Indians Confidential

Let’s forget about the lack of offense for a moment.  We have plenty of time to get to that.  Let’s just say that for one night, Rafael Betancourt picked a bad time to throw a fastball away that just wasn’t away enough.  And with that, three runs later after the Mariners Adrian Beltre took that fastball out of the park, the Indians are now in the midst of a three-game losing streak after their latest 7-2 home setback at Progressive Field.

The offense is just a whole other animal right now.  No one on this club is coming up with any sort of big hit at anytime, and while Eric Wedge is preaching that it’s up to each individual player to get it right, the team is just suffering badly at the plate, wasting night after night of solid starts by pitchers who have to be getting frustrated.

Look at the averages, and it’s not hard to figure out why the team is not winning games on a consistent level right now.  Looking down the one through nine lineup after the game, five of the players were batting under .250, with Asdrubal Cabrera, Casey Blake and Andy Marte batting .215, .208 and .077.  Bottom line is if these players keep up their current pace, changes will have to be made.

Back to the night, the Indians had a shot early to get to Mariners starter Carlos Silva, but they let him off the hook as they were able to push across one run, but a Jhonny Peralta double play killed any early momentum.  A Cabrera error in the 3rd opened the door for Seattle as a Jose Vidro double tied the game with two outs.

Seattle went up 2-1 in the 5th when another Vidro double pushed a run across to give the M’s the lead.  The Indians bats were as quiet as field mice, and it was not until the 8th that they finally were able to get the tying run across.  It came after Grady Sizemore, who was 2-for-4 in his first game back in the lineup after missing two games, walked, went to third on a David Dellucci single, then scored on a Travis Hafner ground out.

That inning again though, the team failed to take advantage of Dellucci being at second with one out, as Victor Martinez popped out, and Peralta struck out, allowing the inning to end 2-2.  It was then in the 9th when the flood gates opened, and the M’s scored five times to put the game away.

Wednesday Cliff Lee will look to start 5-0, as he will take on Jarrod Washburn 1-3 at 7:05.  The Indians are now 12-15, just 6-9 at home, and are 3 back of the White Sox in the Central.

On a rather warm spring night at Progressive Field, the Indians used a little long ball to earn their fourth straight win, a hard fought 6-4 victory over the rival New York Yankees.  It was not as easy as it sounds, as Jason Giambi took Indians starter Paul Byrd deep not once, but twice, and built a 3-1 lead for the Yankees till the Indians did a little long ball flexing of their own in the 5th.

It was in that 5th inning that Jhonny Peralta took advantage of an Andy Pettitte pitch, putting it in the bleachers for a three-run shot that gave the Indians a 4-3 lead.  Then Franklin Gutierrez took Pettitte deep in the next at-bat, giving the Indians a 5-3 lead they wouldn’t lose.  Jamey Carroll added a big insurance run in the 6th after the Yankees made it 5-4 to put the Tribe back up by two at 6-4.

Byrd went 5.2 innings, allowing four runs on six hits.  He didn’t walk a batter, nor record a strikeout, but did enough despite allowing three homers to earn his first win of the season.  The relief staff did a nice job as well, as Rafael Perez went 2.1 innings, not allowing a hit, and then Rafel Betancourt pitched a scoreless ninth, earning his second save.

The win puts the Tribe now at 11-12, and while things didn’t go perfect, they have played better over the past four days, and appear to be well on their way to being the team people thought they were when the 2008 season began.

Lots of stories today on the re-signing of a new deal for Rafael Betancourt, here are some of the bigger ones:

My good pal Chris Assenheimer’s story at the Chronicle - in which he makes a good point that the Tribe has not had an arbitration hearing since 1991:

One down, Casey Blake to go: Indians re-sign Rafael Betancourt, avoid arbitration again

Here’s Sheldon Ocker’s piece in the ABJ about Betancourt:

Indians relieved to sign reliever

And 3rd another good friend, Andy Call, from the Canton Repository, and his story on Rafael:

Betancourt takes roundabout route to new contract

After just wrapping up the last article on it, the Indians have sent out the official presser on relief pitcher Rafael Betancourt inking a new deal, two years with the second being a club option.  The signing means now that we’re all just holding our breath for Casey Blake to get his deal done and then we’ll all be one big happy family.  Here’s the press release from the Indians on Rafael:

CLEVELAND, OH — The Cleveland Indians today announced the club has signed RHP RAFAEL BETANCOURT to a two-year contract thru the 2009 season with a club option for 2010.

Rafael, 32, was one of the most dominant relievers in baseball in 2007, posting a record of  5-1 w/3 saves and a 1.47 ERA in 68 relief appearances (79.1IP, 51H, 13ER, 9BB, 80K).  He posted 31 holds in front of closer Joe Borowski, tied for first among AL relievers while his 1.47 ERA was the 2nd lowest relief and his .183 average against the 4th lowest mark. He also ranked among the AL’s relievers in inherited runners % (9.1%, 2nd best), runners per 9.0IP (6.8, 2nd), strikeouts (80, 5th) and innings (4th, 79.1).  Betancourt posted scoreless outings in 55 of his 68 appearances as he did not allow more than 1ER in any of his outings and 6 of his 7 post-season outings were scoreless.

Betancourt owns a career Major League record of 19-16 with 12 saves and a 2.80ERA in 273 games (308.1IP, 258H, 96ER, 68BB, 313K) since 2003 after signing a minor league free agent contract with Cleveland prior to the 2003 season.  He has posted an ERA under 4.00 in each of his 5 big league seasons with the Indians.  He began his career as an infielder in the Boston Red Sox organization prior to being converted to a pitcher.   Betancourt will make an annual donation to Cleveland Indians Charities throughout the life of the contract.

Also - the team sent out another presser right after that announcing that extended non-roster invitations to a bunch of players for Spring Training.  Here they are:

LOFGREN, Chuck, LHP
MARTIN, JD, RHP
STEVENS, Jeffrey, RHP              
GIMENEZ, Chris, CA
WALLACE, David, CA
BROWN, Jordan, INF
MILLS, Beau, INF
CROWE, Trevor, OF      

Some sources are reporting today that both Casey Blake and Rafel Betancourt are close to signing their deals to avoid going to arbitration.  Casey is set to get a 1-year deal, while Rafael will get a couple years on his deal.

The Winter Press tour continues, and there are a couple stories out today on some various players.  Here is on on Jake Westbrook from some paper in New Philadelphia:

Westbrook optimistic about’08 season

And here is another Westbrook piece in a Mansfield paper, where the team made a stop yesterday as well:

Westbrook, Indians stop in Mansfield on winter tour

And a third story on a couple of topics from MLB.com

Notes: Indians’ Winter Caravan rolls on  

As the Indians kicked off their 2008 Winter Press Tour on Monday, one tidbit of news is that the team and relief pitcher Rafael Betancourt remain in talks about him signing a long-term deal. Betancourt said he would know in a few days if he is going to sign the Tribe’s offer. He is seeking $2.5 million through arbitration, while the team is offering $1.75 million. Last season with bonuses he made $860,000.  More than likely the two sides will meet in the middle.  Betancourt was well worth the cash last season, going 5-1 with a 1.47 ERA in 68 games.  He is one player the team should look to take care of.