The Song Remains the Same
I’m gonna write something I write every five days. If it seems regurgitated, that’s because it is. Last night Jeremy Sowers got to the opponent’s third time around in the order and imploded. He left the game in the sixth inning leaving the bases loaded and one out. The bullpen entered, dynamite in hand, and blew up the rest of the game.
That’s right folks, while every single one of us knows that by the third time around, Sowers MUST be lifted if the team is going to have any chance to win, manager Eric Wedge took his vote of confidence and attempted to see how far he could stretch it by sticking with Sowers. The sixth inning went like this:
With the Tribe leading 3-1 thanks to homers by Grady Sizemore and Shin-Soo Choo and a two out RBI single by Travis Hafner, the left-hander who we all know isn’t a major league starter (as even the worst major league starters can last past five innings even once in a while) began by getting leadoff man Scott Podsednik to groundout to third. That was the ninth consecutive hitter Sowers retired. But now it was almost as if he said to himself “oh no, its the third time through the order.” Alexei Ramirez doubled, Jermaine Dye singled, and runners were on the corners with one out. Sowers refused to bear down and walked Jim Thome, bringing Paul Konerko to the plate.
This is when his night ended. “We’re going to have to see what our options are with Jeremy,” said captain Grind. “Normally, in that situation, you give a guy a chance to get through it. But time and time again he’s struggled to get through that so you go to the bullpen and that doesn’t work either.”
Speaking of moves that didn’t work, the Grinder went to the much-ballyhooed fireballer Chris Perez.
Here was his chance to show some of that potential we’ve all been force fed by Shappy and his lieutenants. Instead, “Perez right” threw his first two pitches way out of the strike zone. Konerko, knowing he was in a great spot, sat on the fastball. Sure enough, the next pitch was a room service fastball right down main street which Konerko crushed into the left field seats for a grand slam, putting the Sox ahead for good 5-3. Things kept spiralling downward from there. Perez gave up one more run on a two out Gordon Beckham RBI double. “This is new territory for me,” said Perez after the game. “It’s never happened to me before. These guys are good and every mistake I make they’re capitalizing on.”
“These guys are good.” Please. They are major leaguers and at this point, you are proving that you aren’t. As for guys who aren’t major leaguers, in came the newest member of the gas can, errr, bullpen, Winston Abreu. I would rather have seen Winston Bennett out there after seeing another stellar Tribe pen-mate debut from Abreu. Good ole’ #59 came started the seventh and gave up four runs, all coming on Ramirez’s two run shot and Konerko’s two-run blast – his third of the night. I guess there is a reason Abreu was designated for assignment by Tampa and came over as a 32-year old reliever who has barely sniffed the majors. Just another clown for the circus that Mark Shapiro has put together in the bullpen.
“There’s never been more opportunity then there is out in the bullpen right now. There’s never been more opportunity for starting pitchers than we have going right now. Somebody is going to have to step up. We’re going to keep trying guys,” said Wedge.
I’ve got an idea for you Eric – how about Jeremy Sowers AS A RELIEVER????? I’ve only been saying this for months. I mean, the guy can’t pitch more than five innings and seems to have good success the first time through an order. I know it, the fans know it, heck, my 94-year old grandmother knows it and she passed away in November!
The lone bright spot of the night for the Tribe was Grady Sizemore, who hit two homers to bring his season total to 13.
After the game, it was announced that Aaron Laffey has been activated off the DL to start tonight’s game against the White Sox. With so many options on whom to drop down to Columbus, Wedge and Shapiro spun the big wheel and it landed on Raffy Perez. Seems a bit odd that “Perez Left” gets sent down, but Mike “John” Gosling and Tomo Ohka stay up. But who knows these days with our Tribe.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:13 am
If you promise to title all your Tribe pieces with Zeppelin songs, I’ll be excited.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:16 am
TD-back to trying to see the forest through the trees:
Chris Perez is an absolute MESS, why would our “esteemed” GM trade a commodity like Mark DeRosa for that huge out of shape poor mechanics project?
Why would same “esteemed” GM trade a hard throwing minor league prospect for a 15 year minor league/10 organization washout who’s just the next Shapiro bustout signing in a vain attempt to cya his mess of player development?
Winston Abreu you say? I’ve got a pound of grade A sausage I’d rather fire up on my patio grill.
Mark Shapiro……staying the course eh? What course is it might I ask?
July 8th, 2009 at 10:16 am
Wait a second, the Tribe’s regular season has started?! This isn’t just spring training and trying to figure out who’s good enough to make the team? Oh man, this is a sad day indeed.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:21 am
It’s actually amazing now that the incompetency of this organization is shining through literally almost daily on the field. The Sowers act is painfully old and Wedge’s inability to see what literally every observer of this team (except maybe Shapiro) seems to is downright pathetic. I would have sent down Perez left but it doesn’t really matter at this point, half this team belongs down in Columbus anyway.
As for this Abreau clown, I know some speculated at the time of the inexplicable trade that brought him here that Shapiro was claiming him off of waivers to set up a deal with a contending team who couldn’t get him. I don’t know if I buy that or not, but I do know that he’s destroying whatever value he might have. If Abreau is not dealt, Shapiro dealing him straight up for Meloan has to be one of the stupidest moves I’ve ever seen.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:33 am
I have pretty well seen enough from this team’s pitching staff that I can handle…its about time to just roll a pitching machine out there and let them take BP when it’s Sowers third time thru, and anyone that comes in after him…I dont know what the deal is, but its gone on a couple months too long…he obviously has a limit because of his quality of pitches…hes not a starter, he can be a long relief guy, but this is unbelievable that hes still here…
as for Perez – his horrid debut and this appearance last night…yes, he has seemingly load of talent, but his delivery reminds me of jensen lewis…seems out of control…same with this knucklehead they got from TB…dont think he’s going to last more than a week or two…watching his inconsistant delivery, you can tell why he never made it out of the minors…and his fastball was anywhere from 88-94? that screams mechanics to me…
cant blame the O…choo just looks so smooth…hafner is looking like hes coming around…
…but good Lord, that pitching staff is enough to make me change the channel when we’re on D….
July 8th, 2009 at 10:34 am
I won’t spend money on them for the rest of this year or ALL of next year. Their product is garbage. I can almost guarantee V-Mart leaves when his FA comes around. I never liked Cliff that much, he’s got great stuff, but he’s a jerk. Maybe we can trade him for more prospects….
July 8th, 2009 at 10:40 am
“What team do you play for?”
“The Indians”
“Here in Cleveland”
“I didn’t know they had a team”
“Yea we have uniforms and everything.”
What a sh**** summer this has been. Bad baseball, and the weather really hasn’t been any better.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:42 am
It seems funny to me that ever since they got rid of Luis Isaac our pen has been a fricken joke. His last season with us……. 2007, enough said
July 8th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Again with Gordon Beckham. I’m sick of watching this guy contribute while LaPorta is in Columbus…
July 8th, 2009 at 10:53 am
@ Jeremy – Actually, Isaac got fired after the 2008 season.
July 8th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Anyone else catch how disgusted Rick Manning was with Shapiro’s coup Winston Abreau? I thought he was gonna lose his lunch over the air.
When your color commentator is laughing at the GM’s acquistions…………
July 8th, 2009 at 11:09 am
I said it months ago – Manning should be the next manager.
July 8th, 2009 at 11:18 am
@TD – I like it…it worked in HOU…
July 8th, 2009 at 11:24 am
Lot of bitter comments. Us older guys, we know how to handle seasons where hope is snuffed out by June. Problem with you people is that you remember when the organization was competent and so your expectations are way out of whack. Here’s a couple of coping mechanisms:
- They will play better at some point after the all-star break – bet on it – which will lead to the claim that we had some incredibly bad luck and the situation is not dire. Be open to this idea. It makes the late summer so much more enjoyable.
- Attend games and buy team merchandise. You can’t expect the Dolans to keep throwing money at the team if you don’t give them that money. This should be self-evident but, incredibly, people tend to forget this basic rule of economics.
July 8th, 2009 at 11:48 am
while I do agree with Harv to a degree, would you go pay for tickets and food for a movie you knew sucked and was a waste of your time and just provided you with 3 hours you wish you could get back in your life due to nauseating dumb dialouge and horrible decisions? probably not
…unless you love the movie theater…
and dont get me wrong…i love baseball, but i cant say that i would go out of my way at this point to watch this group and spend the $ doing downtown and such…
July 8th, 2009 at 11:55 am
@Boom: I stand corrected, but I still think Isaac is better with the team than not.
@Harv21 I am old enough to remember the crappy 70s and 80s teams. It still doesn’t feel good when they win and they are still out of it. It really gives us the false hope next year. You know kinda like this year.
As far as attending games and spending money, absolutely not!!! I will not give in to this idiot owner who has the whole concept wrong on spending money!! Cleveland fans have shown they will come and support the team, whether it be baseball, football (well we show up for that either way), or basketball if there is a good product to support. Dolan, however, has not shown that he will spend the money to put a good product there. They did nothing after the 2007 season to load the team up. They basically put the same team out there that failed to get passed the Red Sox after being up 3-1 on them. So until this yahoo owner does something for us fans, I will root for them from my couch
July 8th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
@DK and @Jeremy: sarcasm was intended.
Sports = entertainment. If rock band sucks, and promoter says, “If you don’t buy tickets and t-shirts I can’t recruit better musicians and the band will never get better,” do you do it?
July 8th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
1. Rick Manning should be the manager of this team today.
2. Mark Crapiro should resign immediately.
3. Eric Wedge is the worst MLB manager I’ve ever seen.
4. This team is absolute crap.
5. I can’t wait until they win 8 in a row in September when they’re 23.5 games out.
July 8th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
@ Harv – no, I find a band that plays hard and well because they practice and make the right decisions…not because someone tells me that it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, but is actually a bullfrog…
I cant see myself rooting for this team as it stands now…I love the Tribe, but I cant stand the way this team just looks so pathetic…and maybe not just the team, but the entire pitching staff…the bats are starting to come around, and with the exception of Garko and Fran, their D is pretty good too…(cept maybe peralta at third from time to time)
but the kids in AAA that need to be promoted need to get promoted…does wedge REALLY think they still have a shot???
July 8th, 2009 at 10:55 pm
keep grinding