be 11-12 after 23 games. A bad homestand, and the club won’t even be the front page of the area sports papers.

The Indians could not protect an early lead and fell to the Rays 8-4 last night at Tampa Bay.  Jhonny Peralta’s 18th homer of the year, a two-run shot, helped stake the Tribe to a 3-1 lead in the third inning.  Indians starter Fausto Carmona could not find his control and gave up four runs on three hits with five walks in just four innings of work.  Carmona has now walked 47 batters versus 31 strikeouts on the season, and his record fell to 5-and-4. 

Reliever Rafael Betancourt allowed a pair of home runs, including a two-run blast by Evan Longoria.  The loss ended the Indians’ five-game winning streak over Tampa Bay this season.  The Indians and Rays conclude their three-game series this afternoon at 12:40.  Scott Kazmir (8-5, 2.89) goes for the Rays vs Jeremy Sowers (1-6, 5.82) for the Tribe.  Indians now at 49-63, 13.5 back of the Sox in the Central.