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that was a fun game last night. i'm excited to see what gomez can do tonight.

sizemore looks great. with that kinda injury, i will feel much better a month or so from now when he's still running hard and putting good swings out there.

love the contribution off the bench from duncan too. that's one of many things that seperates the bad from the good or even the good from the great. getting a big hit off the bench from a guy who doesn't play a whole lot.

I would still rather see Sizemore in maybe the 3 spot ... with Brantley left leading off. Sizemore can drive the ball, and would make an excellent #3 hitter.

They could flip flop Hafner and Santana ... but I suspect that they don't want to mess with Hafner right now, as he's going well. Shoo could drop back to 6 or 7, and maybe take some of the pressure off himself.

This stuff is easy sitting behind a keyboard, with no real consequences.


Oh .... and I can't wait to see Gomez either. He was striking out almost 1 batter per inning at Columbus ... and had a great ERA. He's giving up a lot of hits though. He's allowed 15 hits in 12 innings. He's only walked 3 though. It's going to be a key for him to get at least 5 innings tonight though.

He's going up against Chen tonight. Chen has been really, really good this year. He's much better than his career numbers. However, he did give up 8 hits and 5 ER against the Angels. He shut out Detroit and Seattle, neither of which is an offensive powerhouse. I think that we can get to him a little bit .... The Indians have hit him well in the past.

I think that a huge key will to stay patient at the plate, make him throw a lot of pitches, and get into the Royals bullpen again. They had 3 guys throw a lot of pitches out of the bullpen yesterday. If the Indians can get into the Royals pen again, I think they can do some real danage, and set up nicely for the last 2 games.

best record in MLB 3 weeks into the season. can't ask for a better start than that.

we'll get to see how much depth we have at starting pitching. it's our biggest question mark and with Talbot out we have to go to the well early with Gomez. he looked pretty okay last year, hopefully he continues.

his biggest problem is that he is both not a SO pitcher (~7K/9 in minor career) and he is not a groundball pitcher. generally, you want a guy to be one or the other. his success with be dictated by his walk-rate and how he is with BABIP (more luck than anything but his should be a bit higher than our groundball pitchers unfortunately).

good luck to Mr. Gomez and hopefully he can continue the winning ways of the Tribe.

I really like Belcher as piching coach. I am curious to see how he does working with the kid.

Gomez will probably get 4 or 5 starts ... so I hope they're good ones. lol

I don't know who else is watching/listening .....

9th inning ...... Indians down by 2 ..... 2 outs ..... 2 strikes .... bases loaded ........

Choo with a bases loaded walk to force in a run ..... bases still loaded .... down by 1 ...... Santana coming up .....

Come on Santana!!!!!!!!!!!

Uhggggg, didn't even swing on 3 straight strikes.

Ugh.

Santana strikes out on 3 straight. He never moved ....

Topes lose, Topes lose

Santana looked like a scared Little Leaguer at the plate there. What's up with that?

I was gonna type that exact same thing, something to the extent of my 5th grade at bats.

I went with the dancin homer reference instead

Definitely wasn't looking for the fastball.

Santana is a mess at the plate right now.

Acta has been reluctant to move him out of the cleanup spot .... but I think he needs a break from there.


I would move Brantley to leadoff, Sizemore to 3, and then out Hafner, Shoo and Santana 4,5,and 6.


I will add that I can't get too upset over the game offensively. Gomez had a bit of a rough outing for his 1st of the year. He gave up 5 in just over 4 innings .... but then the bullpen came on strong again. Being unsure of what Gomaz would bring, I figured that this was a game we might lose ..... but we were in it to the final strike.

I agree with that. Brantley is hitting everything. Sizemore has come out of the gate red hot. Santana is just in a funk.

missed the game tonight, sounds like they really battled.

i totally agree about santana, move him back in the lineup, take some pressure off the guy. i think it's a lot to ask a guy who hasn't played a full season to be the cleanup for a team that is currently contending.

plus there are other guys capable right now.

agree on Santana. he is pressing when last year he came up carefree and was great. move him down to the 6/7 spot and tell him to just rake.

and down 5-0, we come storming back. teams better know that these guys just don't quit. good to see even in a loss.

anyone that wants a cold dose of reality about what these 16 games really mean for the Indians, please read:

http://joeposnanski.si.com/2011/04/19/a-16-game-baseball-season-2/?eref=sihp

If the Indians were winning games in a fluke fashion, then I might buy into his arguments. However, they are winning because they are doing things well on a fundamental level. They are pitching well .... continuing a trend started in the 2nd half of last season. They are hitting well. They are, possibly most important of all, playing sound defense. This team lost a LOT of games last year because of shoddy defense. That's not happening this year. For the most part, they are not beating themselves.

that's a good read, but honestly, based on what i have seen with the tribe, they are gonna be in this for most of the year. nothing is guaranteed, but with the back end of that bullpen, and a young pitching staff with good talent, i think they're not going to fade off into some 70 win team.

plus, it seems like you may have found your rock. masterson. tribe loses 2 to open the year, he brings you back. tribe loses in anaheim, he brings you back the next night against baltimore. guess what? the tribe lost last night, and guess who's on the mound? masterson takes the ball tonight.

i'm of the belief that if you have a good bullpen, you can really hang around.

Pfffttt! Everybody knows it's early and things are likely to change over the course of a 162-game season. Seems like there's an article like this every season about this time from one of the national media (particularly when one of the Big Two - Skankees and The Sawx is struggling out of the gate).

Now that somebody got THAT out of the way, we can go back to enjoying the Tribe's early success and, hopefully, longer-term promise.

How about some Terry Pluto ... who has some reality of his own?

Check out how Tribe pitchers did after the All Star break last year. It's really pretty close to what we are seeing to start this year.

Maybe it's not a fluke .... but continued growth.

Pluto broke it down really nicely. Maybe he was reading my stuff from earlier?

http://www.cleveland.com/pluto/blog/index.ssf/2011/04/cleveland_indians_fast_start_f.html

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A fan asked, "Should I buy my World Series tickets yet?"

Then he laughed.

It's been like that for Tribe fans, whose team led the Central Division with a 12-4 record entering Tuesday night's game against Kansas City. It's Christmas in April.

No one expected this, not even those who bleed Wahoo red, white and blue. If anything, a repeat of last season seemed likely -- a slow start followed by a decent finish as more prospects are brought up from the minors.

But the Indians woke up Tuesday with the American League's best record. They also have won 12 of 14 since losing their first two games of the season.

I can give you lots of reasons why this won't continue. The Indians won't keep hitting .318 with runners in scoring position. They won't have a starter always pitch at least six innings, as has been the case in all but two games before Tuesday. Or a staff that always holds teams to four or fewer runs, as it has over the last 14 games.

They won't have a bullpen that converts every save and shuts down every team after the sixth inning.

But maybe ... let's think and dream a bit.

After Monday's 7-3 victory in 10 innings at Kansas City, reliever Joe Smith told Plain Dealer beat writer Paul Hoynes: "We can swing the bats a little bit. We just kept throwing up zeroes and waiting on them. They came through huge for us."

What if the pitching isn't quite this good, but it's pretty good? What of having every significant pitcher on this team between the ages of 23 and 29, which means they are all entering or in their primes -- meaning the best may still come?

What if they keep throwing strikes, catching the ball on defense and putting up zeroes?

I know. Is this is like 1988, when the Indians started at 13-4 and ended at 74-88?

But I go back to Smith's comment about "putting up zeroes." Most devoted fans know their favorite team was 35-39 after the All-Star break, a major upgrade from the 34-54 start. That team had a 3.89 ERA after the All-Star break, fourth-best in the league. The bullpen owned a sparkling 2.95 ERA in the second half, second-best in the AL.

This year's bullpen entered Tuesday night with a 2.68 ERA.

Smith joined the team last weekend, and gave up a run in his first appearance. He then told Hoynes, "After that game, the guys in the pen told me, 'You must not have gotten the memo...we don't give up runs.'"

What if the pitching that we see now is a continuation of the second half?

Here were some Tribe ERAs after the 2010 All-Star break: Chris Perez (0.63), Raffy Perez (2.40), Tony Sipp (2.81), Joe Smith (2.94), Justin Germano (3.31) and Justin Masterson (3.84).

Carlos Carrasco (3.77) started seven games at the end of the season, and pitched at least six innings each time. Josh Tomlin (6-4, 4.56) went at least five innings in all 12 of his starts.
Fausto Carmona (13-14, 3.77) made the All-Star team and he had a 1.99 ERA in his final six starts.

Only Mitch Talbot (5.29) slumped after the All-Star break, and he battled injuries. He is hurt again, replaced by Jeanmar Gomez.

What if a bunch of young, talented arms are suddenly gaining confidence and growing into one of the better pitching staffs in the league, as these numbers indicate?

Then guess what? This will be one fun summer.

one note: Joe Pos. is a Clevelander too. So, it's not some national writer just peeing on the parade for fun.

also, I am enjoying the start too. always good to have a tiny dose of reality sprinkled in though to keep things honest.

one more huge note as to why the Tribe may be legitimate contenders: we play in the AL Central. All teams here have issues and can't just use $$$ to solve them. should be a fun ride.