Out of his Misery

Looks like Hafner is finally headed to the DL. Apparently he has had some shoulder problems that a cortizone shot wasn't able to heal. Since he's not the only weak link in the Indians miserable batting order, this is going to be a good thing for both him and the team. They're hitting a putrid .236 at the plate. That's good enough for worst in baseball. I can't imagine it's too far off of the major league record for worst ever.

The real sad part of this is that the pitching is lights out. From CC in the 1 spot to Laffey in the 5. They've been solid. Especially in the last month. It is a shame that it's all being wasted because they can't get anybody on base.

I think the semifinals of the NBA thing are over. If the Celtics won tonight it's goign to be the Lakers and Celtics in the Finals. I'm sure I won't be tuning in. But this matchup reminds me of the wonderful days of Lakers vs. Celtics on the Sega Genesis. Back in the day when the NBA was watchable. That was such a great game. Such epic battles. Oh the memories.

Back to the Indians. I think they've won 3 games in the last 3 weeks. That includes a 5-4 victory over the Royals tonight. And they're still within earshot of the AL Central leading Sox. Who I think are leading by default. The AL Central, which was supposed to be the best division in baseball, is probably the worst. The Indians and Tigers were supposed to be title contenders. The Tigers, and their $137,290,196 payroll, are 9 games under .500. That's sick. The Indians just suck. Their $78 million payroll is meager in comparison.

Speaking of payrolls, the Yanks are in the top spot, $207,108,489, and bringing up the rear is the Marlins, no surprise there, at just over $22.5 mil. I would also like to add the A-Rod and Giambi are both making more than the entire Marlins roster. Read that again. A-Rod is making $28 mil this year. That is over $4 mil more than the ENTIRE MARLINS ROSTER COMBINED!!!!!

That makes me sick.

I don't even want to get started on Giambi. All I'm going to say is that he's getting paid over $23 mil and he's not even hitting .250 with 27 RBIs. Hope he's enjoying himself.

I guess it's tough to hit when you're off the juice.

The LeBrons of Cleveland Blow It Again

The Cavs lost game 7 to the Celtics today. LeBron showed up, put up about 40 points, but threw up a miserable layup try with about 20 seconds to go to seal the deal for the Celtics. Their offensive strategy of everybody standing and hope LeBron has a good game is only going to take them so far. About this far.

Whatever. It's just another Cleveland sports team getting close, but not nearly close enough. I'm actually pretty happy, now I don't have to suffer watching anymore NBA this year. Watching them stand, shoot and miss, and complain after every single fucking play no matter what happens is just painful to watch. I saw more complaining after foul calls in the last 3 games than I think I have seen in the last 10 years of college ball. It's just painful to watch.

And what warrants an "Intentional Foul"??? I saw PJ Brown put his arms around guys more times than you'd see on North Halsted. How the league warrants that not being 2 shots and the ball is WAYYY beyond my brain capacity. All it does is slow the game down to a snail's pace and make it that much more unwatchable.

Not to mention the Boston crowd screaming bullshit after every single call just got old. I'm pretty happy my 6 year old wasn't watching, let alone being at the game! I'm so tired of Boston and their fans.

Enough about that. More good news out of Cleveland. The Reds completed a sweep of the Indians today. Looks like Hafner is more of a mental case than we thought. He only got 2 plate appearances, an RBI base hit on Friday and a walk today. We really need him to get back into the groove. I see that he's raised the average up to .228, but he needs to hit at least .300 the rest of the way to help this team. The pitching has been solid, other than the 3 run jack Kobaishi gave up to Dunn in the 9th on Satruday. The starting pitching has been lights out. We have got to get some hitting!!

And Bill Belichick is still denying any wrong doing in the whole spygate thing. I honestly can't wait for this whole thing to disappear. Apparently now he is saying that he stretched the rules to make it alright to videotape the opposite sideline looking to pick off signs. What a dirtbag.

Closing Time????

We've been able to figure out a couple of things about the Indians in this early season.

1. CC Sabathia thought that since he won the Cy Young last season, batters were going to just lie down at the plate and "fear the Cy Young Winner." Well, this certainly hasn't happened, not even close. Actually, he's having more problems finding the plate than anything else. So far he's 0-2, his only no-decision came when he gave up 7 runs to the White Sox opening day when the Indians were up 7-0. ERA is up to 11.57. His cupcake intake must be through the roof too.

2. Fausto Carmona, Cy Young contended in 07, walked 8 batters in 3.1 innings the other night. The only performance that was worse in the history of the Indians was when Clarence Wright walked 8 in 2.2 innings, in '03. If you don't remember Clarence Wright there's probably a good reason for that, it was 1903 when he walked 8!!! Fausto almost broke a 105 year old record!!!!

3. Borowski is finally on the DL. Hopefully he'll not earn his closer job back when he gets healthy. It's just painful watching this guy pitch. Doesn't matter if they're up 1 run, 3 runs, 6 runs... He always seems to make things interesting. Best case was for him to get hurt, the Indians are forced into putting somebody else in that role and Borowski can figure out his problems in therapy.

4. Hafner still can't see the ball. He's got 14 Ks and 14 hits. He has to be making more contact than this. In the couple of games that I've seen, he's not swinging at strikes. He's swinging at 2-0 curveballs down in the zone. He's swinging at a fastball out of the zone on 3-1 and then watches a fastball on the inside part of the plate go by for strike 3. This just isn't the Travis Hafner of 2 years ago. He was feared, he is not now. Looks to me like he's putting too much pressure on himself, trying to hit the bases empty grand slam everytime he's at the plate. He's guessing too much. He needs to get back to whta he did in the past. See the ball, hit the ball. Get back to the basics.

5. We need Victor in the lineup. Peralta just isn't getting the job done hitting behind Hafner.

6. We need some help in the outfield. I think Gutierrez will be good, eventually, but they need another big bat out there. I don't think Delucci and Michaels are going to get the job done. Gutierrez is good hitting in the 9 spot, but they need another bat for the middle of the lineup.

7.Garko is hitting the ball pretty hard. This is very important!

8. Grady Sizemore is the best defensive CF in baseball.

9. The bullpen is horrible. Can't blame Borowski for the loss last night. 2 nights in a row the bullpen blew wins against the Red Sox. And a quick look at the standings puts the Indians at 5-9. For a team many picked to go to the Series, this is not a good start.

The season is still young, plenty of time to turn things around. Maybe you can blame the cold weather?? Who knows, excuses are not what they need right now. Good baseball is what they need right now.

Yeah, I've been pretty lazy

Well, maybe not lazy, I have been ridiculous busy. I'm trying to balance 2 jobs and dealing with health insurance problems. I think I've spent more time in the last month trying to get my health insurance issues resolved than actually finding a new job. Absolutely miserable.

World B. Free was one of the great Cleveland Cavs. One of my earliest memories was watching him at the old Richfield Coliseum. He was coming down the court on a fast break, no defense in front of him. He pulled up at the 3 point line and drained the 3. The Coliseum went nuts.

But, I've missed quite a few things. One of those things I haven't missed it a Detroit Tigers win. I guess a $140 million payroll gets you 0-7. I'm sure they're going to get things turned around, they're too good to keep losing, but that's just horrible.

The NCAA season ended with a bang. Actually a 3 pointed that's going to go down in history as one of the biggest clutch shots ever. What a great final game, as long as you weren't a Memphis fan. Back and forth, lots of athleticism, great basketball, just a great game. Considering the Saturday night games, the Championship sure made up for it.

One Shining Moment was great! As usual.

UNC being down 40-12 or whatever it was. Coming back and getting it down to 4 points, and then losing by 20. What an emotional roller coaster for Carolina fans??

My fantasy baseball team had possibly the worst week in the 9 year history of the Big 10 Units. I had 6 starts and between them they could not even muster up 25 combined points.

CC Sabathia sure doesnt' look like a Cy Young winner? He's been terrible early this season. Along with pretty much everybody else on the Indians. Hafner has more Ks than hits. Peralta is terrible. Victor is banged up. The Outfield is in shambles. Delucci is terrible. Michaels is worse. Carmona has been the lone bright spot. And I guess Westbrook put together a real nice start last night. They're 4-5. With the team they have, there is no way they should be 4-5. And Borowski is awful. They're going to need to find a new solution for the back end of the pen.

And a final note, I had to fax 5 pages to my new employer. I went to FedEx Kinko's. The total bill was $9.67. Yes, that's right, $9.67 for faxing 5 pages. 5 fucking pages, almost $10. I will never set foot in a FedEx Kinko's again.

Indians Sign Betancourt

The Indians signed Rafael Betancourt to a 2 year contract today. Now if they can just find a closer that doesn't give up 3 baserunners each appearance, they should be in good shape. Betancourt tied for last seasons lead in holds and only allowed 3 of 33 inherited runners to score.

Right now they're starting rotation should be Sabathia, Carmona, Byrd and his HGH, Westbrook, and I imagine Cliff Lee. I'd be willing to put that rotation up against just about anybody in baseball, except for the playoffs. Solid top to bottom.

The AL Central is going to be really competitive this season. The Tribe can pitch and they should hit the ball hard too. Hopefully Hafner can get over what happened last season, I'm still convinced he couldn't see the ball in the playoffs, not to mention he killed my fantasy team last season. How about some starts over at first, I hate putting him in at a utility position each week. Sizemore is up for another good season, Victor hits, Garko came on late in the season. They'll be a fun team to watch play!

Anyhow, I'm really looking forward to this season, not only because of the '08 Indians, but I'm really getting sick of this cold weather. It's miserable in Chicago!

Pitchers and catchers report in 22 days!