Pitching Anyone?
Well, my favorite person to question, Justin Masterson, got it right on Sunday. But other than that...Fausto Carmona and Carlos Carrasco? Are you kidding me? Carmona especially, after everything we heard about Carmona having a "great spring" and maybe looking like he's ready to get back to that '07 form... Well, not on Opening Day, that's for sure. 10 earned runs in 3+ innings (granted 2 of them scored after he left, but still) translates into a 30.00 ERA. Yes, our "Ace" has an ERA of 30.00. Let me drive this point home one more time, if he were to pitch 9 innings, this projects him to give up 30 runs. Ack.
Carrasco doesn't bother me as much, because as I have said before in this very blog, I had no trust in him going in. But, at least he was able to stop the bleeding and stay in the game for a little while. Both of those guys have got to get their mess together before their next start. Please.
Guys with some Pop?
Despite getting down by two touchdowns, the Indians did end up scoring 10 runs in that opening game. The second one wasn't so great either, but the Tribe then came out and scored 7 runs on Sunday. I'll take that average of 6.6 runs a game, which will be great as long as the pitching stays under, you know, 5 runs a game. I don't think that's too hard, is it?
I was impressed by a couple of guys (well...based on their highlights) this weekend, Travis Hafner and Jack Hannahan. The Man-Formerly-Known-As-Pronk blasted a home run into the visitors bullpen on Saturday afternoon, and also hit safely in each of the opening three games. I know I wasn't expecting much of him in the season preview, but this was an encouraging weekend. Especially that home run, if you haven't seen it, it reminded me of his '06 blasts—back
Can't have a post about offense without mentioning clean-up hitter Carlos Santana, who has reached base at least two times in each of the Indians games so far. He only has one extra base hit, the home run in the Opener on Friday, but I have no doubt that more will be coming this week. Santana also started the league's first triple play of the year at first base on Sunday! I got this stat from indians.com beat writer Jordan Bastian but there have been three triple plays in the history of Jacobs/Progressive Field and Asdrubal Cabrera has been involved in all of them. How about that!
And here's an honorable mention to Orlando Cabrera who jacked a two-run bomb to the home run porch out in left field on Sunday. It's good to have the veteran presence at second base.
Attendance...Or Lack Thereof
Okay, I can't say I blame anyone in Cleveland for this, but the attendance? Man oh man, it just makes me sad to see all the empty green seats in such a nice stadium. I know the Indians are bad, and I know that the economy isn't the greatest, but can we at least get...I don't know, 15,000 people in the stands? It's not like the Cavs are that great anymore, so we don't have that as an excuse. I mean, setting the record for smallest attendance at the stadium on Saturday was bad enough, but then we had to break it on Sunday with 8,726? I hate to say it, but I feel like there will be some weekday games where we'll have around 7,000. Hopefully it won't go any lower than that.
Just for the record, I fully intend to do my part and go to a bunch of games during the summer. At least when it hits June and Chisenhall comes up. That should at least be a little exciting, right?
Not entirely sure when the next post will come about the Tribe, but it'll be soon. Probably a little mid-week filler...remember those? Until then Cleveland fans!
~MAS
Graet recap, I am glad I discovered a big fan like yourself on Twitter!
ReplyDeleteFirst thing, I was at the game on Sunday and I drove 4.5 hours for it from Indiana. I love baseball and I love the Indians, I don't care how bad they are. There is no excuse for such low attendence. Bad economy or not, buy the $8 tickets and move down, thats what we do. Eat fast food before the game, thats what we do. You can make this trip under 15$ for each person, so dont blame this on the economy, its the fact Cleveland fans are bandwagoners.
Second, this team is fun to watch and will score a ton of runs. People use the excuse "why would I go watch a minor league talent team play?" Let me tell you, our 1-6 hitters are big league hitters and will be here for quite some time. This is our future so you better get used to seeing these guys.
On the pitching, Carassco looked good after the first two innings. He really settled down and showed that he has good stuff. I am not worried about Fausto, his only conern is himself. He has nasty stuff, he just is a head case. We will see on Thursday how he responds.
Keep posting this great stuff! You have a fan in Indiana, as do the Tribe! I have tickets for April 30th against the Tigers. I will see you then Progressive Field....