Examining the Rotation

Cleveland has built a good reputation for keeping its players healthy in recent years, but the injury bug has nailed key members of the offense and pitching staff in 2008. Given how successful and relatively healthy the pitching staff was last season, it seemed inevitable that all those innings would catch up to the rotation in some form. Throw in two grueling playoff series and some extra wear and tear has a chance of carrying over to next season.

Carmona had never exceeded 150 innings pitched at any point in his baseball career (148 IP at Class A) and had just 74.1 Major League innings before his breakout season. Despite being characterized as the team workhorse, Sabathia exceeded 200 innings for only the second time in his career in 2007 (210 IP in 2002). Not including the playoffs, C.C. logged 31 more innings than he’s ever had in his career last season.

Oddly enough, the less experienced Carmona looked more like the ace than Sabathia early on. Carmona has exhibited some control issues this season, with a .60 K/BB ratio over 10 starts. Fausto’s primary weapon of getting groundball outs has allowed him to overcome these issues though and he still boasts a 3.10 ERA.

Sabathia got off to a rocky start (7.88 ERA in 6 April starts), but his overall numbers do not reflect the vast improvements he’s made as the season has progressed. C.C. has shown little sign of slowing down and has a 2.43 ERA, 4.90 K/BB ratio, and 3 complete games in 8 post-April starts.

The team’s main innings eater, Westbrook, came off a strong Spring Training only to land on the disabled list with an intercostal strain in his left side. The injury caused him to miss time from April 20 to May 28, but he only made one start before aggravating his throwing elbow. Westbrook has made just five starts this season, but was very effective when healthy with a 3.12 ERA and 1.15 WHIP.

The Tribe’s starting rotation has been the life preserver for an otherwise disappointing season. Fortunately, Carmona will be making his first rehab start in the minors next week, but Westbrook is lost for the season due to a torn elbow ligament. Cleveland’s farm system had been particularly robust the last few years, but many of Buffalo’s top players are already settled in Cleveland. It may be depleted somewhat, but the pitching depth is as important as ever for 2008. Below is a breakdown of how the injuries to Carmona and Westbrook have played out so far.

Player: Fausto Carmona

Injury: Left hip strain, placed on the 15-day DL on May 24.

Projected Recovery Time: Early July at the latest, with a rehab start scheduled for this week.

Replacement: Jeremy Sowers

Cleveland really dodged a bullet with Carmona’s injury, as it could have been much worse. According to Head Trainer Lonnie Soloff, the injury did not seriously affect the interior part of the hip muscle, which would have taken much longer to heal. Another encouraging aspect of the injury is the way it occurred. Carmona tweaked the muscle while running off the mound to cover first base. This suggests that if given proper rest the injury probably won’t hinder Carmona’s pitching motion in the future.

Carmona has struggled with his control this season, giving up at least four walks in seven of his last ten starts, but since the hip was not a pre-existing condition there is no connection between the two.

Player	Year	GS	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/BB	GB/FB	GDP
F. Carmona	2007	32	215.0	3.06	1.21	2.24	2.97	32
	2008	10	58.0	3.10	1.59	0.61	3.71	15

Upon his return, Carmona’s main task will be to straighten out some of his lopsided peripherals. Fausto’s K/BB ratio has a difference of 1.63 between 2007 and 2008. The strikeout has always been more of a supplemental weapon for Carmona, but keeping those free passes down to a minimum is crucial for any pitcher looking for long-term success. Sooner or later all those walks are going to start crossing home plate.

At first glance, Fausto’s walk rates seem somewhat foreboding. Another set of data shows that his 3.10 ERA in the face of an elevated number of baserunners is no fluke and has a strong chance of improvement.

First, Fausto has managed to increase his groundball to flyball ratio from 2.97 to 3.71; that’s a pretty significant jump and helps explain why he’s been so good at damage control this year. Even if he scatters a few walks in a start, those runners are more likely to be stranded on a seeing-eye single, rather than a double off the wall. Carmona has been keeping the ball down, which is a good sign. Also, his double play rate has doubled this season. In 2007, Carmona converted a double play every 6.71 innings; that rate has increased to a DP every 3.86 innings.

Second, the flyballs that do make it into the air (as an out or a hit) are not leaving the park. In 2007, Carmona saw 11.1% of his flyballs go for homeruns compared to just 2.9% this season. Again, Carmona is allowing more base runners, but continues to do the right thing in keeping the ball on the ground and in the park.

Unless there’s an underlying health issue that has not been disclosed, there’s little reason to think Carmona won’t move past his current control issues and revert to his dominant self, much like Sabathia has done in his last few starts.

With Aaron Laffey already locked into the rotation, Jeremy Sowers got the call to replace Carmona. Sowers has been underwhelming in his first three starts, averaging just 4.7 innings a game with a 6.91 ERA. In his fourth start (occurring as I type this), Sowers needed 94 pitches to go 4.1 innings with 4 ER against lowly San Diego, so expect those numbers to balloon a bit. It’s hard to determine exactly what happened to Sowers between 2006 and now, but he has yet to make a smooth transition back to the majors since then.

Player	Year	Level	GS	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/BB	HR/9
J. Sowers	2007	MLB	13	67.1	6.42	1.56	1.14	1.13
	2008	AAA	10	60.2	2.08	1.20	2.53	0.59
		MLB	3	14.1	6.91	1.67	1.40	1.88

Sowers has a career 2.50 ERA in the minors, including a 2.08 ERA in 10 starts for Buffalo this year. He had supposedly corrected a few flaws in his delivery and improved his overall pitch velocity last year, leading to an increase in strikeouts at Buffalo. Jeremy got off to a hot start in 2008 and his stats as a starter were among the best in the International League. In two separate stints in the Majors though, Sowers has failed to capitalize on his past success.

I’ve always rooted for Sowers, but I can’t shake the feeling that he might not be cut out for the Majors. He’s been given several opportunities in the past few years and has not been a reliable arm since his promotion in late 2006. Sometimes when a pitcher who has dominated the minors and had some success in the majors goes into a long slump, it can be attributed to a mental block; I think this is the case with Sowers.

Sowers has never been handed a starting job in Cleveland outright. He has always had to look over his shoulder at either Laffey, Carmona, or a rehabbing pitcher who may take his position. A recent example of this was Jeremy Guthrie. Guthrie toiled in the Tribe’s minor league system on-and-off during the rebuilding years, but never seemed to breakout. Suddenly, at age 28, Guthrie becomes an above average starter with a young, pitching-starved Baltimore after being cut by Cleveland. My point is a change of surroundings or a little job security can go a long way for a pitcher.

As I said earlier, Cleveland is fortunate that they don’t have to rely on Sowers as anything more than an emergency starter for now. I just haven’t seen any signs that point to Jeremy breaking out of whatever developmental purgatory he’s stuck in. There’s really nothing more he can accomplish in the minors though, since his numbers suggest his mechanics have been corrected. At 25 years old, Sowers still has some time left to develop and he may well get that permanent starting job he’s been chasing by 2009.

The 2009 rotation starts to look pretty scary with Sabathia leaving, Adam Miller unable to stay healthy, and Byrd’s vitality questionable. Sowers should get one or two more starts before Carmona returns, but that may be the last we see of him for a while. Next year is going to be very significant for Sowers and will be his final minor league option year with Cleveland.

Player: Jake Westbrook

Injury: Tear in right ulnar collateral ligament, officially diagnosed on June 5. Will be corrected by Tommy John surgery and a lengthy rehab period.

Projected Recovery Time: 10-14 months

Replacement: Aaron Laffey

Out of all the pitchers on Cleveland’s staff, Jake Westbrook was the one I thought least likely to land on the disabled list again. Westbrook’s low-power, sinkerball style and reportedly top conditioning gave the impression that he would reach 200 innings as he had from 2004 to 2006.

Westbrook’s left abdominal strain caused him to miss time in May of 2007, but was a blip on a predominately healthy run. Now, Westbrook will miss the rest of the 2008 season and possibly two months of 2009 with a ligament tear in his throwing arm. Since signing a three year, $33 million contract extension last April, Jake has been on the DL twice.

The first stint again featured muscles in his left side (diagnosed as an intercostal strain), which is worrisome due to its repetitive nature. The elbow injury may have resulted from one of Westbrook’s strengths: his ability to rack up innings every season. While there seems to be a consensus that young pitchers who rely heavily on the breaking ball are much more likely to be injured later on, it’s unclear how much this would impact an older (24+) pitcher like Jake.

After doing an internet search, I failed to find any conclusive studies that point to breaking ball pitchers having more time lost to injury than other pitchers, but it is certainly possible that averaging 197.4 innings per season for the last four years took its toll on Jake’s arm. Again, not too familiar with sports medicine, but that’s the best conclusion I could reach as far as the cause of the injury.

I try and avoid putting blind faith in the front office, but you’d have to think that a pre-contract extension physical would have identified any damage to the ligament if it really did erode over a long period of time. At any rate, the Tribe is out $11 mil this season; hopefully this isn’t the start of a permanent trend with Jake.

The good news is that Tommy John surgery has become very common and has an 85 to 90 percent success rate, improving with older patients (Carroll, 2004). The large majority of pitchers who undergo the procedure regain their former abilities within a 14 month period. The majority of the time is spent rehabbing the elbow, which leaves the chances of a successful recovery largely in the hands of the pitcher and training staff.

There’s also Aaron Laffey, who is on track to be this year’s Fausto Carmona (the good version, not the 2006 Fenway version). Laffey has been one of Cleveland’s most consistent starters, filling in for both Westbrook and Carmona at times. Simultaneous injuries to both pitchers kept Laffey around, but Westbrook’s permanent departure cemented the starting gig for Aaron.

The fact that Laffey is only being paid the league minimum also takes away some of the financial sting from Westbrook’s lost contract year.

Player	Year	GS	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/BB	GB/FB
A. Laffey	2007	9	49.3	4.56	1.33	2.08	3.32
	2008	9	57.3	2.83	1.15	2.15	1.56

Laffey has gone at least six innings and given up two runs or fewer in eight of his last ten starts. With only 106 career innings logged in the Majors, it will be a while before Laffey’s true potential can be measured. In the meantime, Laffey seems poised to have a breakout season with Cleveland.

A comparison of Laffey’s nine starts from 2007 to those in 2008 shows at least slight improvement across the board, with notable decreases in ERA and WHIP (these are almost guaranteed to change, as Laffey is currently putting up top-ten numbers here). It will be interesting to see if Laffey ends up outperforming Westbrook’s ZiPS projection of a 4.45 ERA over 180 IP.

Offense Drops the Ball, but Victor Healthy Again

Jake Westbrook's perfect Spring finally ended in his first regular season start. Westbrook scattered 7 hits over 18 innings with 20 strikeouts and 5 walks during his stay in Winter Haven. So it wasn't that surprising to see his 0.00 Spring ERA translate into an excellent start against the Chi Sox on Thursday. Jake threw 7.1 strong innings, striking out 3 and walking one batter. The only real damage done by Chicago were solo homers in the 6th and 8th innings. Like Carmona the day before, Westbrook turned out a vintage performance by working efficiently (100 pitches) and inducing 12 ground-ball outs.

Unfortunately, the Tribe also picked up where they left off by leaving another quality Westbrook start out to dry. The offense couldn't solve John Danks, managing just two hits and a run in their first loss of the season. With Victor absent, a hit-less day by the first four batters in the lineup will do that (Pronk did have a BB and a R, but that was it).

Victor did make an appearance, pinch-hitting for Michaels in the 8th (he popped out). Obviously Victor's hammy is feeling much better if he was able to bat. Postgame, Wedge said the team was "very happy" with Martinez's recovery process. It may have looked bad when he was injured three days ago, but I think the cold weather was the primary culprit at the time. Just to be safe, it sounds like Victor will have at least one more day off when Shoppach catches for Byrd on Friday. I'm really not worried about Vic's injury anymore, as it was not a serious condition in the first place. Cleveland's physical trainers are among the best in baseball and certainly wouldn't put a player at risk this early in the season.

I'm working on a Westbrook projection article this weekend, so look for that later on.

Around the Central

It's too early to read much into it, but did anyone else notice Kansas City swept the Tigers this week? The flaunted Detroit offense was held to five runs over three games and shut out once. Brian Bannister and Zach Greinke combined for 14 innings of 1 run ball, while Joakim Soria picked up his first two saves. Again, waaaaay too early, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. It's kind of a running joke that I've predicted K.C. to be competitive the last two seasons, but I mean it this time. Watch out for K.C.'s core of youngsters this year (and yes, I genuinely like the Royals as a team. Them and the Nationals; can I pick a winning franchise or what?).

Meanwhile, Detroit showed off a potential Achilles heel in their bullpen this week. The buzz around the blogs is that Detroit's pen is pretty mediocre this season and Tribe fans are all too familiar with the dangers of a shaky bullpen. I've said it elsewhere and I'll say it again: between the bullpen, the ERA wrecking crew that is Dontrelle Willis, a lack of depth, and some serious regression on offense, Detroit is not as good as people think they are this season. We'll see if I'm still right come October.

The Other Pitcher

Hey Boston, remember that third starter Cleveland has? The one that got next to no attention leading up to the ALCS and was dismissed as a weak link in the rotation after getting bombed by New York? Remember him? Of course you don't, but Jake Westbrook did in Game 3 what Sabathia and Carmona could not: shut down the Boston offense.

Jake delivered the kind of quality start Cleveland craved, scattering 7 H and 3 BB over 6.2 innings. Westbrook's defining moment came in the 6th when he got Manny Ramirez to ground into an inning ending double play with two men on. Boston's only runs came off a two-run homer by Jason Varitek in the 7th, shortly before Westbrook's night ended.

Jensen Lewis completed the 7th with a strikeout of Dustin Pedroia. Raffy Betancourt and Kevin "that guy from Moneyball" Youkilis locked horns again in the 8th before Raffy retired Ortiz and Ramirez, neutralizing Boston's last legitimate scoring threat. Youkilis had an 11 pitch at-bat against Betancourt in the 9th of Game 2 and an 8 pitch at-bat tonight. Not a fun experience late in the game with Ortiz on-deck.

JoeBo sealed the game with a painless 1-2-3 inning. Borowski has earned two saves this postseason, but it was still nice to see him breeze through the bottom of Boston's lineup. Wedge has shown that Borowski is the undisputed closer for the playoffs, so his body of work thus far is encouraging (4 IP, 2 SV, 2.25 ERA).

The infield defense was sharp and made a crucial contribution to Cleveland's win tonight. Westbrook fed the infield three double play balls tonight, frustrating Boston by staying just out of reach. Westbrook got Ortiz (1st inn.), Crisp (2nd inn.), and Ramirez (6th inn.) to each ground into a DP. Asdrubal Cabrera and Jhonny Peralta made some beautiful plays around the horn, including a snag on the run by AstroCab to start the first DP and steal a hit from Ortiz.

Peralta seemed to be charging the ball and working the pivot all night, to great effect. I honestly don't remember Peralta's defense looking this dynamic before. Say what you will about his regular season habits, but Jhonny has awakened in October.

Westbrook got stronger as the game went on, working around the occasional walk or hit, but never yielding. Sox batters didn't seem to be going for Jake's sinker early on, but started to press after the Tribe took the lead. Westbrook finished with 14 groundball outs and 2 strikeouts. The number of groundball outs is always a good indicator of how well Jake's pitches are working. Judging by some of the enraged, post at-bat reactions from Boston's players, the sinker was working just fine.

It looked like Jake might run into trouble early on as he seemed to be getting squeezed on pitches at the edge of the (supposed) strike zone. I know the crowd reacts unfavorably to many called balls, but seriously. The ump tonight sucked. A lot. Tiny strikezones are one thing, but this guy couldn't even call it consistently. I felt bad for Jake, you could tell that he was annoyed with the ump (lots of long pauses and Wickman-esque grimaces). Fortunately this chump didn't cost us any runs tonight.

After exploding late in Game 3, the offense showed it still had plenty left in the tank for Matsuzaka-san. Matsuzaka did plenty of damage with 6 strikeouts, but the way the Tribe was hammering the ball, it was only a matter of time before they got to Boston's starter. The quality of the Tribe's at-bats steadily improved, but they were just missing the elusive game-breaker. Ryan Garko atoned for his earlier error by smacking a single up the middle to start the 2nd. Kenny Lofton followed up with a homerun that just cleared the right field wall.

Lofton made the first pitch he saw into a souvenir, sending the crowd into a frenzy. You'd have thought he had hit a walk-off by the way the stadium roared; definitely one of my favorite moments of the postseason so far. First Trot Nixon with a game-winning hit, now Kenny Lofton hitting one out of the park? How about that.

The Tribe managed to score two more runs off Matsuzaka before Francona crashed the party. Cleveland's four baserunners were enough to convince Francona to yank his starter in the 5th inning for the second game in a row. The Boston bullpen did it's job, holding Cleveland to 4 runs, but the Tribe's bullpen continued its playoff dominance.

Paul Byrd and Tim Wakefield get the call for Game 4. Wakefield has had mixed results against Eric Wedge's Indians and has not faced them in 2007. I have a feeling Cleveland will have a solid plan of attack for Wakefield. Veterans Kenny Lofton and Trot Nixon should prove useful in helping the rest of the lineup figure out Wakefield's elusive knuckle ball. Byrd has decent career numbers against Boston (4.12 ERA) and has faced them once this season. Byrd gave up 1 ER over 6 IP at Fenway in May.

Signs of Life

The Tribe took another positive step in breaking free of their offensive slump by crushing Tampa 8-2 on Saturday. Asdrubal "Astrocab" Cabrera hit his first career homerun off of Jason Hammel with two on in the 2nd inning to get things started. Cabrera turned on a ball inside, about belt-high, launching it to right-center field. The Tribe never surrendered the lead after that, as Jake Westbrook produced another quality outing for his fourth win of the year.

Westbrook has been a man possessed in his last 5 starts, going 3-1 with a 2.05 ERA. I've sung the praises of Westbrook many a time on this blog, but his contributions can not be understated. Jake has elevated his game to resume his role as the team's third starter and has been a model of consistency during a stretch where the offense has been consistently bad.

Jake is dishing out some of the best baseball of his career at exactly the right time, making for one nasty 1-2-3 lineup with C.C., Carmona, and Westbrook. Cleveland's rotation was serviceable without Westbrook at 100%, but is starting to look more and more like a playoff caliber staff.

The offensive outburst was a refreshing change of pace after seeing the team struggle against Edwin Jackson (again) last night. I'm convinced the offense is heading in the right direction, but they still seem to have one foot mired in the slump. The most recent example can be cited from the first two Tampa Bay games.

Cleveland's approach against Jackson was terrible; he has a history of control problems and his last start was no different. Rather than force Jackson to make his pitches and throw strikes (he walked 5 over 6 IP), batters chose to swing early in the count (sometimes at the first pitch) leading to an easy ground-out or pop-up with runners in scoring position.

So despite accumulating 17 baserunners (12 H, 5 BB) on Friday, only 2 of those runners crossed homeplate; about 12% of their total runners. You could argue that Jackson really isn't that bad and has fooled the Tribe before, but the most frustrating part for me is the failure of the batters to adjust their approach and capitalize on more of their scoring opportunities. Byrd should not have had to hold Tampa Bay to one run in order to win that game.

Performances like these remind me that the offense still isn't quite right. Until the team can consistently cash in on the many opportunities the offense creates, they'll have a hard time holding on to their meager lead.

On the bright side, Cleveland showed no mercy against Tampa's pitching staff tonight, scoring 47% of their 17 baserunners. The 1-9 approach was in full force tonight, with every starter getting at least one hit. After extending their longest winning streak since the All Star Break to 3 games, the true test will be if the offense can show up for a second straight game to support their oft-neglected ace.

While Detroit is tied up with 8 games against the Yankees, Cleveland gets to play Tampa Bay and Kansas City for 6 games. Even I think playing the Yankees that many times in two weeks is excessive, but I guess that's just payback for all the trouble those snowed-out games have caused for Cleveland. With all the motivational soundbites floating around the post-game interviews lately, now is the time to act.

In the midst of a modest 3 game win streak, the Tribe has already regained the division lead they had before their last series against New York. Oh, the irony.

On Astrocab

It's way too early to make any sweeping proclamations on the recently promoted Astrocab (see Francisco, Ben), but you can already see his potential as a major leaguer. Asdrubal appears to be more patient at the plate than Barfield, or at least more selective with his pitches. The microscopic sample size for Cabrera shows 3.1 pitches per plate appearance, compared to Barfield's 3.7 P/PA. Asdrubal's power also comes as-advertised, with 3 of his 5 hits going for extra bases. The aspect of Asdrubal's game that has me wowed is his defense. This kid's glove is every bit as slick as Barfield's, maybe better.

Cabrera has started at secondbase for three consecutive games now, which has to be troublesome to Barfield. I think as long as Cabrera keeps contributing on offense, he'll get the nod over Barfield at second. I'm certainly not calling for Barfield to be replaced, but I would like to see him fix the holes in his approach at the plate before he returns as the team's regular secondbaseman. Even though I'm a fan of Cabrera, I still don't see him starting 2008 with Cleveland.

If he is successful the remainder of this season, it will certainly put pressure on the Front Office to play him, but the fact that Andy Marte is out of options next year is going to be a key roster issue for 2008. Cabrera is still very young and has many option years left, so while his playing in AAA all year may seem unfair (depending on how he does this season), the Tribe can't just dump Marte without giving him a legitimate shot at success in the Majors. I'll go into more detail on the 2008 infield in a future post.

Two in a Row....

How do you follow up a complete game shutout? Well, at the rate the Tribe has been going, a win would have been sufficient. Jake Westbrook had other plans though, dumping a cooler of Haterade all over the red-hot Chi Sox on Tuesday. Jake allowed just 2 baserunners all night, giving up a run in the first. He struck out 5 over 8 IP and walked none. Tonight marks the third straight start Westbrook has gone at least 6 innings and held the opposition to 2 runs or less. Below are Westbrook's splits for his last three starts:

Opponent	IP	H	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	GB-FB Outs
Minnesota	7	4	3	3	--	--	11-7
Texas	6	5	1	5	--	--	6-7
Chicago	8	2	0	5	--	--	13-6
Total					1.29	.71

I've been waiting on Westbrook to get back in business all season and I think he's finally recovered from his trip to the DL. Some may argue that he's been healthy since late June, but that is not necessarily true. When Westbrook came off the DL, he had to work his way back into his usual routine and re-adjust to facing major league hitters. Everybody needs consistent practice to stay on top of their game, even professional athletes (especially MLB pitchers). One of Westbrook's main issues was finding the touch needed to use his sinkerball effectively; his renewed confidence in the sinker is a big part of his current success.

The most significant indicator that Jake has found his groove is his consistency. Before the three starts listed above, Jake had trouble posting two quality starts in a row and visibly struggled with his command. It took a while, but the old Westbrook is back.

It's still too early to make the call on Laffey, but in my opinion, the Indians have a playoff caliber starting rotation right now. The starters have posted a 2.51 ERA over the last 14 games and have shown no signs of slowing down (that even includes Sleepy Kitten's 7 run implosion against Boston). When the offense wakes up (you know it will, don't kid yourself) Cleveland is going to be a pretty scary playoff contender. I've always endorsed the old saying "good pitching beats good hitting" and Cleveland is in a position to have both going into August and September.

I'd also like to give a shout-out to the Cobra for his continued awesomeness (9 IP, 0 R, 4 H, 1 BB, 1 K at Minnesota), way to go Paul.

On the Offense

If I was qualified and had the time, I'd love to analyze video from the Tribe's prolonged offensive slump to see where they've gone wrong. Since I am neither qualified, nor unemployed, I'll just have to wing it (ie. this a pretty subjective analysis based on what I've seen). I'm probably seeing the same thing as most fans in that the Tribe hitters have been pressing. This problem is only magnified when the opposing pitcher has just average pitches and a track record to match.

Patience and focus seem to go out the window during a bad slump like this, giving way to the feeling that each player needs to make a big play, when in fact, no one can because they're too stressed out to think straight. Bad pitches tend to look a lot better when you're desperate for a hit, allowing even mediocre pitchers to "elevate" their game. If you don't buckle down and challenge a pitcher (make him throw strikes, throw more pitches per AB, make that perfect pitch for a K, etc.) then even some AAAA kid can look like an ace.

Tonight's game against Chicago and John Danks was a good example of the two approaches. Danks has been pretty crappy this season, but managed to hold the Tribe hitless through 4 innings. This scenario has been played out several times during the slump. So the 5th inning roles around, no score, no hits. Danks has been making guys like Hafner and Garko look stupid with a pretty tame slider, he's cruising. Then the Tribe manages to get three quality at-bats from Peralta, Michaels, and Sizemore. Hallelujah, 2 runs score! Why?

Well, to start with, the hitters looked relaxed. They'd seen Danks twice before and knew what to expect. They waited for their pitch and made the pitcher try to beat them. They didn't flail at ugly pitches that no one could hit anyway, but adjusted to what was thrown their way. Michaels and Sizemore shortened up their swings considerably and were rewarded with a double and RBI single, respectively. Not a huge inning numerically, but a big inning for the players' confidence. In three ABs, they broke up the no-hitter, forced the pitcher to throw the most pitches he'd thrown all game in an inning (was at 80 by then), and gave Jake the lead. Up until that inning, a lot of players were trying to club the ball over the fence each time, but all they got were some long fly balls.

If the Tribe would just try and settle for a single more often, they'd extend their ABs per inning, resulting in more runs scored than just hitting for flat-out power all the time. A more scientific comparison of the two approaches has probably been done, but the bottom line is that Cleveland consistently tries to do too much with each AB. If there's a guy on second, do you really have to jack one into the bleachers or even off the wall? Uh, no. Singles are your friend with RISP (Note: yeah, I know it takes a double to get Pronk or Vic home from second, but you get the point).

I'm always hesitant to blame anyone specifically when it comes to a hitters failure to break out of an extended slump, since I have no actual experience playing or coaching. These guys know how to hit consistently, otherwise they wouldn't be in the majors (obviously), but it makes you wonder what the problem is, be it lack of confidence, team chemistry, or poor coaching. It's good to keep in mind that the same hitting coach who is at the center of the slump, was also there before the slump (5th in MLB in runs scored). I'd probably blame the hitting coach or the manager before anyone else though. Like I said, the hitters have the ability, but need help getting past the mental roadblocks that accompany such a brutal season.

AstroCab Called Up

Asdrubal Cabrera was called up from AAA Buffalo on Tuesday after Mike Rouse was designated for assignment. Rouse was the definition of disposable this season, but Cabrera getting called up in his place provides some interesting possibilities. Odds are, if you're not a hardcore fan or minor league aficionado, you haven't heard of Asdrubal since the Eduardo Perez trade. AstroCab had made great strides offensively in AAA and AA before getting the call and is a wizard defensively. He is a natural shortstop, but saw a few starts at secondbase this season. I'll break down how the new arrival fits into the roster once I see how Wedge uses him, but I have a hunch Barfield is the one who will be affected the most by the promotion.