Cowardly Chris Perez needs to own up to his mistakes

Oh Chris Perez...Ugh
Photo from Wikimedia Commons

I know I've said it before, but after last night I think it's worth repeating. I like Chris Perez the baseball player a lot. But Chris Perez the person, not so much.

Usually when I say that, it's about something stupid Perez has said. Strangely enough, today it's the opposite.

It's not that the Indians need to trade him, or now that he's blown another save on August 5 he's the worst closer ever, and I'm certainly not going to go the way of too many Tribe fans on Twitter and suggest that Perez kill himself—a ludicrous notion, to be sure. He's a closer, and even the great, revered Mariano Rivera blows a save sometimes.

My problem with Perez today stems from the fact that he was too much of a coward to own up to his mistakes and left his teammates to speak for him.

True, Perez has not spoken to the media since May, and perhaps that means the closer not speaking after Monday's 4-2 loss to the first-place Tigers shouldn't be a story. But it just seems to me that if ever there was a time to break the silence, it was after a game to begin one of the biggest series' of the season where Perez gave up four runs without recording an out in the 9th.

Maybe I'm being unreasonable about this, but I think that when someone screws the pooch as badly as Perez did last night, he should be the one to speak about it. Michael Bourn shouldn't have to say, "The only thing you can do is go to sleep, wake up and it's a new day... But this one was a tough one. I think it's one of the toughest ones of the year." Jason Kipnis shouldn't have to say, "There's no way to sugar coat it, it sucked. We thought we had this one, and we let it get away in the end."

Why is it so difficult for Perez to just come out and say, "This one's on me. I'm the closer, and I have to get the job done," and have that be the end of it? Isn't that something people teach their children—if they make a mistake, stand up, own it, and apologize for it?

But this is a trend with him. After he and his wife were arrested for marijuana possession in May, Perez never released a statement of his own words—or hell, even someone else's words. Only his attorney released a statement on his and his wife's behalf. And while this does make sense, as a public figure, I'd like to think it's not too much to ask that he apologize for embarrassing the Indians organization, even if he didn't specify exactly what he was apologizing for. People do that kind of thing all the time (ahem, Ryan Bruan), and it would've been appropriate in that instance.

But that's just not who Perez is—at least not anymore. We used to always see him front and center when he blew a big save, which is one of the things I respected about the man. And we have continued to see this type of owning up to one's mistake from other relievers like Joe Smith and the recently demoted Vinnie Pestano.

As the Indians' 28-year-old closer, Perez should be a leader for this team. Running away and making your teammates speak for you is about as far from a leader as one can be.

But who knows, maybe he'll realize his mistake and speak up for himself today.

The way this season's gone, I wouldn't count on it.

The Indians must suspend Chris Perez

Hey Chris Perez?
Stop.Talking.
Photo Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

I wanted to write a post about the Indians falling into fourth place in the AL Central.

FOURTH PLACE, BEHIND THE KANSAS CITY ROYALS in a year during this absurd "Window of Contention."

I wanted to write about how the Dolans simply can't ignore this colossal failure much longer. I wanted to make a point about how firing Manny Acta won't solve all the problems, but it's going to be necessary when a new GM comes in to so he can hire his own manager. And I also wanted to ask the question, when will it be time for the Dolans to cut their losses and just sell the team, if they're losing so much money?

But then everyone's favorite closer had to open his big fat mouth yet again.

If you haven't watched this video of Chris Perez laying into an Oakland A's fan, it's cringe worthy.

You know what? It's actually a whole lot worse than that.

Let me say this--I know the guy who instigated the whole confrontation is a jackass, and I also have no idea what happened before the video started rolling. The guy could have been saying all kinds of nasty things about Perez, his family, the Indians team, his father, his wife--but it doesn't matter. They were both wrong.

Perez is a professional athlete, and--as I've written before--needs to start acting like one. And since Perez refuses to learn anything from his previous experiences with confronting fans, whether it's through the media or through Twitter, the Indians need to start hitting him where it hurts.

His paycheck.

The Indians should suspend Perez without pay effective immediately for six games. That means he doesn't play tonight in Seattle or for the rest of the week.

Tell him to go home to Tampa and think about how he's embarrassed his teammates, the front office, the organization as a whole, the fans, and the city of Cleveland. It's not like the Indians are playing meaningful baseball games anyway. If a save situation comes up, Vinnie Pestano or anyone else in that bullpen can be the closer--I don't care. This type of behavior is undeniably unacceptable, and it's time the organization stopped messing around with him and started sending a message.

Again, Perez is a professional athlete. Do you think this is the first time those fans have tried to heckle an opposing player? I guarantee you it wasn't. Those fans baited him, and Perez swallowed the worm whole.

I mean seriously, going over to those guys and talking about your salary? Saying f-- this and f-- that about eight different times? And then the kicker, "Get your d--k out of your mouth!"

Are you kidding me?

Yes, it's a free country and Perez has a right to defend himself and all that. But remember earlier this season when Miami Marlins Manager Ozzie Guillen opened his fat trap and said how much he loved Fidel Castro? The Marlins suspended him for five games, and with good reason.

To me, this situation is worse simply because of the language Perez used and the manner in which he used it. The precedent has already been set this year for organizations suspending its members for their words. It's high time the Indians followed it.

I've seen this point brought up a couple of different times today, and I think it's worth repeating. When Jackie Robinson broke MLB's color barrier in 1947, can you imagine the types of heinous remarks he had to endure? And how many times have you heard about him lashing out at those racist fans?


Very few, if any at all.

To bring it into a more contemporary time, I wrote a few weeks ago in my previous post about Chris Perez that Colt McCoy handles the hecklers incredibly well. He goes over to the crowds at training camp waiting for autographs, ignores the words of the ignorant, signs his name and says, "Thank you for your support."

I know Chris Perez is a fiery guy who is not afraid to express himself, but at a certain point, he's just got to be reigned in. With the video all around the internet through posts on Deadspin, Bleacher Report, and The Big Lead, the Indians organization has been publicly embarrassed--even more so than they had been with their abysmal 10-26 record since the All-Star break.

Now is not the time to be soft. Suspend Chris Perez.

Now.

~MAS

You're a Profesional Athlete—Act Like One

Does Chris Perez really understand what it means to be a
professional athlete? Probably. But does he act like it?
Not at all.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

By now, I'm sure you've all heard about Chris Perez's latest string of Tweets from Sunday night, in which he berated people for Tweeting him more when the Indians lose than when they win.

While Chris Perez has the right to do whatever he wants with his Twitter—including criticizing fans—I don't have to like it. I'm a huge fan of Chris Perez the baseball player. But Chris Perez the person? I'm not so sure.

Allow me to explain—and stay with me on this, I promise you'll see my logic.

A few years ago, I went from attending a Sports Camp to being a junior counselor at the same place in consecutive summers (again, stay with me, I promise it'll pay off). This may or may not have been the best thing in the world for me, but it did mean I knew all of the people I would be working with quite well.

Anyway, one of the Senior Counselors I worked with always had these sayings—like "Safety first, last, and always." Or when someone we didn't know would come on the camp grounds he'd say, "Challenge them!"

But the one saying he'd always bark that stuck with me came whenever I'd make a mistake. He'd say, "You're an All-American, now act like one!"

Now I've never been an All-American at anything in my life before, and I don't anticipate it happening anytime in the near future, but the principle of the mater has always resonated with me.

If you're a high-profile person—a role model, or someone who ought to command respect—then you better act like it. You can't just do whatever the hell you want and act like a jackass. There are standards  and practices you must uphold if you want to have the respect that comes with your high profile.

And when I think about those standards and practices, there's one person that comes to mind as the poster boy for proper conduct as a professional athlete.

Colt McCoy.

I was at Browns Training Camp the other day, and after the end of the morning practice McCoy came over to the fans to sign autographs. McCoy obviously had a roller coaster of an offseason, highlighted by Draft Night when he tweeted congratulations to Trent Richardson for being selected by the Browns, and then went silent after the 22nd pick. Wonder why.

But I digress. McCoy came over to the fans, where some were yelling words of encouragement, and others...well, let's just say they weren't so encouraging. I'm not saying that they were being pure unadulterated evil to the guy, but everybody and their grandmother knows McCoy's not going to be the starting quarterback and some fans were making that quite clear.

And yet, McCoy didn't bat an eye. He signed autograph after autograph for a good five to 10 minutes, and while he didn't address the haters, every time McCoy finished signing and fans would give him words of encouragement he'd give a simple, "Thank you, I appreciate your support."

He wasn't brash. He wasn't annoyed with anyone. He simply signed his autograph, expressed his appreciation, and went on his way.

And that is exactly how a professional athlete is supposed to act in my book.

Look, Chris Perez is obviously not the same kind of person as Colt McCoy. If you think Perez wouldn't complain until the cows came home if Vinnie Pestano replaced him as closer of the Indians, you're delusional. McCoy has been nothing but a paragon of class, despite the fact that his father and his brother have done things that really didn't sit so well with the Browns organization.

Oh yeah, and the Browns took a 28 year old to replace him at quarterback, and McCoy still hasn't said boo about it.

This is not to say that I want all professional athletes to just be silent, and only give the canned answers the PR reps train them to give. That's not it at all. I just don't think Perez understands what it means to be a professional athlete.

He doesn't seem to understand that it's just not a good idea to complain about fans when you just got swept by a last place team. He doesn't seme to get that saying "it's baseball" isn't an excuse for being swept when you're supposed to be a contending team. And most of all, he doesn't seem to understand that he's a professional athlete—he's making $4.5 million dollars. Why does it bother him so damn much that people are ticked off after a loss, and don't always praise him after a win?

Hey Don Draper, isn't there something that might make up for the lack of tweets?

Well how about that. I guess that $4.5 million is supposed to count for something.

So, again, Chris Perez the baseball player? Great. Chris Perez the person? I'm not sure I like him so much.

Cause hey, all those things I said he "doesn't understand?" It's way more likely that he understands them just fine and is a jackass about them anyway. And because of that, I don't know that he'll ever really be one of the professional athletes I look up to and admire.

~MAS

Indians Mid-Season Report Card

You are what your record says you are, right? If that's true, the Indians are a team three games over .500 with a record of 44-41.

You can spin it as positively as you like—saying things like the Indians spent a good portion of the first half of the season in first place and now they're just three games behind Chicago in the AL Central. Or you could say the Indians are just a game out of the second Wild Card spot. All of those things are absolutely true.

But the fact remains that his team is undeniably flawed. You can't tell me a team with a run differential of -29 is all kinds of successful. And the fact that the team has the second highest ERA in the American League at 4.50 certainly doesn't bode well for their playoff chances.

And yet, here they are with 77 games left to go in the season with a real chance to contend. And everyone knows that in baseball, once you make the postseason anything can happen. It's one of the beautiful things about the sport.

But we're not here to conjecture about the second half—that'll come in a later post. Right now, I'll give the Indians some grades, and talk about some of the players who are doing it right, and others who need some work.

Offense: B-


The Indians offense has been...well, I'd say just a sliver above average. They rank seventh in runs scored in the AL, and 11th overall with 385 runs. They have very little power with only 78 HRs (the Yankees lead the league with 134), but they're fifth in doubles in the AL with 155. They rank eighth in the AL in batting average, slugging and OPS, but—and here's where they become that sliver above average—they're third in on-base percentage because of their league-leading 309 walks.

But when you look at the individual stats, you can see that the lineup is being carried by four players—Shin-Soo Choo, Asdrubal Cabrera, Jason Kipnis, and Michael Brantley. If the Indians are going to make a run, they'll need better consistency from a whole bunch of people in that lineup.

Doing it right: Shin-Soo Choo

Placing Choo in the leadoff spot was no question Manny Acta's best move of the first half, and it could be argued that it was his best move in his tenure as manager of the Indians. Choo has repeatedly said that he was heating up before he made it to the leadoff spot, but since he's been there he's hit .330 with 9 HRs, 22 RBI, 19 doubles, 44 runs scored. When he leads off an inning, he's hit .367. Everybody likes to talk about Kipnis or Cabrera as the first half offensive MVPs, but without Choo in the leadoff spot, there's no way this team is just three games out of first.

Needs work: Carlos Santana

Santana, however, has pretty much been an unmitigated disaster at the plate. The Indians were counting on him building upon a pretty good 2011 where he hit 27 HRs, 79 RBI, and 35 doubles. Instead, he went out and laid a gigantic egg in the first half with just 5 HRs, 30 RBI, and 13 doubles. For those scoring at home, that projects to 10 HRs, 60 RBIs and 26 doubles. That's not what you want out of your "cleanup" hitter.

In fact, as cleanup hitter this year Santana has hit—wait for it—an astonishing .180 with 4 HRs and 19 RBIs. I know batting average isn't everything, but .180 is entirely unacceptable from the cleanup hitter. On the plus side, when he's hitting 5th, Santana has hit .289. Look for him to be there behind Travis Hafner for the 2nd half.

The Indians aren't going anywhere without Hafner and Santana producing at the very least like average four and five hitters.

Pitching: D


I considered giving this portion of the team an "F," but I guess the pitching hasn't been a total failure. It has been, however, pretty darn inconsistent. And you can thank Joe Smith, Vinnie Pestano and Chris Perez for saving that grade.

I'll be blunt—a 4.50 ERA is not going to land this team in the playoffs. And although Justin Masterson had been pitching very well, that clunker against the Rays last Friday didn't do him any favors in my book. It seems like Ubaldo Jimenez has righted himself, and I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt until he he maks me believe otherwise.

But honestly, who in the rotation do you have full confidence in every five days?

Doing it right: Chris Perez & Vinnie Pestano

I put these two together because when these two guys come in the game is pretty much over. Okay, so Perez blew the last game before the break, but the Indians are 26-3 when Perez and Pestano pitch in the same game. That's about as good as you can get from that kind of twosome. I was one of the fools clamoring for Perez to be traded after his Opening Day debacle, and I am very happy to eat some crow now. Perez is undoubtedly one of the most valuable players on this roster. And even though Pestano seems to have the makings of a closer, I'd like to see those two guys keep the 8th and 9th locked down for the next few years together.

Needs work: Everyone else

Okay, so maybe not everyone—Joe Smith and Esmil Rogers (who has a 2.02 ERA since coming to the Tribe) can be exempt—but seriously, there is room for improvement in pretty much every single pitcher. The bullpen's ERA is 4.31 overall, and the rotation's is 4.59. Those are not the kind of numbers that are going to get a team into the playoffs.

And don't read that as me being negative, it's just me being realistic.

Josh Tomlin, Derek Lowe, and Zach McAllister all need to shape up and give the team some kind of consisten play. Not every start will be a quality start, but just keep the team in the game. And McAllister especially needs to learn how to pick his defense up after an error—we've now seen him unravel after one occurs in a couple of starts in a row. That happens with a young pitcher, but it can't continue at the rate it has if the Indians are going to go places.

Overall: C+


As they stand right now, the Indians are a .500 baseball team—not that great, not that bad either, just...average. Anthony Castrovince wrote this in a blog post a few weeks ago, and it still stands the same now. Can they pull it together and win the Central? Absolutely yes, it's entirely possible. But without external improvements, I just don't see this team being in contention for a playoff spot in September.

My educated guess? The Indians will do their best to make a bold move, but they don't really have multiple top-tier prospects to deal for a front line kind of player. I think they should have traded for Carlos Quentin yesterday, but it does take two to tango and the Padres seem to want a pretty penny for him.

So what will happen in the second half? I have no idea. I did pick the Indians to go 79-83, and they still could prove me right, but I really hope they don't.

Let's just enjoy the ride, Tribe fans.

~MAS

Hey, Chris Perez? Shut up and pitch

I have been as critical as anybody about the Indians closer, Chris Perez, but I've also been very happy to eat crow each and every time he's proven me wrong. After all, I was one of the idiots with the knee jerk reaction after Perez's Opening Day debacle to say that Vinnie Pestano would be the closer by mid-July.

Although there's still a very, very slim chance that could happen, I really wouldn't count on it. And I honestly couldn't be more happy about that. Since he blew the save on Opening Day, all Perez has done is go 13 for 13 in save situations with a 1.72 ERA—including a flawless 9th inning yesterday where Perez struck out the side on 10 pitches, nine of which were strikes. It was probably the most dominant performance from a closer I'd ever seen in person at the Jake.

Now, the Indians attendance problems have been well documented, but on a day where the Indians drew nearly 30,000 fans for the second straight game and had their largest crowd since Opening Day, why in the wide, wide world of sports would Perez go off on the fans?

I realize, as Perez said on his Twitter, that the closer was only answering the questions he was asked, and I also appreciate his candidness and honesty in answering the questions, but you know what? I think a few of his comments went too far.

Okay, I'll admit that I hold this perhaps unpopular opinion, but on principle I'm usually just fine with booing home players if you're a fan in attendance. You paid for the price of admission to see an entertaining product on the field, so if that product stinks I have no problem with letting them know it. And if the closer blows a save, he deserves to get booed—and I will boo the guy 10 times out of 10.

To his credit, Perez acknowledged the fact that after blowing the save on Opening Day he deserved to get booed. And I agree with Perez when he said that it was ridiculous when two guys reached base and fans booed earlier this week when he pitched against the Mariners. Perez didn't even end up giving up a run in that inning, and the Indians ended up winning the game. In situations like that, preemptively booing is uncalled for—especially because no harm was actually done.

But beyond that? Can't say that I care if Perez is "pissed off" over getting booed at home.

You know why? Because Perez has 4.5 million reasons to suck it up and get over it.

Professional athletes are paid ridiculous amounts of money to be entertainers. As Adam the Bull from 92.3 The Fan said on his Twitter last night, All-Star players get booed in New York and all over the country all the time. So if Perez can't stand the fact that fans might not be so encouraging every time he takes the mound, maybe he's in the wrong business.

And additionally, to say that Carlos Beltran chose to sign with the St. Louis Cardinals over the Indians because of fan support or lack thereof is positively absurd to me. Yes, Beltran turned the Indians down—as well as Roy Oswalt and Carlos Pena—but there were a number of factors with those things. Oswalt was being a general jerk and only wanted to play for maybe two teams. Pena wanted to go back to a familiar environment with the Rays, in part because his family was located in Tampa. And with Beltran, he didn't want to switch back to the American League—a switch that can be difficult (ahem, Albert Pujols)—after playing in the NL since mid-2004.

So for Perez to insinuate that Beltran was swayed to the Cardinals over the Indians because of the fans just sounds foolish. He's really saying that despite the similar amounts of money offered, any logical person wouldn't sign with the defending World Champions? Yeah, I'll let Dr. Evil handle this one for me.

So here's the deal, Perez says he's in for the long haul, to bring a Championship to C-town, and I believe him. He's sure as hell pitching like it. But you know what? If you don't want the fans to boo you, it's probably not a good idea to assail them in the press.

I'll say this—I'm still going to cheer on Chris Perez and hope that he continues to prove me wrong. I'm still going to go down to the Jake as much as I can, and I hope you will too. But if the team stinks that night, they're going to hear it from me.

And I will not apologize for that.
~MAS

We're Not Even Supposed to Be Here

I think it's pretty safe to say that the Indians just went through an excruciating road trip.

I always say that if a team plays about .500 baseball on the road, and well above .500 at home, then they should be in a good position to get into the playoffs. If this road trip were 6 games then by that adage, 3 wins would be considered successful. Unfortunately for the Tribe, this was a 7 gamer and thus the sad truth is that 7 games mean feast or famine -- you win 4 games and it's a great success, but if you lose 4 you've failed.

The latter is what the Indians must face after 4 games in Boston and 3 games in Texas. The worst part about this trip is that the Tribe had an opportunity to win each and every game -- especially the ones in Texas.

I was actually really pleased with the way we handled the Boston series, a split in 4 games on the road is what you want. But the hot mess in Texas is a totally different story.

When you're up by 2 runs or more an it's the 8th inning or later, you shouldn't lose the game. Period. I don't care who you're playing or what ballpark you're in. As consistent as our bullpen has been this year, that should never be a problem. Clearly, that meant nothing to the Rangers as both Chris Perez and Joe Smith had meltdowns that saw our leads of 2+ runs in the 8th inning or later evaporate.

Now, last night when Smith came in, I wondered, Isn't this Vinnie Pestano territory? And I was probably right, since after the game Manny Acta said that Chris Perez and Tony Sipp were both unavailable after all they had pitched this weekend. So Pestano was probably acting closer, and Smith's job was to clean up the runners Tomlin had left on.

Of course, what resulted was a colossal failure. Yet, in the aftermath of that dreadful inning, I was surprised to find that I wasn't extremely ticked off. Maybe it's because the 3 walk-off losses on the trip had prepared me for it, or maybe I was just in such a state of shock that I couldn't feel anything. But after the Indians completed their 1-2-3 9th inning, I started thinking about the season as a whole.

Way back on April 1, I sat at my desk in my dorm room and wrote this Start Me Up post before the Indians opened the season against the White Sox. And in it, I predicted they'd go 82-82. We've got 50 games left, and what's our record? 56-56.

I'm not really saying this to toot my own horn, or brag about how I was right, but the plain truth is that my "prediction" was wildly optimistic at the time. Of course, we were all expecting the Indians to take strides and get better this year, but nobody was actually expecting them to contend -- including me. Honestly, who expected the Twins and White Sox to be as bad as they've been? Even the Tigers --  they may be leading the division, but they're only 4 games up over our .500 team.

If we were in any other division, we wouldn't even be close. Not that 4 games is all that close when you're this deep into the season, but thank goodness we're not in the AL East. Toronto is 58-56 and they're 12 -- yes twelve -- games behind Boston. The NL East is even worse, as the Mets are 56-57 and 17 games back.

So I guess the fact that we're even having a conversation about contention is a blessing in and of itself. But I have to say that the way this team has played since it was 30-15 -- going 26-41 -- just doesn't inspire confidence in me.

Really, this team reminds me a lot of the '04 team, which was in a similar place for contention in August of that year. On the 15th, the Tribe was 63-55, good enough for 1 game behind the Minnesota Twins, who they were playing in Cleveland. They ended up losing the game in 10 innings, and the team just wasn't the same in the aftermath, finishing 80-82, 12 games behind the Twins.

But remember what happened the next year? Our team was great, winning 93 games, and just missing out on a Wild Card berth.

So here's the point, that '04 team wasn't supposed to contend either, and even though they were in a position to at one point, they didn't in the end. And although I would like nothing more than to be proven wrong, I think that's where this '11 version of the Tribe is heading too.

After a 30-15 start, will missing the playoffs be disappointing? Absolutely yes. But the Tribe is still on track to contend in 2012 and beyond.

And so despite the fact that I hate this saying, and I'm sure you hate it too, it looks like we're going to have to "Wait 'till next year" yet again. But I really think this time we're going to see that waiting pay off.

At least I really hope so.

~MAS

When Social Media Goes Wrong

So as you may or may not know, I'm a huge fan of Twitter. Even though my two best friends make fun of it constantly, calling it "Twat-er" or saying "sending more Twats?" I think when it comes to sports, Twitter is something that has made the fans even more a part of the game. I follow pretty much all of the players who have an account on the Indians and Browns, as well as many of the beat writers. I like to stay in the "know," but sometimes people just say interesting things.

While I think it's great that we now have a direct line to some players and coaches, there comes a point when we as fans have to check ourselves before we wreck ourselves. Case in point, last night some vicious and hateful things were said to both Manny Acta (@Mactriber_11) and Chris Perez (@ChrisPerez54) by some angry fans.

Now, first off these angry hateful people only represent a microcosm of the entire Indians fan base, and I know that, but sometimes just a few people can make a whole lot of other people look just as bad. I read the timeline of tweets mentioning Chris Perez, and some of that stuff was absolutely ridiculous. I'm talking from homophobic slurs to straight up saying "You (bleeping) suck" -- if you can think of an insult, it was probably on his timeline. And you could tell when he gave up the home run, because one Tweet was "Okay, get this last guy!" and the next was "Are you (bleeping) serious?" I was reading these out loud and my friend had to ask me to stop because it was so upsetting.

Okay, I understand being angry. I understand wanting to throw the remote at the TV and cuss out anyone you see because your team loses a game you know it should have won, but there's got to be a point when you stop, take a breath, and just don't do those things. The same has to apply when it comes to Tweeting expletives at players and the manager. These guys shouldn't have to respond to "fans" with, "Winning 1st season series vs Red Sox since '05=Great. Blowing lead vs Rangers = Disappointing. Blocking 10 negative fans = Priceless" as Acta did last night, and Perez shouldn't have to say, "The day I let people get inside my mind is the day I retire."

This is not to say that I don't think fans have a right to be critical. If I'm at a game and my team makes a bad play, or has a bad inning, I think it's appropriate to boo. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think that makes you a fair-weather fan. I think it means you're into the game, you're responding to what is on the field. You pay to come see the game, so if you don't like the product, hey, I think you've paid for the right to be critical.

What I don't support, however, is picking on a guy on a team you support by name and then going with name calling. That's immature, that's high school B.S. and if you're an adult you should know better. You should know it's not just inappropriate, but unacceptable to use homophobic slurs to insult and degrade people.

And the worst part is that people do this because they can do it and get away with it under the guise of the internet! Even though everyone has their own Twitter handle, the fact that you're saying something to this person but not to their face makes it sort of anonymous. But you know what, if you're that immature that all you can do when the chips go down is insult and name call, you really need to take a long hard look at your life and your choices and decide you need to grow up. A lot.

Look, I'm not saying that all Tribe fans are like this -- in fact, far from it. I looked at Perez and Acta's timeline this morning, and the response was overwhelmingly positive, especially compared to last night. But the bottom line is we've already lost Matt LaPorta's Twitter (@Gator4God) because of negative fans, and I'd really like to keep our manager and the #BullpenMafia in tact.

If you want to be critical, go ahead and do so, I know I do. But show a little maturity -- don't send it to the player. If you're going to tweet them, support them and do it with class. I don't think that's too much to ask, is it?

~MAS

Tribe Mid-Season Report

A Pool Table in the Indians "Fan Cave" 

So, if you haven't been following me on Twitter (@SilverBullets21) you might have been wondering where I've been since I've been completely neglecting this here blog. But with the Indians on vacation for the next couple of days, I figured this would be as good a time as any to jump in and give my thoughts.

To say that the Indians have been a surprise might be the understatement of the year. I mean, sure I said that they'd go 82-82 and finish 3rd in the season Start Me Up post, but I thought I was being wildly optimistic. Turns out we can achieve that and more, and I think the credit for that largely belongs to the three people representing the Indians at the All-Star game in Arizona.

I think it's fairly obvious that Manny Acta, Asdrubal Cabrera and Chris Perez have been the cornerstones of this team. That's not to say that other people haven't been significant contributors, but when it comes to coaching, offense, defense and pitching, those three have been some of the best in the league. Even though Acta was asked by Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington to be on the staff in Spring Training, I'd say he's more than earned the selection by having the Tribe a half game out of first place at the All-Star break. For Cabrera, there hasn't been a better offensive or defensive shortstop in the AL this season. Period. And Chris Perez has been automatic this season, converting 21/22 saves.

Now, given that all of those players will be talked about till the cows come home on some other sites, I'd like to take a look at some of the other players who have been huge contributors and a couple who might need to find pink slips in their lockers soon...

Let's start with the pitching -- starting pitching. Josh Tomlin and Justin Masterson have become the best 1-2 punch the Indians have had since '07 with CC Sabathia and Fausto Carmona. Tomlin is tied for fourth in the league in wins with 10, and his ERA ranks 27th among AL starters. Granted, those numbers don't sound the best, but throw in the fact that he's pitched 30 starts in his career and all 30 have gone 5 or more innings, and I think you can see why I love this guy. He's not a flame thrower, but he can throw all four of his pitches for strikes. Quality strikes, not just the "get me overs" that Carlos Carrasco can sometimes throw.

Next, Masterson has been a huge victim of a lack of run support, which is why he only has a record of 7-6. You can really see how he's been victimized when you look at his ERA at only 2.64, above juggernauts like CC Sabathia, Felix Hernandez, and Jon Lester. If the Indians can ever get their mess together on the offensive side for him, he could get maybe 15 wins before the season is over. That is, if his arm holds up and he pitches to his potential every time. Something not exactly likely to happen.

On the flip side, we have a tale of two Carrascos, Fausto's pitching-from-the-stretch troubles, and a really bad Mitch Talbot. I remember reading at some point in spring training Manny Acta had said, "He has the  stuff to be one of the best in the American League. Period." Carrasco definitely had a string of starts in June where he showed that to be true, but once the calendar turned to July, he went just got shelled. Hopefully the All-Star break will be good for him.

Fausto Carmona in Center Field today at Progressive Field

I actually saw Fausto Carmona today at Progressive Field when I went there with the day camp where I'm a counselor, and he looked like he had just come out of a bullpen session. And as I voiced my concern for this guy in my last post, he honestly hasn't done anything to instill any more confidence in either me or (I'm sure) the Indians organization. The problem is that he's not getting any better, and there are at least three pitchers in AAA that could potentially replace him. The next problem is that he has no options left, so even if we wanted to send him down we couldn't. Ugh.

The same thing goes for Mitch Talbot, except he's been worse. Sure, Fausto has a 5.78 ERA, but Mitchey sees that, and raises him to 6.33. 6.33 runs per 9 innings. That's just awful, and if you're a first place team, you just can't have that. That's why it looks like Gomez is being called up to replace him, according to this story in the Plain Dealer. I think it's definitely a good idea. We don't have nearly the amount of time, money and support invested in Talbot as we do with Fausto. Think about it, we traded Kelly Shoppach for Talbot, so it's no big loss if we have to designate him for assignment and get nothing in return. At least in my opinion.

That's a lot to take in so I'll just leave it at that for now. At some point in the near future (I'm shooting for tomorrow!) I'll take a look at the offense. Until then, enjoy the All-Star game, Tribe fans!

~MAS

2010 In Cleveland Sports

I'm not sure why I didn't think of this earlier, but I feel like it's worth going back and taking a look at the year that was in the sports world of our fair city with our three teams, and what 2011 might hold for them.

Cavaliers 
What a difference a "Decision" makes, huh? Our basketball team has gone from perennial #1 seed in the east to one of the laughing stocks of the entire league. With LeBron James in the '09-'10 NBA season, the Cavs were 61-21 overall, including a 35-6 record at home. They reached the second round of the playoffs before losing to the Boston Celtics in six games, where LeBron either quit because he knew he was going to team up with the other two Amigos in Miami, or straight up choked. Either way, he broke the city's heart when he went on ESPN for his hour long "Decision" special to tell everyone he was "taking his talents to South Beach." Remember, all the "Decision" nonsense came after Cavs owner Dan Gilbert fired Mike Brown at the conclusion of the season, General Manager Danny Ferry resigned, and then Byron Scott was hired as coach and Chris Grant was promoted to GM to try to appease LeBron so that he would stay.

Obviously, none of it worked and people were burning jerseys all over North-East Ohio the night of July 8th.

Now the Cavs are dead last in the east with a record of 8-24. We all know Dan Gilbert is frustrated, as first evidenced by his Comic Sans letter to the fans, and then his tweet after the disgraceful loss to the Heat on December 2nd, but I think Byron Scott has got to be frustrated too. I really thought this team would be good enough to at least contend for a #8 playoff seed, but that's just not going to be the case. It's unfortunate to see a team go down so far so fast, but, as much as I hate to admit it, I guess it just proves how talented LeBron James is on a basketball court. He could really use some work in the PR department, though.

2011? Well, the Cavs better hope they get a nice lottery pick. I'm not particularly a fan of college basketball, so I really couldn't tell you who I think they should draft until I see them in the tournament in March. But our basketball team clearly has a lot of work to do in order to climb out of the same basement where they were locked for so long before LeBron arrived.

Indians
I'm pretty sure nobody thought the Indians would actually contend for anything other than 4th place in the AL Central with Kansas City, and that's exactly what they did. All. Year. Long.

I'm sure the Dolan's would love for it to be winter longer, in order to extend the "Snow Days" promotion that from what I've read has been very successful down at Progressive Field. But that stadium's primary use was downright ugly this year.

The Tribe did end up in 4th place, two games above Kansas City, with a 69-93 record. That's 25 games behind division winner, Minnesota, and also 12 games behind the 3rd place team, Detroit. Nothing like those sobering numbers to tell you just how bad the Indians were.

There were bright spots in the season. Carlos Santana earned a lot of respect for his bat and made some significant strides in his defense behind the plate under the tutelage of Sandy Alomar, before a season-ending knee injury against Boston ended his rookie campaign. Shin-Soo Choo had a great season, hitting  .300 with 22 home runs, 90 RBIs, 31 doubles, and 22 stolen bases, then helped his home country, South Korea, win the Asian Games baseball tournament and earned his military exemption. That's good news for both him and the Tribe. Fausto Carmona had a good comeback year, after two terrible seasons of '08 and '09, going 13-14 with a 3.77 ERA in 33 starts. And Chris Perez looked like a real dominant closer, as he saved 23 games this year, first while Kerry Wood was hurt and then after Wood was traded.

However, there was a lot more bad than good during Manny Acta's first season as manager of the Indians. Grady Sizemore had another season ending injury, and now there are questions as to whether he will ever be the same All-Star caliber player he was again. Travis Hafner continued to struggle with his bad shoulder, and only hit .278 with 13 home and 50 RBIs in 118 games. Luis Valbuena took a few steps back at the plate as he struggled all year and finished the season under the Mendoza line with a .193 average. And Matt LaPorta really failed to improve at all as he finished the season with a .221 average, 12 home runs an only 41 RBIs. Very paltry numbers from a corner infielder, especially a first baseman.

It's also worth noting that Chris Antonetti took over the General Managing duties from Mark Shapiro during this offseason, as Shapiro was promoted to team President. This means pretty much nothing, as Antonetti was Shapiro's right hand man as Assistant GM for all of Shapiro's tenure. So if you were looking for a change in general managing style with Antonetti, you're not going to get it.

What might we see from the Indians in 2011? Well, unfortunately, probably a lot more of what we saw in 2010. I'd like to think our offense will be improved with the return of Sizemore and Santana, but I'm not convinced that Sizemore will be healthy the whole year. It will be interesting to see if Carmona can continue to get back to the Ace-like form he had in 2007 when he received votes for the Cy Young award, which then Indians pitcher C.C. Sabathia deservedly won.

In speaking of Cy Young winners, I'd like to see the Tribe go after Bartolo Colon for another starting pitcher option. It might just remind people enough about the good 'ol days to put some fans in the seats. Plus, I just don't like watching young guys get shelled every fifth day. It would also be nice if the Indians could sign or trade for a 3rd baseman, because from the little bit of baseball I watched last year I can tell you Jayson Nix is not the bridge to prospect Lonnie Chisenhall at that position.

We'll have to wait until April 1st to see what 2011 will hold for our baseball team, but if the stars align properly, and if we have very few to no injuries (yeah right) then we could potentially contend for 2nd place in the AL Central. Now that is a dangerously optimistic outlook, but hey, that's why they go out and play the games, right? They can always surprise us.

Browns
What to say about those Cleveland Browns... Clearly it's the team I followed the closest this past year, and it's also the sport I know the most about since I played it in high school. That being said, after Mike Holmgren was hired in December of '09, and the Browns finished the season with a four game winning streak, we all expected a sound improvement in the team this year. I think the team is clearly better than last year, where they lost 7 games by at least two touchdowns, but unfortunately their 5-10 record doesn't  show that at all.

The Browns had a great draft, headed by their new General Manager Tom Heckert, where they took three players who have emerged as regular starters this season in Joe Haden, T.J. Ward, and Colt McCoy. I think all three have a chance to be Pro Bowlers in the future if the Browns can improve the team enough around them.

Haden has six interceptions on the year, which is the most by a Browns rookie since Anthony Henry led the league with 10 in 2001. Ward has begun to emerge as a feared, hard hitting safety, which is exactly what the Browns need in the AFC North. And to me, Colt McCoy looks like the quarterback the Browns have been searching for since '99. His intangibles are off the charts, and you can tell this son of a high school football coach was born to be a leader.

I think it's been a tale of two teams for the Browns this season - the team of the first 10 weeks, and the team we've seen the last weeks. Sure, I was upset when we lost to the Buccaneers and Chiefs by blowing fourth quarter leads, but who knew those teams were actually good back in weeks one and two? And then we had the memorable back-to-back wins against the Saints and Patriots, and the overtime loss to the Jets where we looked like a real contending team.

However, ever since that loss to the Jets, the Browns just have not looked the same. I don't know if that loss was a shot to their confidence or what, but since then, we were defeated by the Jaguars - a game I believe we should have won. Then we beat arguably the worst team in the league, the Carolina Panthers, by 1 measly point because they missed a field goal at the end of the game. We beat Miami with a lucky break interception at the end of the game by Mike Adams. And then we lost consecutive games to two-win teams, Buffalo and Cincinnati. I just don't think the Browns of weeks 1-10 would have lost those two games based on the way Peyton Hillis was running, and the defense was stopping people from scoring with their confusing formations.

True, the team has suffered with injuries to all three of their quarterbacks, linebacker Scott Fujita, defensive end Robaire Smith, and (maybe they've suffered from losing) Eric Wright, but to me that's no excuse for what a lot of the time seems like a lack of effective offensive game plan.

What's on the table for 2011 with our beloved NFL franchise? Well, a lot of it depends on whether or not the players and owners work out their collective bargaining agreement which will determine whether or not there will be a lockout. There is a lot of speculation that there will be a coaching change, that Jon Gruden will be the next head coach, but I would honestly like to see Eric Mangini and defensive coordinator Rob Ryan stay. Brian Daboll, on the other hand, has got to go, and I would love it if Mangini's good friend and former Broncos head coach Josh McDaniels came in to run our offense.

In terms of draft and free agency needs, the Browns would be wise to pick up an impact wide receiver. Part of the problem with our team now is that they have very few dominant players on either side of the ball. You can never have too many offensive lineman, and I think the Browns could really sure up the right side of the line with a good right tackle so that we never have to see "Open Gate" John St. Clair again.

A lot of this is purely speculation, and Mike Holmgren is going to do what he feels is best for the franchise - which could be coaching the team himself. Either way, I think the Browns are going to be the team that carries us through this decade, much like the Cavs carried us through the last one.

~MAS