Life In The Cell

Mid-Season Report: Cleveland Indians

By Nino Colla of Tribe Time Report

Up until recently, the 2008 season for the Cleveland Indians has seen nothing go their way.
That same karma-type magic that surrounded this team last year has seemingly been hatched onto the back of division rivals in Chicago and Minnesota.
What has gone right?

Well, Cliff Lee has had a pretty good year. That’s pretty much all one could think of.

What more can you say about the first half that Cliff Lee has put together?

You could probably say a lot more, because he deserves it. However, there aren’t enough pages in a novel to describe Cliff Lee’s journey from break-out starter a few years ago, to struggling middle-of-the rotation starter, to given-up on train wreck, to American League All-Star Ace. Cliff Lee’s season has been rewarded with a start in the All-Star Game, and while that is the icing on the cake for Lee personally, he has many more dates on his “2008 Redemption Tour”.

What are the Cleveland Indians going to do without C.C. Sabathia? Move on, that’s what they’ll do. Cliff Lee’s resurgence leaves a little cushion here on out for the Indians to let their star left-hander go and don’t forget Fausto Carmona is weeks away from a return.

Oh, C.C. everything went wrong and that is why you are no longer in a Cleveland Indian. From bullpen meltdowns, to unmet expectations offensively, Sabathia and Tribe fans deserved a better fate than the one they were dealt. However, you can pull out any one of those lovely baseball sayings. They all apply to the 2008 Cleveland Indians.

Rafael Betancourt has gone from top AL set-up man to top AL blow-out man. Was last year a fluke? Did Betancourt dupe the Tribe into thinking he had actually turned the corner they were hoping he’d turn? Or perhaps he saw dollar signs for the coming off-season.

Either way, Betancourt wasn’t the only bullpen figurehead that struggled. Rafael Perez got off to a rough sophomore start, making the 7th and 8th innings an adventure. Something Tribe fans didn’t need with the 9th being one in itself. Closer Joe Borowski’s mysterious arm injury basically left the Indians without a closer, which didn’t help the bullpen implosion the least bit. Jensen Lewis’ loss of velocity didn’t help matters much at all either. The one constant was Japanese import Masahide Kobayashi, but even he wasn’t immune to the bullpen bug.

Small leads became big leads when the bullpen took over. Thanks to an inept offense that couldn’t support it’s starting pitching. When a Cleveland Starter can go 7 innings giving up 2 runs and not pick up the victory, you know there is a problem. A deep rotation went to waste as Cliff Lee, Fausto Carmona, Aaron Laffey, and C.C. Sabathia would go out day after day and make quality start after quality start. There is no bigger culprit than the offense.

If you want to talk about meeting expectations, or lack of meeting them… The Cleveland Indians are candidate number one, without a doubt. From top to bottom, there is a player that didn’t meet them, be it due to injuries or just lack of confidence. The biggest is Ryan Garko, who got off to a hot start and looked like 2008 was his breakout year.

Guess again. Injuries to Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez put even more pressure on young Ryan, and he has seemingly cracked. Last year guys like Ryan didn’t try to hard and were rewarded with great success. This year they’ve done the opposite and have been blamed for most of the struggles. Asdrubal Cabrera is stuck in Triple A thanks to his awful performance at the dish and had his glove not been as good as it was, would have been there a lot sooner. Franklin Gutierrez started the year off with a bang on opening day, but has since provided nothing but a struggling right field bat.
Ben Francisco’s call-up looked as if it was a shot in the arm, but like everything else, it lasted just a few days. Francisco is entrenched in the middle of the line-up and is playing well. But, his spark was just that, a spark and nothing more for the rest of this team.

You can blame the injuries all you want. They no doubt have a hand in the reason the Cleveland Indians are in last place. But, the feeling around the team is more than that. This team under-achieved most of the first half, which is quite the opposite of the over-achieving they did at the end of last year. Is that to say they aren’t a good team? No, this team can play with anyone. But they have either played over or under expectations. The middle ground with the Indians is non-existent, and for that you can forget about who got injured.

Looking forward, this team is playing without expectations or pressure. Maybe, that played a hand in the four game win streak the Tribe pulled off to end the break. Tampa played bad offensively, but the Tribe offense that was on display was one that was not seen for the entire first half. Situational hitting is at an all-time high and guys like Jhonny Peralta are thriving in new roles. Grady Sizemore is a bright spot atop the lineup, leading the league in Home Runs and Jamey Carroll’s presence in the lineup is one that was missing in the first half.

This team won’t make the playoffs; I wouldn’t ever go that far. But, they are on the rebounds and the second half will be a different story for Tribe fans. Don’t expect this young team to lay down and die now that their ace is gone and the white flag has been waved. Casey Blake could conceivably be dealt, but that just opens up the opportunity for Andy Marte to shine if he so chooses to. This is a team that is weeks away from getting Fausto Carmona back, and they eventually will get their hands on their number three and four hitters. Rafael Perez has seemed to turn his own personal corner and youngsters like Edwin Mujica are establishing themselves in place of Rafael Betancourt.

Maybe that karma-type magic is back on the Tribe’s side. While it might not lead to playoff glory, it could lead to a magical 2009. That is, what the Indians and their faithful are looking forward to, after all.