With all of the excitement in town regarding the Cavs first appearance in the NBA Finals, the success of the Cleveland Indians has gone under the radar. Still, the Tribe sits in first place in the AL Central with a 35-21 record and have a 3-1/2 game lead over the Tigers after last night’s 1-0 victory over the Royals. At this time, GM Mark Shapiro’s moves over the off-season has worked out. The 2007 Tribe has more depth in hitting, but still there are some question marks.
Bullpen. Joe Borowski is among the AL leaders in saves, and Rafael Betancourt and Tom Mastny have done a good job for the most part in setting up, but the bullpen still is a large question mark. Aaron Fultz was very good early in the year as the left handed specialist, but recently has developed the nasty little habit of walking guys with the bases loaded. Roberto Hernandez and Fernando Cabrera have struggled to throw strikes, so Eric Wedge has to be hestitant to bring either into any game that is close. Lefty Rafael Perez has been effective in the few games he has hurled, but hasn’t been put into a tight spot as of yet.
What to do? If Hernandez doesn’t start throwing strikes, he could wind up being released. Cabrera showed signs in his last outing that he might be able to start finding the plate, but his performance has to be evaluated on an outing by outing basis. Matt Miller has been throwing well lately at Buffalo, and considering he would have made the team out of spring training if not for an arm injury, he could rejoin the big club soon. I would have like to have seen Edward Mujica get more of a shot in his brief time here, but Wedge did not have the confidence to bring him in in anything but a mop up role.
Utility infielder. Mike Rouse is a left handed hitter. That’s about the only thing he has going for him at this point. Nobody expects him to hit .300, but .200 would be nice. Rouse is currently batting .122, which is pretty close to being an automatic out. He simply has to hit better than that to hold a major league job. Eric Wedge has to hesitate to give Jhonny Peralta, Josh Barfield, or Casey Blake a rest with Rouse hitting like he is currently.
What to do? The only options would be lesser defensive players, which I don’t think the organization wants. Joe Inglett is a switch hitter and can provide a little offense, but can’t handle SS defensively. Hector Luna has proven he can hit at the big league level, but he has been a mess defensively no matter where they put him. Luis Rivas started for the Twins at 2B, and has played SS at Buffalo, but hasn’t played third base recently, if at all. My guess if any move is made, it will be for Rivas.
Starting pitching. The first three starters have been outstanding. C.C. Sabathia, Fausto Carmona, and Paul Byrd have combined for a 21-3 record. After that, the starters have been disappointing. Jake Westbrook will probably be out until late June, and you have to hope he will be better than he was before he was injured. Cliff Lee and Jeremy Sowers have become lefties that Wedgie hopes he can squeeze 5 or 6 innings out of. Neither have shown the command they showed in the past.
What to do? Sowers is the likely candidate to be sent back to AAA when Westbrook returns. He might already be there if Adam Miller had not injured a finger. Lee will likely remain in the rotation as the fifth starter, but needs to change his pitching patterns. He might be trade bait if the Tribe can find someone to upgrade the bullpen. Sean Smith has also been pitching well at Buffalo, and perhaps the team might give Perez a start, since he was starting at Buffalo.
Minor problems, sure. However, in the tough AL Central, once again the best division in baseball, these things need to fixed in order to stay ahead of the pack. Remember, the depth of the farm system could be a key in taking care of these problems.
KM
Cleveland Sports Perspective 