The Indians scored 35 runs the last three games in Texas, which either means that park is the ultimate hitter’s park, or the Indians may be breaking out of their hitting slump. Or have broken out. If they are, it’s good. 
But the prognosis for Jake Westbrook does not sound good. Any time a guy goes to see an expert on Tommy John surgery, it does not sound good. Sounds possible, perhaps likely, the Indians will lose Westbrook for the season, if not longer. Which means that this season the Indians have lost their No. 2 and No. 3 starters for periods of time (Fausto Carmona and Westbrook) and gotten next to nothing from their No. 3 and 4 hitters (Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez). There’s still time in a season, and the Indians do have pitching depth – though minor leaguer Adam Miller is done for the year following surgery on his finger – but given these facts is it any wonder the Indians have struggled?
Excellent story in the Boston Globe about Paul Pierce, a guy I had questions about prior to this postseason. It details how Pierce grew up this year. Seems easy to grow up when you’ve got two All-Stars on your team, but that’s the take from Boston .In the story, it says the Celtics figured things out against Detroit after playing two “inferior teams.” Ahem. One of those teams would be the Cleveland Cavaliers. On the one hand, anyone can say that, because the Celtics beat the Cavs. But on the other, let’s be honest … the Celtics squeezed out a Game 7 win over the Cavs by four points in a game the Cavs easily could have won had they made a shot at the end. This is sort of like the guy I once knew who used to say he hit the perfect putt, it was just three feet to the right. Which of course means the putt was not perfect. So the Cavs missed their shots and lost. Which means the Celtics deserved to win. But it hardly seems like that series proved the Cavs were an “inferior team.” Boston just happened to win.
Always interesting what motivates players. Pierce apparently was made he was drafted 10th. The story relates: “In his early years, Pierce regularly engaged in a solo shooting drill in which he would rotate from the perimeter, left to right, swishing a 3-pointer and hollering the name of each man drafted ahead of him.”
Could the NBA possibly drag out the start of these Finals a little more? When did the last series end? A week ago Tuesday?
Finally found the best use of HDTV – Stanley Cup hockey. You can actually see the puck!
Despite losing various starters at times, and numerous bullpen implosions, there is still only ONE primary reason why we're a sub-500 team: No Offense for appx. 60 games. CC & Fausto would've been 25-game winners last year (check it out) if the Tribe could've generated even 3 runs per start for them. And yet, somehow, Mark Shapiro thought (cue birds singing) "it would all magically change this year." He is to blame for this mess of a team, which–in a business sense–is gonna lose the Dolans money big-time because it's interminably boring. Unwatchable.
The Tribe could have survived any of the few pitching woes. Not scoring any runs, and not having a clue as to "WHY?," are things that a team cannot survive.
Oh, come on, Pat. The guy wrote "inferior teams, he didn't write "best player." You know darn well that if they played 82 games against each other, with the exception of the 30 games that James would be way too much for them to handle, the Celtics would win the other 52. I'd take just about any Celtics player over the Cavs' players, with the obvious exception of James. I'd even deeply consider the Kendrick Perkins-Zydrunas Ilgauskas choice to be a toss-up. That fork sticking out of Z's back is becoming more and more obtrustive by the day. Somebody really oughta marinate that guy before he dries out.
I wonder if the failure to trade Sabathia during the off-season is going to put the kibosh on what they're going to get in return, assuming he's dealt in a couple of months. I'm guessing it will. Shapiro must have really thought he put together a serious contender that could win it all this season, because there is no other plausible explanation for his failure to trade Sabathia when his value would never again be higher.
Common Sense, between baseball's revenue sharing and the Dolans' TV network, I seriously doubt the Dolans will lose much, if anything at all.
Besides, the poor attendance has little to do with the Indians purportedly pretty "boring." Cleveland being a pretty poor baseball town is a far better explanation. Or do they have to build another new stadium to get people to come back. It's almost 15 now, getting a little rough around the edges. Time to demolish that ugly deteriorating heap of bricks and cement. If you build it, he will come.
Alan speaks the truth. When C.C. shut down all negotiations, saying "there wasn't enough common ground" in the Tribe's $18-million per year offer, that said everything you need to know about that choke-artist. He stole the Cy Young, and the Tribe could've easily dealt him (at HIGH value, not his normal mediocrity) to a team like Atlanta, Texas, Seattle, even the moron Giants in the off-season and actually improved this club. But we had other pressing matters: the signing of Jamey Carroll.
I rest my case… the day Cleveland wins a championship, and it will happen, Alan will rip them for not outscoring the opposition by enough. Get lost, old man.
"Common Sense"… If Hafner and Martinez were healthy and hitting like they were 2 years ago, the Indians would be AT LEAST 5-6 games up and cruising toward another division title/postseason run. You want to cite hindsight, I'll give you hypothetical. You wouldnt be calling this team boring if they were comfortably in first place, no matter how few runs they were scoring. A 2-1 win is still a win, right?
That's all fans in this city ever do, complain, whine and point out what "should have" been done in the past, like they knew the whole time. What a joke…
Yeah, Josh, and if Pat Ewing and Allan Houston were still healthy, the Knicks would be kicking butt.
Seriously, dude, your pom-pom fetish gets a little old. Even older than my chronological age. Logic and reason means little to you.
And your last paragraph makes no sense. From what I've read, many people do write about stuff in the past, and then refer to it as the stuff comes true. I know I do. For one, I wrote trade Sabathia before the season starts. Well, the guy is still here, and as the days remaining on his contract tick down, his trade value diminishes accordingly. In the meantime, you're pom-poms are bouncing, and your Cleveland franchise flags are waving.
It's why I got rid of my Cavs season tickets in the late 90s, because it was becoming freakin' obvious that Gund was determined to drastically devalue the franchise and turn it into a fiscal joke in order to sell it and get the most bang for his buck. Not only that, the product on the court was every bit as ugly and boring as it is now. If not for lucking into James, the Cleveland NBA franchise would be history. I think I have a damn right to complain and to keep on complaining, especially considering Gund still has his grubby hands in the minority cookie jar. Not to mention my tax dollars went towards building his luxury penthouse apartment he secretly built inside the arena. Yeah, Gund was benovolent and blind. Like a fox with hawk's eyes.