While We’re Waiting…Indians win fifth in a row, and Manny hangs it up
April 9, 2011On Joe Tait Appreciation Night, and how much I’ll miss the guy
April 9, 2011Don’t look now Indians’ fans, but that magic number of 155 is as good or better than every team in the MLB except for one.
Twenty-six other teams, including the Yankees, Red Sox, Giants, White Sox and Twins, are in their respective clubhouses this morning desperately trying to reshuffle their line-up cards in an attempt to catch the AL Central leading Indians. Tall order.
There is only one team with a more manageable magic number than the Indians right now, and that’s the Texas Rangers sitting at 153. The Phillies and Reds are the only other two teams tied with Manny Acta and his Wahoo Baseball playing Indians at 155, and everybody else is directly in the rear-view as mentioned.
Which has all led me to developing a full-blown case of Tribe Fever after only seven games. I knew I had it for sure when I woke up wondering what the Indians Magic Number was this morning after watching them hang 10 on Seattle in the fourth last night. A tell tale sign of the ailment by the way, in case you’re wondering. Shouts out to MagicNumber.com for saving me from breaking out my TI-36 calculator too by the way in an attempt to answer that question myself. [Note: the magic number is calculated by taking the number of games yet to be played, add one, then subtract the number of games ahead in the loss column of the standings from the closest opponent.]
Thing is, last night’s 12-3 blow-out of the Mariners put me over the top. I first began to demonstrate symptoms of Tribe Fever when I heard Tom Hamilton exclaim “how about that!” at the conclusion of a wild play to end the ninth inning with a win on Thursday, and it’s only gotten worse since then.
By worse I mean my sinus’ are clogged, I’m dreaming of the playoffs, head’s killing me, I’m internally debating whether Fausto has a better chance to win the Cy Young or Santana the MVP award, breaking out into cold sweats in between at bats, and I’m unreasonably hopeful about taking in an exciting summer of baseball from that home-run bar in the outfield down at Progressive Field.
I’m also torn between who I’m most encouraged by, the top-end of the Indians pitching rotation or the batter formerly known as Pronk. My first instinct is to say the two young pitchers, but then I kinda want to say Pronk. Right, I already told you that, I’m torn.
On opening day, I thought it was more than just a loss for Fausto when he gave up nearly 10 ER on 11 hits. I was worried that outing would be demoralizing, and have a carry-over effect this season. But credit to him, and credit to pitching coach Tim Belcher I guess, because he came back out against the Red Sox hanging zeros on the board like the bug-spitting, Yankee killer, we had so much hope for not too long ago. He pitched brilliantly, and I think that helped Carrasco bounce back last night too.
The dozen runs helped the kid to be sure as well last night, but Carlos Carrasco still pitched both agressively and effectively. He ate up six innings, helped the bullpen get right for this early west-coast trip, and only gave up one run on four hits. More importantly though, like Carmona, he went from pitching BP in his first outing (7 runs on 10 hits) to bouncing back strong and giving his team a chance to win. If he and Fausto can keep doing that, they will win more than we thought they would.
But the guy who can really help turn Tribe Fever from a little joke about early season magic numbers to a full-blown raging epidemic in this town is Travis Hafner. I’m not even talking about Travis Hafner the masher from before he signed his huge contract extension, got married, and fell off the planet either. Just thisTravis Hafner guy we saw last night (2 for 5, HR, 4 RBI) and have seen so far this season: 375 avg (9 for 24) with a little bit of pop in that old bat of his. That’ll work fine.
Oh and so will Sizemore when he comes back.
Keep rolling Indians. And cheers to the prospects of an exciting summer, we could use one of those around here.
10 Comments
I’ll say it all day: Most underrated offense in the bigs. We’re doing this (2nd most scored runs overall in the AL) with a still-cold Choo, and without Grady back yet. Just imagine.
Yesterday, I set up my large PC monitor, another small LCD TV, and 2 laptops to run them, and had 4 screens playing 2 different games constantly from 3pm till 1am… on my porch. My housemates, some other friends and I, sat outside drinking beer, eating pizza, grilling, and blasting baseball as folks walked by in awe of us. Best part of all? Everything went perfectly. The Tiggers beat KC for their home opener (The Detroit Indians scored all 5 runs for them: Vik and Jhonny P), keeping KC out of 1st, my friend’s Braves won and Chipper got his 2500th, the Rays pulled out some magic to beat the White Sox, and Boston found their groove just in time to beat the Yankees… and meanwhile of course, the Tribe offense hit on all cylinders. Beautiful. I cannot wait to get to the ballpark myself.
nice to see our off season additions (jack h and o cabrera) play better then most the big name offseason FA.
lets hope this keeps up.
also is pronk back?? i dont want to say to much but he swing does look better and he looks in control in the batters box.
all this and choo is cold as ice. who would have thought.
I know it’s early. I know we all were fooled before. But this is looking like the best team since 2007. If it’s a case where all the young guys develop at the same time like they did in the 90s, it could be a great summer.
@1 grady cant crack this lineup!! !!!!!!!!!
/only half-kidding.
/dont change a thing until it’s broken.
ps — karsten, i must recommend appleTV ($100) and mlb.tv package (like $110/season). good value if you get tired of rigging laptops and LCD cabling to your TV. like i did.
@4 I agree entirely with the “don’t fix what ain’t broken” policy. I’m just saying, when the time comes, we’ll have Grady as that option in the OF. But I wasn’t clear, I was using MLB.TV Premium. I have had it for about 3 years now, so we were watching multiple games on Hi-def, with picture-in-picture, etc. We only hooked up monitors to the laptops so we had more, and bigger, screens at more angles so everyone could see. Trust me, I make sure I get my money’s worth out of that subscription 😉
Karsten:
You sound like a true fan. Props to you and your friends!
154
Is Masterson for real this year? 2-0 so far. If this guy gets it together it can really help solidify this rotation.
Just bought MLB TV. Im in. I had Apple TV too. This will be solid.
Well, fellow fans, I wasn’t gonna get the MLB ticket this year and just keep up with the box scores and our 15 second blip we usually get on sportscenter. But wait!! Looks like the wife and kids are gonna have to suffer through 154 more evenings (i dvr the day games)without spongebob and private housewifes and drama doctor show or whatever the heck it is my wife watches. I really think we have a chance of doing some damage in the AL central this year. I’m not saying the tribe is gonna win the series (yet) but this bunch reminds me of the early 90’s bunch with Lofton, Thome, Manny and the gang. I can’t wait to check the power rankings every week and watch the Indians keep climbin and the national sportswiters eat crow!! GO TRIBE!!!!!