About the same time the Cavaliers were pulling victory from defeat, the Indians were doing the exact opposite.
I’m kind of glad. No, I’m not glad that the Indians lost. I’m happy because I had a meeting tonight and recorded both the Indians and Cavaliers tonight. When I finally sat down to watch, I saw that the Tribe was up 4-2. I figured I’d watch the Cavs game, then fast forward and catch the highlights of the Indians. Wow did I make the right choice. Obviously I checked the final score before deciding whether or not to watch the Indians/Red Sox. That’s why I’m happy right now. Because I didn’t have to suffer through that loss.
Joe Borowski blew his second save in four chances. Again it was the long ball that did him in. This time it was a two run shot from the bat of Manny Ramirez. After the game Joe Borowski said he may have to have his arm checked because his velocity isn’t there-
“I’m grasping at straws. I think we’re going to get it checked. Maybe it’s nothing, maybe it is. It’s driving me crazy, too,” he said.
That is not what you want to hear from your closer. Then again, I guess it’s better than JoeBo denying anything is wrong. I’m actually torn on whether I would rather there be something physically wrong with Borowski. At least if it’s physical there potential to fix it. Rafael Betancourt got two big strikeouts in the seventh, getting Ortiz and Ramirez on strikes, but made a mistake to Youkilis in the eighth, and gave up a solo shot.
Westbrook pitched well enough to win his 3rd game, but gets a no decision to go with a tough luck loss earlier in the year. His record stands at 1-1, despite a 2.42 ERA. Hafner and Martinez went 5 for 9 on the night, which is great to see, of course it seems to mean very little in the wake of the bullpen implosion. Ryan Garko extended his streak by getting on base in every game this season with an RBI single in the fourth.
Author: Rick
Rick is a co-founder and editor of WFNY. His love of Cleveland sports is surpassed only by his faith and love of his family. Follow him on Twitter- @rickwfny.Rick has written 743 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
Nobody is seeming to mention — especially in the ESPN.com recap — that Dalembert raised his hand, after sniffling like my mom watching Fried Green Tomatoes, admitting that there was a foul and it was on him. How is no one else saying anything? No matter what anyone says about Philly getting screwed, their own guy fessed up to the foul before walking off the court like he didn’t do anything.
Oops. Thought i posted that under Not So fast Philly
I turned it off at 4-1 only to see this morning that I missed a complete collapse… Unbelievable. But you’re right, at least he’s saying something instead of trying to tough his way through it – costing more games.
Maybe we should start nyforbyrdandborowski.com?
Haha, now that’s a site I would contribute to.
I actually watched the whole game. For some reason, I forgot that Cavs were on. Somehow, I just knew Borowski would blow it. His velocity is garbage right now. I would’ve sent that 83 mph “heater” to the bleachers as well. At the least, he needs to head to the DL. They need to do something before he puts them into a deep hole. Try one of the Rafael’s or even Kobayashi, I don’t care. The Tribe should’ve won last night.
I can’t believe the Tribe came into this season with everyone knowing that they needed help closing and in LF & didn’t do anything about it. I hope they don’t regret it come July or so.
JoeBlow stinks up the joint again. SHOCKING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wedge clearly needs to make a move and make the move now. But he won’t. That would take a set of stones, that he doesn’t have, to make that move.
JoeBlow has already cost us 2 games, and the sad part is that we could have placed some distance between us and the Tigers over the past couple of weeks. But in true Cleveland fashion, we have failed to take advantage of the situation, which we will regret. Record against the rebuilding A’s: 2-4.
Rest assured, the Tigers won’t suck the entire year, and we will regret the way we are playing now later in the year when it’s coming down to the wire.
More importantly, the White Sox look pretty good right now, eventhough they lost last night.
What I got a kick out of last night while watching the game was the Mark Shapiro lovefest that was taking place by the commentators. Mark’s a genius. He has this big board where he has Brad Lidge towards the top of the free agents. Yes, please bring in Lidge. He is a fraction better than JoeBlow. What an idiot.
He’s a genius alright. A genius that doesn’t realize David Delucci absolutely SUCKS. A genius that didn’t realize Borowski is not a reliable closer but picked up his option anyways. A genius that doesn’t realize Blake is about as damn near an automatic out as they come, so why try to find a suitable replacement.
What a friggin joke.
Yep, he’s a genius.
That’s pretty tough on Shapiro…player evaluation isn’t an exact science. And he doesn’t get the budget that the Yankees and Red Sox do, who can buy their way out of mistakes. Shapiro may not be at ‘genius’ level, but he’s probably the best we’ve seen in this town.
Tough on Shapiro?
That was light.
It is always about the budget he doesn’t have. My ass. Just another excuse as far as I am concerned.
David Delucci is at best a AAA player. He shouldn’t even be considered by us as for a bench player role.
Here’s a question, who would you rather have right now at 3B? Kevin Kouzmanoff or Casey Blake?
If you say Blake, you must be smoking some good weed right now.
I would also have liked to have Brandon Phillips and his monster stats under the Indians box score.
These moves didn’t have anything to do with payroll, so what is the excuse for them? Answer: bad moves.
Instead make a trade fro Andy Marte who was given up on by the Braves and then the Red Sox. he must be good when those two teams just give up on him.
Point is, Shapiro isn’t the genius the world makes him out to be.
He does do one thing well, sign our young talent to long term contracts.
What he does with CC is irrelevant. CC is the modern day version of Sid Fernandez, who will just eat his way out of the league at some point.
That 20-20 vision in hindsight must be nice. The Kouzmanoff trade brought the Indians a guy who was thought to be the 2B of our future. He hit .280 with 13 HRs in his rookie year.
Brandon Phillips? What were the Indians supposed to do with him? He had 0 options left on his contract. In his full season with the Indians he hit .208 with 6 HRs. Who amongst us was upset when the Indians let him go? I know I, for one, didn’t want to see the Indians waste a bench spot on the guy.
It’s easy to look back on the deals that don’t work. But with all of these moves, they were perceived at the time as the right thing to do.
They shouldn’t have made the trade for Barfield. We clearly had holes at 3B and 2B and they should have coveted the 3B prospect more than they did.
It is was easier to find a serviceable second baseman than a power hitting 3rd baseman.
As for Brandon Phillips, if the Tribe wasn’t so rash in letting him go, they could have had him start on the on the bench in 2006 behind Belliard to start the season and he would have passed him at some point, and would be now kicking ass for us instead of the Reds.
If you want to drink from the “Mark Shapiro does everything right” Kool-Aid, that’s up to you. I’m just here for the ride either way.
I’m just saying, Phillips was TERRIBLE with the Indians, he was TERRIBLE in the minors, and he was TERRIBLE that spring. There was no way the Indians were going to use up a roster spot on him.
And the Indians thought they did address both 2B and 3B. Both Marte and Barfield were highly regarded prospects, and Barfield had some success in the majors. Shapiro swung and missed….I’m not going to get down on the guy for trying what he did. They all looked like good moves when he made them. NOBODY was lamenting the loss of Brandon Phillips. In fact, the popular sentiment at the time was “good riddance”.
So they won’t use a roster spot on Phillips, who was “terrible” yet have automatic outs STARTING throughout our lineup and also Delucci, jamey carroll, and Marte on the bench. Makes no sense.
There are enough players on our current roster that are ‘terrible” yet none of them had the promise that Brandon Phillips did EVER.
As for trading for Marte, the guy was given up on by both the Braves and Red Sox. They know a little bit about talent evaluation and that should have been a huge red flag to Shapiro.
“Gave up” on? You mean traded? Elite prospects are traded all the time. The Red Sox traded Hanley Ramirez to the Marlins. Did they “give up” on him? Again, you’re playing GM from a hindsight POV, and that’s pretty easy to do when you already know the results.
Anyway, you can’t be critical of the Indians for keeping Marte if you wanted them to keep Phillips. It’s the EXACT same scenario. I actually agree with you that they should have just let Marte go, but that’s because I also agreed with them letting Phillips go.
The Red Sox didn’t ‘give up’ on Marte, they didn’t even use him. He was traded on December 7th 2005 from Atlanta for Edgar Renteria, and was the Braves top prospect at the time. He was then dealt on January 27th, a little over a month later, to the Indians for Crisp, because the Sox lost Johnny Damon. Marte didn’t play at all for Boston.
Hanley Ramirez was traded for Josh beckett.
A World Series winning, and proven starting pitcher for a very good prospect. The only question mark about Beckett was the blister problems he once had.
If Marte was so good, then why did he get traded for Coco Crisp and before that for Edgar Renteria who had a horrible year? These two guys aren’t even in the same league talent wise at the time that Beckett was and Ramirez had a higher ceiling than Marte. So your Hanley Ramirez comparison fails.
If Marte was so good at the time, why did the Red Sox settle for Coco Crisp, who most would agree on, isn’t that good?
I do not think the Tribe should let Marte go. If anything play him at 3rd, move Blake to LF and see what happens. Marte’s production can’t be any worse than Michaels or Delucci’s, and Blake’s will still be the same either way.
I never thought they should have let Phillips go. I am not using a 20/20 hindsight POV. You never should let a top prospect go until you have given him every chance to see what he can do.
For Phillips, they should have let him play everyday in 2006. If he stunk up the joint, then let him go. The problem is that they just let him go and now he is the Red’s gem, not ours.
Yeah, I’m sure you were real sore in 06 when the Indians let their .200 hitting 2B who couldn’t hit in the minors go. It was traumatic for all of us.
Clearly you are correct. Shapiro was a genius for keeping Ronnie Belliard over a highly touted prospect like Phillips.
Since I am totally off base, according to you, here are the operative stats that matter.
Brandon Phillips
Career Minor league batting average: .274.
Not .200 like you assert.
2004 AAA stats 2b- 135 games
521 AB
83 Runs
158 hits
34 doubles
4 triples
8 Home runs
50 RBI
14 Stolen bases
.303 BA
.363 OB %
.430 SLG%
Phillips reward for his 2004 season at AAA: the Indians man “genius” Shapiro allowing him to play a whopping 6 games in the bigs for the Tribe in 2005.
That’s certainly enough at bats and games to soundly analyze his potential. With those 6 games, Shapiro certainly knew Phillips wouldn’t amount to anything, and most certainly not be a 2 time All Star.
If you recall at the time, in 2005, the call from everybody was to start Brandon Phillips at 2B for the Tribe, not Ronnie Belliard.
Shrewd as ever, Shapiro was able to get the famous “player to be named later” in the deal from the Reds for him when he traded Phillips in 2006.
To prove my point even more, why do you think the Tribe hasn’t cut ties with Andy Marte yet?
Because Shapiro, and everybody else except you, KNOWS he screwed up by giving up on Phillips too soon.
Bottom line is that right now, our team would be better with Phillips at 2B and Kouzmanoff at 3B. Without question.
He hit .200 in the bigs, not the minors. Read more carefully buddy.
Your really wasted a whole big long response. You didn’t tell me anything I didn’t know. Of course we’d be better off with Phillips and Kouzmanoff. Who has said we wouldn’t be? Give me a break. Somehow you’re not comprehending what I’m saying. My point is, its easy to look back and criticize when you have the luxury of hindsight. You can say you thought whatever you want, but there was little, if any, backlash when the Indians let Phillips go. Nobody cared, because he was AWFUL for the Indians.