Woah Doggy!!!! If anybody had the chance to check the Indians game yesterday, they were in for a treat. There have been a lot of firsts for the New Yankee Stadium, so far this series and the Indians have been doing a lot of the “firsts”.

The Yankees jumped to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of othe 1st inning when Fausto Carmona gave up a 2-Run home run to Mark Tiexera. Wang came out in the 2nd inning and that is where if fell apart for the Yankees. The Indians scored 14 runnings in the 2nd inning. Shin-Soo Choo hit a 3-run home run off of Wang to put the Indians up 3-2. After that, the Indians started batting practice. Asdrubal Cabrera hit a grand slam and Grady Sizemore followed up with a solo home run.  Wang was knocked out of the game int he 2nd inning after one out. Wang was charged with 8 earn runs. Anthony Claggett made his major league debut and did not shine. He pitched 1.2 innings and was also charged with 8 earned runs.

I could sit here and list every stat for all the Indians players, but it make take me as long as the 2nd inning lasted yesterday. Here is somethings to chew on:
- every original starter for the Indians scored in the game
- The only Indians player to not get a hit was Kelly Shoppach and he only had 2 at bats
- The only Indians not to score a run were Kelly Shoppach and Trevor Crowe, both who were not starters
- Travis Hafner and Mark DeRosa both had 7 at bats. Some players do not see that in 2 games
- The Cleveland Browns averaged 14.5 per game last season, the Indians scored that many in 1 inning
- The 2nd inning alone lasted over 35 minutes.

All I know is, if the Indians lose every game the rest of this season, this season will still be considered a good season because they beat the Yankees in their home opener in the New Yankee Stadium.

First off, lets talk about the satdium. I’m not impressed. I had the chance to go to the old Yankee Stadium last year and I loved it. All the history, the wins, the losses, just everything about it was breath taking. Now, I wasn’t there at the ball park and my tv probably doesnt due it justice, but there really isn’t anything THAT great about the new ball park. The house that Ruth built was something to see, the House that Roids built, not so much.

Second, lets talk about the pitching. How often do you get to see the 2 previous AL Cy Young Award winners pitch against eachother. Don’t forget, these guys were on the same team!!!!! Being the negative person that I am, I thought it would be batting practice for the Yankees today because Lee was pitching with a 9+ ERA today. Who wouldn’t think that? Where in the heck did Lee come from today and where was he the past 2 starts? Lee pitched 7 innings and only giving 1 ER! ONE EARNED RUN! Let me say it one more times, ONE EARNED RUN!!!!! Ho-lee Moly was he in the zone (like the play on words?) CC was a little surprising today as well. I’ve been following CC for as long as I can remember and I’ve seen him on the rollercoaster of a season every year. I honestly didn’t think he would do well today. 2007 playoffs ring a bell? CC can NOT pitch under pressure. His first start of the season proved that. Sabathia pitched 5.2 innings, giving up 5 hits and an earned run. Not to shabby to the average perons, but when you thow 122 pitches, there is something wrong. 122 PITCHES!!!! No, he didnt have problems with the pressure, not at all.

Thirdly, lets talk about the hitting. Before todays game, the Indians were struggling with hitting when there have been runners on base. The Indians went 4-15 with RISP today, which is a little better than what they have been doing. Victor Martinez was a triple shy of the cycle today. A cycle will always be hard for a batter, but even harder for Martinez since he has only ever hit 1 triple in his career. Shin-Soo Choo was the only Indians batter who did not get a hit in todays game. Other notable batting performances for todays game: Jhonny Peralta went 2-5. Trevor Crowe went 2-4, Kelly Shoppach was 2-4 and Grady Sizemore went 1-5. 1-5 isn’t all that great, but when that 1 hit is a Grand Slam, then yeah, that 1-5 doesnt look so bad.

Lastly, all I have to say is, today was the best game i have seen all season. Not only did the Indians win, but the Indians keep taking down the empire.

Cleveland Indians Baseball – taking down the empire since 2007.

Indians fans can breath a sigh of relief after todays game against the Royals. The Indians have FINALLY won their second game of the season.

Aaron Laffey was called up before the start of todays game from AAA-Columbus to make the start. He is the ONLY Trbe pitcher to shut out the oppossing team in the first 4 innings. Laffey was charged with 2 earned runs in 5.1 innings pitched. A mental error by Choo could have been the reason for one of Laffey’s earned runs, but nobody is pointing fingers.

Jensen Lewis came in and was all over the place, but somehow made it out of the inning. With the bases loaded, Lewis walked in a run. Afterwards, he was able to get out of the jam.

Kerry Wood came in and was once again lights out int he 9th and received his first save. He gave up no runs and no hits to secure his save.

Offense wasn’t very lackluster either. Hafner went 2-3 with 2 doubles and Choo and Sizemore also hit 2. Surprising, Martinez went 0-3 with 2 walks.

The Tribe heads to NY to take on the Yankees and to open up the new ballpark. Former Cy Youngs Cliff Lee and CC Sabathia will face off. If Lee can get out of the 2nd inning and CC folds under the pressure, then they Indians might have a chance. As long as the Yankees don’t bring in Nick Swisher to pitch, we might be fine.

In non-baseball news, the Cavs are going for their 40th home win and are currently tie with 2 minutes left to go against Philly. Lebron did not play tonight and West, Varejo and Williams all sat in the 2nd quarter.

I fell asleep after the bottom of the 1st inning in last nights Indians game versus the Royals. When I woke up it was the 6th inning and I crawled back into bed and woke up this morning to see that the Indians lost 4-2. So much for a win streak.

What is going on with this team? They were projected to be the best in the Central Division, they have the talent to be a playoff caliber team, but for some reason they can’t even buy a win off of the Royals? I will always stand behind my team, no matter how bad they do, but a 1-6 start is a little unnerving. Does this horrible start put Eric Wedge on the hot seat?

There are so many questions going through my head and I am sure they are going through every Cleveland fan’s head. The only thing we can do is shake our heads and hope for the best the next game.

All I have to say is FINALLY! It took the Tribe long enough.

All Tribe fans received a great Easter present today when the Indians routed the Jays 8-4. Anthony Reyes pitched strong 6 innings, Jensen Lewis came in and saved what could have been a disaster when Rafael Perez could not find his control and Kerry Wood pitched a scoreless 9th, striking out 3. Is this a sign of things to come?

Mark DeRosa and Travis Hafner went yard for the Tribe in todays game. Jhonny Peralta and Shin-Soo Choo also had big days for the Tribe. Trevor Crowe his his first major league hit by hitting a 2-Run double.

The Indians hit the road to play the Royals and the Yankees. I might be getting ahead of myself, but both the Royals and the Yankees are 3-3 on the season. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a winning streak.

There isn’t much anyone can say regarding the past few games for the Tribe. This is the worst start for the Indians since 1985. The Indians were 60-102 that year. Should the movie makers start casting for another Major League movie?

In 2 of the past 3 games, the Indians came close to making a comeback. In Thursdays game against the Rangers, the Tribe lost 12-8. In that game, the Indians were once down 10-1. Carl Pavano did not even make it out of the 2nd inning with an out. In that game, the long ball helped the Tribe with their runs. Shoppach, Hafner and Martinez all hit a home run and Sizemore hit 2, 2-run shots.

An Indians fan can expect some crazy weather for the Indians home openers. Remeber the snow home opener in 2007? I was at that home opener and I will have to say it was one of the funnest games I’ve been too. This season, was a different story. Snow doesnt soak into your clothes, but rain does. Our seats were the very highest seats in the stadium and the wind was blowing into our backs. Scott Lewis got the call for the Tribe and was impressive in his first few innings. For once, an Indians pitcher made it out of the 2nd inning. Then the rain came and before we knew it, the Indians were down 4-3 with 1 on and 1 out in the top of the 5th. Then Indians fans saw white. White as in the tarp that was being dragged into the field.  After being soaked and cold we decided to leave early (something I NEVER do) and maybe it was a god thing. The Indians and its fan had to sit through a few hour rain delay. The game restarted at 9:20 (It has now taken 5 hours and 15 minute to play 4.1 innings) The bullpen faultered, Martinez hit another home run and the Indians ended up losing.

Before todays game, the Indians placed starting pitcher Scott Lewis on the DL with a strain in his pitching arm, a strain in which he said he was feeling at the end of the spring. It is possible the strain might be in his elbow but an MRI will determine that at a later date.

With the off day on Tuesday, Lee was ready to make another start. At least the rain didn’t appear today. The Indians trailed the Blue Jays all game. The Indians, however, almost came back in the bottom of the ninth inning. with bases loaded, Mark DeRosa hit a towering shot, bases clearing double to bring the Tribe within 1 run. Martinez struck out to end the game and the Tribe lost 5-4.

What can Indians fans expect for ths upcoming season? Who knows. All I know is my season tickets better go down in price if they keep this up. The one goo dthing is, my seats will be better for othe resdt of the season. So here are some highlights from these disappointing 5 games:

- Hafner has been swinging a hot bat. It looks like the mental issues might be gone
- Martinez has not yet been injured. In the past 2 season, Martinez has been injured in the 1st week. There is always tomorrow.
- Derosa came out of his slump today with the 3 RBI double he had.
- It is not supposed to rain tomorrow
- There are still 150+ games left this season

No fan likes to see their team go 0-2 to start off the season. Some fans already start to lose hope and you are starting hearing more negative things about the team. As I watch the 9th inning of the Rangers/Indians game, I’m starting to wonder what is to come of this team.

There were some positive things about tonights game. Martinez went 3-4 and was robbed of an extra base hit by an amazing catch from the Rangers RF. Ryan Garko hit in a few RBI’s tonight and the Indians were able to score more than 1 run.  The Indians also had their first team home run which was hit by Ben Fransisco. Unfortunately, everytime the Indians would score, so would the Rangers.

I think the biggest thing Indians fan need to worry about is the starting pitching. If the pitcher can make it out of the 2nd inning this year without being shelled, the Indians might have a chance to win the game. Carmona, like Lee, struggled in the 2nd inning tonight giving up 4 runs. The Rangers were able to hit 3 home runs off of Tribe pitching tonight and they were all off of different pitchers. Perez appeared to be solid until he gave up the home run, Betancourt was painfully slow inbetween pitching and he gave up a homerun and Carmona gave up a homerun as well. The only real star in the pitching tonight would be Tribe newcomer Joe Smith.

Another downfall with the Indians was hitting with runners in scoring position. The Tribe went 1-16 with runners in scoring position. How in the world did the Indians core 5 runs? Garko’s first RBI was because he was HBP. Its a run, so we’ll take it.

As Cleveland fans say “there’s always next year”. Maybe we should change it to “There’s always tomorrow”. Tomorrow Carl Pavano takes the mound making his Cleveland debut. Maybe I should get the heartburn medicine ready tonight for tomorrws game. If this keeps up, I might not make it through the whole season without some sort of heart condition.

The only good news about todays Indians game is there is 161 games left for the season.

Last years Cy Young Award winner just wasn’t what people expected today. Lee is coming off a bad spring training and today, Cliff Lee stuggled and I think struggled is a nice term. My question for Eric Wedge is, why did he leave Lee in after he was hit by a ball off the bat of Hank Blalock in the pitching arm? I know that Lee said he was fine, but honestly, its game 1 of the season. Was it really that important to keep him in and have him possibly do more damage than just a bruise on the arm? Did Eric Wedge forget that they just put Jamey Carroll on the DL because he was hit in the hand and he told them that he was FINE?

Not only did Lee’s pitching “struggle”, so did the Indians hitting.  The Rangers out hit the Indians 15-5. Even though the Indians got 5 hits, its a good sign that Hafner was one of those guy got a hit.

Maybe I’m being a little to hard on the Indians. It is only the 1st game and there is 161 games for them to win. But honestly, it is WAY to early for Wedge to be coaching poorly, the Indians not to be hitting and the pitching to be bad. Even the bullpen couldn’t come in and keep the Rangers quiet. Lets just hope after their day off tomorrow they will be able to treat Wednesday as a brand new day.

Today feels like Christmas Eve for me. Knowing tomorrow is the season opener, I’m like a little kid waiting for Santa Claus to come bring me my presents. I have my tv set to MLB Network and even though I’m not a Phillies or a Braves fan, I’ll be watching tonights game. That game is my present I get to open on Christmas Eve.

Tomorrow should be an interesting day for the Tribe. They open their season in Texas, then they come back to Cleveland for a weekend before they are back on the road.  The first week of the season usually does not forecast the Indians season, at least not for the past few years. In 06, the Indians opened up the season on a hot streak and then fell hard the rest of the season. The 07 season, the Tribe started the season average and ended up winning the Division and last year, they started the season by winning the series against the White Sox and then fell after that. So don’t expect to know how the Indians will be the remainder of the season after the first 2 series against the Rangers and the Jays.

On Saturday, the Indians finalized their 25 man roster with the usualy 12 pitchers, 13 position players. With the versatility of some of the players being able to play both the infield and outfield, the Indians chose to go with only 4 regular outfielders – Sizemore, Francisco, Choo and Crowe. The surprising man to make the 25 man roster would had to have been Josh Barfield. With the addition of Barfield to the roster, that leaves the Indians with Carroll, Garko, Cabrera, Peralta, DeRosa and Barfield for the Infield.

The 2009 season is expected to be a good one for the Indians and lets just hope they don’t crack under the pressure like they did in both the 06 and 08 seasons.

With the season opener 10 days away, I have decided to dive deeper into the 2009 Indians. For the next 10 days, we’ll take a look at each position and see how this years team is different than years past.

The Indians have a unique, yet common, situation at 1st Base this year. It appears that Ryan Garko will be the “regular” 1st baseman. Garko started the 2008 year season slow, but was able to turn the year around and ended the season with a .273. He tied the team RBI lead with Grady Sizemore by batting in 90.  He also hit 14 homeruns, walked 45 times and struck out 85 times. Garko also was a magnet for being hit by a pitch. He currently holds the team record for most HBP’s in a single season which he did in 2007 by being hit 20. In the 08 season, he was hit 15 times.

On the field, Garko reminds a lot of Indians fans as a former first basement – Jim Thome. Not only does he wear his number, 25, he even wears his socks the same. Looks aside, Garko had only 4 errors and helped in 123 double plays. He had a fielding percentage of .996.

On days that starting pitcher Cliff Lee pitches, the first basemen will more than likely be Victor Martinez since Kelly Shoppach is Lee’s catcher.  Victor does not have much luck in the 1st week of home games. In both the 2007 & 2008, Victor has visited the DL. Martinez spent a good portion of the 2008 season on the DL. In 73 games, Martinez batted .278. He only hit 2 HR’s, walked 24 times and struck out 32 times.

Victor only played 10 games at 1st base in the 2008 season. In those 10 games, Martinez commited 1 error and had a fielding percentage of .989 (for 1st base only).

Another option the Indians may look at is Travis Hafner. Hafner also spent a good portion of the 2008 season on the DL and appeared in just 53 games. In the past 2 years, Hafner has not been up to his power form. In the 2008 season, Hafner batted .197 and hit 5 homeruns. In the offseason, Hafner had surgery and is hoping be able to gain his power back.

Hafner has not played 1st base since the 2007 season. In the 07 season, Hafner saw playing time at 1st in 11 games and commited 0 errors.

This spring training has done well for Garko, Martinez & Hafner. Each guy is batting over .300. VMart is the only one who has gone yard and has done so 3 times. Hafner is still working on his power, but has shown more discipline at the plate.