Saturday, April 18, 2009

The rout and the rant



Cleveland Indians: 20
New York Yankees: 2
Bottom of the 5th Inning


I have tried very very hard to stay away from writing that "season is over in April" post that I so badly wanted to write after the Tribe started 1-7. Everything was going wrong, and I feared that the hope that shines so brightly during Spring Training was the proverbial on-coming headlights of a semi-truck.

My biggest concern for Cleveland has been the bizarre line-ups that manager Eric Wedge has taken a liking to. Don't get me wrong, I am pleased that he feels we have such a good group of players that tinkering with the starting order is the only way to get people at bats. But, could we please stop it with a different line-up every single night?

Trevor Crowe has played in six of the first eleven games. Why? He's hitting .211 with no home runs and a slugging percentage of .263. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a huge Ben Francisco guy, but Trevor Crowe?

I get that Travis Hafner may still be recovering from shoulder surgery, but he's actually hitting the ball. Why take him out? He's rested two games already, not to mention the day off in the middle of that always strange opening series schedule. The guy has 3 homers in those nine games and an OBP of .405.

Ryan Garko and Kelly Shoppach are pretty much a push offensively. I suppose I'd rather have Garko playing first than Victor Martinez, which means Shoppach is the odd man out. I'm sure there will be an injury soon enough that gets him in the line-up.

So with a batting order of

1.) Grady Sizemore
2.) Mark DeRosa
3.) Victor Martinez
4.) Travis Hafner
5.) Jhonny Peralta
6.) Shin Soo Choo
7.) Ryan Garko
8.) Ben Franscisco
9.) Asdrubal Cabrera

Cleveland put up 20 runs on the road against the Yankees. Mr. Wedge, could we please let these guys stay for awhile? Thanks.

Oh, please don't get me started with Carl Pavano.

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