Off day..A Couple Off Days Actually.

Well I haven't posted in awhile. In fact it's been a week today since I last posted. I just started a new job and am still working my other. This will all be over next week and hopefully I'll get back to posting on a regular basis. Enough of that.

The Tribe have been a bit of a disappointment  recently, losing 4 out of their last 5. They blew a comeback opportunity when Carlos Santana decided he had played enough baseball for the night and ended the game on 3 straight strikes. They bounced back though and got the win the next night. In the final game of the series we saw some of the old Chris Perez. Recording his first blown save of the year in a 3-2 lose. We can't win them all and we showed that we weren't invincible. Adding to the blown comeback and save, we had a blowout. Not in our favor though, with the Twins absolutely dismantling Carmona for his second lopsided lose of the season after a couple solid outings. Still a lot of questions with Carmona; hopefully he and the Tribe pitching staff can answer some of those questions and get him straightened out soon, or we might see our "ace" get demoted to the number 2 spot. Finally to end the series the Tribe fought until the end but couldn't pull out the victory in the rain shortened series against the Twins. All things considered I don't think there is too much to worry about (other than Carrasco going down with an elbow issue).

The Tribe had an off week where they looked much different than the team who scraped and fought hard to win games. With some better starting pitching and clutch hits we can get back to our winning ways. The Indians are back home tomorrow after an off day today to start another series with the Royals and hopefully notch a couple more wins to their belt and keep themselves atop the standings. Finishing the first month strong and a couple of games above .500 will do wonders for the Tribe and keep them confidant. Which will be a major factor for these young guys. Let's get em boys!!! One game at a time.

Voting for the Madden cover ends this week and Peyton Hillis needs all the help he can get. As a Cleveland fan I know it would mean the world to me to see a Browns player on the cover. I'm sure many of you agree. Let's make it happen, let's make history! Here is the link to vote: http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/feature/madden2012cover

Well that's all. A longer post than I had originally planned but I had a lot to talk about. I'll try to keep up so this doesn't happen again. Thanks for the support and goodnight.

Tweet of the Day:

The Great White Buffalo. And A Tribe Win.

Peyton Hillis has reached the finals of the ESPN Madden Cover Voting. Beating out the favorite and reigning super bowl champ Aaron Rodgers. Hillis has some tough competition, going up against a former Madden cover alum, Mike Vick. A lot of people are questioning why Vick is even in the running considering his recent legal troubles and the fact he's already been on the cover. But somehow he's made it through every round and is now facing an upset machine in Hillis.

I don't really think Vick has a chance. For one you have all of Browns nation backing Hillis up, and that is not a small contingent. Add the fact that anyone who still hates Vick for his dog killing days are going to to be voting against him, and we may see the first white non-quarterback on the cover of Madden 12. Also the first Cleveland Brown to ever grace the cover of one of the most successful video game franchises in history. As a Cleveland sports fan I honestly don't give a hoot about the "Madden curse". Peyton deserves to be on that cover and it will be a great day in the Cleveland sports world when he wins the title. GO HILLIS!!!

My summary on the Tribe will be short tonight. The games is going late and I have work early. Never a good combo. It took 10 innings but the Tribe finally broke the Royals pitching staff. Grady has another great game, going 3 for 5 with another double. Carasco worked out of several jams but he was clearly losing it at the end of his start. Great situational base running put together by the Tribe in the 10th. Couldn't ask for a better game. Hopefully tomorrow us Tribe fans will be able to relax a little more than tonight.

Well that's all for tonight. Great win for the Tribe which gives them the tie with Colorado for the best record in baseball and a two game lead in the Central. I can sleep easy tonight. GO TRIBE!!!

Tweet of the Day:

The Tribe Does Some Spring Cleaning Today. Sweep The O's.

Well there you have it. Another day, another Tribe W. There wasn't much to complain about today. Carmona notched his first win of the young season, going for 7 innings and striking out 5. He put himself into a lot of jams today but worked out of all but one unblemished. Another quality start from an Indians starter.

Scoring early has been the key for the Indians success this year. Scoring 3 runs in the first four innings was key and kept Carmona pitching with the lead. Somehow someway the Tribe have figured out the winning formula in just the first 15 games this season. Quality starts combined with solid defense and the offense to back it up.

Grady Sizemore. What can you say about this guy. He hadn't played in a major league game in nearly a year and he didn't skip a beat. Going deep in his second at bat with an 0-2 count. Then in his third at-bat he doubles; he might have had some rust but it didn't take long for him to shake it off. There wasn't much going on in the field for Sizemore, just one fly ball. I can't wait to see him start laying out for balls again. Welcome back Grady, we missed you.

While in no way do I think Santana is out of his slump, but that homer in the second was a good sign. He went hitless in his last 3 at bats. The big rip had to have boosted Santana's confidence, but he is still just 1 for his last 28 at-bats. It's only a matter of time before we see the true potential that he possesses.

It's looking like Travis Hafner is for real this year. He homered again today and had a solid single, which raised his batting average to .354. A hot start for Hafner is just what he and the Tribe need. It's looking like we now have a legitimate lineup now with guys 1 through 9 contributing. So far this year we are looking offensively competent. Something that wasn't the case all of last year.

Well that'll do it for today. The Indians are now 11-4 heading into the series against the Royals, which surprisingly should be a very interesting series. Kansas City is currently down 2 heading into the bottom of the 7th with Seattle. If they lose the Indians will be in sole possession of first place in the A.L. Central. Not too shabby. GO TRIBE!!

Tweet of the Day:

Chance Of A Win In The Forecast For The Tribe? I Think So.

O-Cab gets to second on the wild throw by the O's third baseman then scores on the Travis Buck single. Maybe Buck is worth another look. We'll see what he can do the rest of the day. Grady doubles to right in the 5th, continues to impress on his first day back for the Tribe. Choo with a deep ball to center but Pie makes a flailing catch to end the inning. Carmona gets another double play and works out of a jam in the 5th. Solid pitching so far from the only pitcher on the Tribe without a win. PRONK. Hafner gets a solo shot to right field. Gotta love and respect the power of
3.the Tribe this year, unexpected but accepted. The chances of Carmona getting the win is looking better and better each inning while the Tribe continue to pour on the runs. Indians 4 Orioles 1 at the end of 6 in Cleveland. GO TRIBE!!!

Check back at the end of the game for more.

Grady Is Back.

Finally get to watch a game for once. Carmona is pitching his lights out right now. Through 3 innings he has 3 strikeouts and mostly groundouts. Santana homers in the second to put the Indians up 1-0! Good to see a hit finally from him..it's been too long. Grady is back!!!! I questioned Acta for putting him at the lead-off spot. I should have known that was wrong. It's good to have you back Grady, keep up the good work. Carmona is getting himself in a bit of trouble right now. The Orioles finally break him and grab a run off of the double play. Indians 2 Orioles 1. Carmona gets Guerrero to strike out, that's now 4 in the game. So far so good for the Tribe. Looks to be another good game.

Check back in the 6th for more updates and analysis.

This Can't Be Real...Or Can It?

Wow. Indians win their second straight against the Baltimore Orioles. That alone is not too impressive. What's impressive is the 10-4 record they hold this year. Who's to say this isn't just some early season excitement and young players exceeding expectations? No, this is more than that. This is Tribe baseball like I remember it. Growing up during the 90s I guess you could say I was spoiled. With teams that headlined Manny, Thome, the Alomar Brothers, Omar, and don't even get me started about their pitching! Those were the Indians I remember, on any given night it was almost expected that the Tribe was going to win. Guaranteed. In the late 1990s the Indians were UNSTOPPABLE. Well..almost. This years team, though early in the season still, is giving me those same feelings. We may not have the household names like we did back in the day, but we're just getting started.

With another win tonight the Tribe keep rolling. Keep fighting. Never giving up. Winning attitude. It's all there. Veteran leadership, young talent, guys going in to every game trying to prove what they have and earn their spot on the big stage. Although some of the guys who have been performing extremely well struggled tonight (Brantly and Asdrubal Cabrera) Hafner continued to look every bit like the old Pronk we used to know. Santana's batting woes continued tonight. I hope for the Indians sake and for the fans that this is nothing to worry about and once he settles in will start hitting on a regular basis. Don't know how long Travis Buck will continue to play for the Indians but he certainly made the most out of what playing time he got tonight, going 3 for 4 with a double and an RBI. Buck will presumably be moved out soon to make room for Sizemore who is apparently game ready and just waiting to hear the word.

With another dominating pitching performance from one of our "young guns", Josh Tomlin notched another victory to his belt. The Tribe now have two starting pitchers with 3 wins, and we're just a little over halfway through the month of April. I think all the doubters are beginning to doubt themselves. The Tribe are for real.

With a delayed start, and on and off rain throughout the day, the attendance dropped back down. Just a little over 10,000 for tonights game. So maybe it was just the hot dogs that brought in fans on Friday night, but it's only a matter of time before the rest of the fans wake up and realize that there is baseball once again in Cleveland. GO TRIBE!!!

That's all for tonight. Sorry for the tardiness on the post. Worked all day and got to chill with a good friend for most of the night. I'll be better tomorrow. I promise.

UPDATE: Got on Twitter this morning to find out Grady will be starting in his center field position and batting lead-off!!! I'm kinda shocked about all this news. Not that Grady is finally making it back from surgery that has led to him being out for almost a year, no, it's the fact that Travis Buck, who everyone had assumed would be shipped out to some minor league ball club is in the starting lineup today. Yes you heard right. Travis Buck will be in the lineup today starting in LF and batting 7th. I'm seriously baffled by this. It came out of left field (pun intended). Why bench one of the better hitters on the team in Brantly, and honestly a better hitter too. Travis buck had 3 hits last night. Big deal? Not really. He'll struggle today and things will be back in order by Monday.

Tweet of the Day:

For some reason this tweet is super small. When I tried changing the size it only came up as text. I'll try to work is out.

Dollar Dog Night..Nuff Said.

Just got outta work..got a chance to listen to a bit on my break but that's it. Bummer. Got a text from my brother that simply said "Matt LaPorta!!!!!". From that text alone I knew things were going good. From what I heard on the radio after the game, Masterson pitched a gem. Going 3-0 in his first three starts is very impressive and hopefully a sign of good things to come for the young right-hander. Michael Brantly continues to impress me at the lead-off spot and it will be fun to see him stay at that position when Grady comes back. Another thing I'd like to point out is the attendance for tonights game. Just like I predicted in my earlier post, fans came pouring in for those hot dogs (and maybe to see the Tribe play some awesome baseball). According to ESPN.com, The Prog pulled in a little over 16,000 fans. That's quite an improvement over the last couple games played at home for the Tribe, with just over 19,000 fans combined in the two games following opening day. Tomorrow will be the real test to see if it just wasn't some fluke because of dollar dog night.

With a 1:05 start time tomorrow and the weather supposed to be bad (52 degrees and stormy) I wouldn't be surprised to see a delay. For the Tribe on the mound will be Josh Tomlin (2-0, 2.63 ERA) going up against Jeremy Guthrie (1-1, 0.64 ERA) in what should be another good match-up. Tomlin has been strong for the Indians this year and if the bats continue like they did tonight we'll have no problem notching the second win of the series.

Another prediction that was really just a foolish assumption, was the lose 2 win 8 trend that the Indians have started. With the win tonight they might have just started another 8 game win streak. Obviously this is just a ridiculous trend that I'm sure will end soon; but for the time being it's nothing I can't hope for. The Tribe are 9-4 and in first place in the Central division. Hopefully the Tribes winning ways persist and this isn't just some fools gold. GO TRIBE!!

P.S. Don't forget to vote on the poll of the week!!

Tweet of the Day:

Future star of the Cavs?! Next big thing for the Browns?!?! Probably not.

Quick tidbit of the day: Peyton Hillis is supposedly leading Aaron Rodgers in the Madden Cover Voting.

With the NFL draft just two weeks away now, the speculation is building as to who the Browns will select with the 6th pick in the draft. Just listing to local radio shows tells me that the Browns are leaning towards selecting a wide receiver, either A.J. Green out of Georgia or Julio Jones from Alabama. Didn't get to see much of either play but i'd chose Jones purely based on the great football name. I think offense is the way to go for the Browns. Their D was solid last year and with the other picks they have I'm sure they'll pick up a linebacker or defensive end. With second year QB Colt McCoy leading the way he'll need a quality go to guy to throw to. Either way having the 6th pick we'll help us get some much needed talent.

On to the Cavs. I was thinking yesterday that it doesn't really matter to me what pick the Cavs get or even who they get. I've seen too little of Kyrie Irving to know what his full potential is but he seems explosive. Personally I think he is more explosive and stronger than John Wall, but at the same time is not that great a shooter. I'd like to see the Cavs pick up someone like a Derrick Williams type player. Not necessarily Williams though. Harrison Barnes would be my pick over Williams, but I don't really like any of the players in the draft this year which is why i don't particularly care. There is not a Lebron James or Derrick Rose or a Blake Griffin caliber player in this draft and really I don't think any of the players would make an immediate impact for the Cavs. Alot of fans from Ohio would like to see Jared Sullinger but I honestly thought he was overrated and too small and too slow to be a major threat at the higher level.

Now some baseball? Sure!! Today I got my first chance to get outside and play some catch!! It was not a baseball however (sad). In preparation for the upcoming church league softball season my girlfriend and I threw around a softball for about 20-25 minutes. It was fun, and funny. The lady friend was a little rusty but i think she has some real potential. A dark horse perhaps on my team? A man can dream can't he. It was hopefully the first of many opportunities I will get to bond with my girl on a nice day throwing around the baseba...softball.

Indians had a much needed off day today. Hopefully they used it wisely and decided to get their heads straight for this home-stand against the Orioles. First dollar dog night of the season and with our recent winning ways i hope The Prog can pull in some fans and at least make it look like we care about our team (even if it's only to eat some delicious sugardale hotdogs!). After losing back to back games against the Angels; hopefully the Tribe and pull it together and get on another winning tear.

Well that's all for tonight. I probably won't post anything again until late tomorrow so be sure to check back then. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter if you haven't already done so and I'll try and see if I can make the comments available to anyone and not just members. Would really like to see some feedback and not have to force people to make an account. That's asking for too much.

Peace.

Some thoughts on the Indians season so far..

It's an early season so far for the tribe, just 12 games in, but I'm starting to see what we have as a team. So far Choo and Santana have disappointed with their bats, with .205 and  .200 batting averages. It's still a young season and I expect Choo to pick it up like he does every year, Santana on the other hand is a bit of a worry. He is hitless in the past 5 games going 0 for 18 during that stretch. Through the first couple games he looked like the Santana we saw mid-season last year before he had that season ending injury. He was hitting the ball hard and making good contact. Over the last five games it seems like he is trying too hard; Going 0 for 6 in the last two games is understandable since he faced two very good pitchers, but in the last two games against Seattle and the first game against LA he shouldn't have had a problem facing sub-par pitching. At least he's doing a fine job behind the plate or we would have some major problems here.

On the flip side are two surprises for me this year. The first is the Tribe's lead-off hitter, Michael Brantly. In 45 at bats he carries a .311 batting average with 6 RBI. Not too shabby for a young lead-off hitter early in the season. Whether or not he keeps that spot in the lineup will depend on what manager Manny Acta wants to do when Grady Sizemore comes back from injury (Which could be very soon). The second surprise this year is Asdrubal Cabrera. Not only has he shown some power, 4 homers, but has been a consistent hitter in the clutch. Combine that with his impressive fielding so far (Minus that awful play last night) and you have a legitimate shortstop. Still early but I think this could be a breakout year for him.

Final thought: The Tribe lost their first two then won eight in a row and followed that up with two consecutive loses. They head back home today and play the Orioles tomorrow, get ready to see some more winning from the Indians. If this trend of lose two win eight continues, we'll have a good season. In no way do i actually believe this will happen, it's still wouldn't hurt to wish it would.

Tweet of the Day:

Update: Cavs win..Indians lose.

The Indians took it into 12 innings but couldn't pull out the win. With Tony Sipp having to go two innings because neither team could decide who wanted to win, and Chris Perez only working his limit (1 inning) Manny Acta was forced to dig deep and pull Chad Durbin out of the bullpen. Let's just say things didn't go well. Poor pitching=loses. The Tribe couldn't manufacture runs tonight like they've done so well this season and the result was not surprisingly a lose. Indians head back home to face the Orioles in what should be a good series. GO TRIBE!

Cavs finish season strong. Props. Conventional wisdom says that the Cavs should have tanked their season in order to have a better chance to secure that coveted #1 pick in the upcoming draft. Byron Scott says, "fuck it let's win some damn games". Alright well he didn't actually say that (not to my knowledge at least) but you know he was thinking it when these last 10 or so games were played. When you lose a record 26 games straight, you want to win. You can't tell me that every single one of the Cavs players (Luke Harangody, Semih Erden, and Baron Davis excluded) did not want to win and weren't going to give it all they got to win these last few games. When you experience such an up and down season like the Cavs did, you can't blame them for not tanking and doing what they could to give these great fans something to cheer for.

There is always next year...

Joe Tait's last game..Indians looking to bounce back.

So far so..good? Cavs off to a slow start but have picked it up and are within 3 at the half. Joe Tait is doing the play by play for what will be his last game as the announcer for the Cavs, and the least they could do is put up a fight and make it fun for Joe.

Listening to basketball never felt so good. (Side note: Indians tied going into ninth and by the time i post this will hopefully pull out the win) Joe Tait has made listening to the Cavs easy and often times better than actually watching them live or on TV. This season has been rough for the Cavs and to add insult to injury Tait has been out for most of the season due to illness. While his fill-in (can't remember his name nor do i even care) has done a decent job, he is no where near the caliber broadcaster that Tait is. There is just no way anyone will be able to fill the large shoes of Joe Tait.

Tait lives about 10 miles from my home in Lafayette, Ohio. I worked at a gas station for two years that is about a mile away from his home. He frequently stopped by to buy lottery tickets and i swear the man never said more than 4 or 5 words. But when he did, i got chills down my spine. From his catch phrases to his signature sign-off, Tait will be missed greatly. All the best to the hall of fame broadcaster.

Now to the Indians. This year us Tribe fans have been spoiled by the great play of these scrappy Indians. Before this season i had never heard of Vinnie Pestano or Jack Hanahan, I know who they are now! In the past two games Pestano has come on to pitch two scoreless innings of relief and has showed that he could be a lifesaver for the Indians this season. Hanahan has been a solid 3rd baseman so far defensively and has shown that he isn't completely worthless at the bat. Good signs.

Starting pitching is going to be an issue all year. During our 8 game winning streak our starting pitching was phenomenal, while i don't think this can go on all season it's a good sign to see some early success. It remains to be seen whether they'll be able to keep it up once mid season comes around and we start seeing the best of the best.

THE BULLPEN!!! This will most likely be the strong point and most solid group for the Tribe this season. With one of the best closers in the league last season, Chris Perez, and our set-up guy Tony Sipp has continued to be consistent this year. Pair those two with the aforementioned Vinnie Pestano and we have quite a deadly combination. Also cannot leave out Rafael Perez who has also shown some guts early this year as well.

If we can keep up the solid and timely hitting to back up what should be shaky starting pitching, the Indians could surprise some people and make a late run at the playoffs.

Well that's all for now. First post. Gonna try and do this on a daily basis or weekly basis. Depends on how well the Indians do. While this was primarily a Cavs and Tribe post I'll try to be more diverse and expand to other things like the NBA Playoffs.

Tweet of the Day:

Peace!