Series Preview in Blog: Cleveland Indians (07/25-07/27)
Posted by Big Mak on Friday, July 25th, 2008 at 7:00 am
The Twins try to wash the taste of that Yankees series out of their mouth with a three game set in Cleveland this weekend. The Twins enter on a four game losing streak, 2.5 games back of the White Sox in the AL Central.
Sometimes I think the Twins feel a bit overmatched in Yankee stadium.
(from Daniel Dociu)
The Indians return to Cleveland after a 3-3 road trip to the west coast, they took 2 of 3 from Seattle and 1 of 3 from the Angels. It has been a long and frustrating year for the Tribe, but even with a 44-56 record and position at the bottom of the AL Central, some fans still can't quite bring themselves to give up on the season. To give the impression that all Indians fans are holding out some wild hope of a second-half surge would be misleading, plenty of fans have turned their attention to more important things (keeping a close eye on the ketchup in the condiment race), or to dissecting what caused the 2007 division champs to fail so spectacularly (One theory: missing Hafner and Martinez didn't help). However I found more than one post by people who hadn't thrown in the towel just yet. The reason I point that out is this gem in the comments:
The Seven Stages of Indian Fandom
- Irrational Expectiations
- Discouragement
- Rationalization
- The Search for Meaning
- Adoration of the Unworthy
- Acceptance of Abject Failure
- Planning for the Future
Check it out for some shots directed at the Cleveland equivalent of the STrib commenter.
Livan v. Cliff Lee
Cliff Lee has been great this year, and is certainly in the running to be the second consecutive Cleveland pitcher to win the Cy Young award. The Twins are the only AL team to saddle Lee with a loss this season (the other blemish on his 13-2 record came against Cincinnati). He, along with Grady Sizemore, have been the bright spots for Indians fans this year. In addition to pitching very well, Lee has been a workhorse. He has only had one outing this season in which he threw less than 95 pitches.
Baker v. Fausto Carmona
Carmona comes off the DL in this one, making his first start since May 23. His return to form is certainly something Indians fans are hoping for and monitoring closely.
Blackburn v. Jeremy Sowers
Sowers has struggled this year. He picked up his first win of the season in his last time out, against the Mariners. In his 10 starts this year, he has averaged 5 innings pitched and has taken a lot of pitches to get through those innings (average of 91 pitches per start).
All of these pitchers will most likely be pitching to Kelly Shoppach who (in my personal opinion) is 0 for 2 on choosing a halfway decent song for his introductory music.
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Well done, as always, Mak.
I really enjoyed the entrance song link. You're right, Stoppach has turrble choice in music. Also, I feel alright in complimenting Jeremy Sower's choice of Wilco as he is curretly 1-5 with a 7.33 ERA.
I thought Sizemore's choice of Static X was remarkable too. He even went with the non-obvious "The Trance is the Motion" which is probably the 8th or 9th best song off Wisconsin Death Trip but would be great entrance music.
"The Trance is the Motion" which is probably the 8th or 9th best song off Wisconsin Death Trip
I assume that this Wisconsin Death Trip is different from the constructed tale of woe from Black River Falls
Oof, that is a atrociously awful duo of songs.
Anybody else "appreciate" that Brendan Harris was coming out to "She's My Cherry Pie" by Poison? What a weird baseball entrance song. Last game they didn't play it at all for him, though, leading us to speculate that somebody determined it was not quite family friendly.
"She's My Cherry Pie" by
PoisonWarrant!I thought that looked wrong! A hair band faux pas!
I'm sure you are all proud to have recognized hair-band songs. E-6, you can now stop complaining about my taste in WGOM Video selections. Clearly, I am operating well above replacement level.
Just because my college roommates liked the stuff and played it incessantly doesn't mean that I'm a fan. I just have knowledge.
Music elitist!
I'm proud of any stupid trivia knowledge I have. I think I could play Name That Hair Band Tune against just about anyone.
Don't worry, brianS. The WGOM videos have always put a smile on my face 10 miles wide.
Sorry! You can deduct some comments from my account or something.
Nah, that's what's known as "half-baked crap". It fits right in.
Sweet, Big Mak is back. Good stuff, as always.
When I looked yesterday at probable starters and saw Livan vs. Lee, I figured okay, we'll drop the first and take two of three. Then I saw Baker vs. Carmona and thought, crap, Baker won't get any run support again and Carmona will own us and we'll be lucky to win one game of this series. That's pretty much where I'm sitting today. That Yankees series really pimp slapped the optimism right out of me.
Here's hoping Carmona has a April/May 2008 Liriano-like comeback.
My favorite all-time entrance song was "As Good As I Once Was" by Denny Hocking when he was a Royal. It would have been even funnier if he had actually been good at any point of his career.
I also really enjoyed the White Sox music guy using "Here I Go Again" by Whitesnake when Chuck Finley pitched against them shortly after Tawny Kitaen was accused of assaulting him. MLB has no sense of humor about some things.
Which do you like better in a lineup against a lefty? About 40 more points of OBP or roughly the same advantage in slugging?
Too bad Kubel hasn't really made a step from "pretty good" to "awesome" this year.
I take Craig Monroe in a heartbeat. Both players have been fairly unlucky as judged by PrOPS and based on their batted ball types, Monroe and Redmond have hit roughly:
.255/.323/.478 -- Monroe
.315/.346/.392 -- Redmond
But looking at it that way, you're trading 23 points of OBP for 146 points of isolated slugging. At an exchange rate of roughly 6 extra bases per out, I'll take the extra bases.