Location: Cleveland, Ohio | Ballpark: Progressive Field (43,545) | Spring Training: Goodyear, Ariz. (inagural season)
Owner: Lawrence Dolan | GM: Mark Shapiro | Manager: Eric Wedge | World Championships: 2
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POWER RANKINGS
Power Rankings
Date
Ranking
Previous
07/07/2009
26
26
Just so everybody knows: GM Mark Shapiro says the jobs of Eric Wedge and his coaches are safe. So officially, nobody is to blame for the Indians' struggles except the thirsting-for-martyrdom GM himself ... I'm on the Shin-Soo Choo bandwagon just like everybody else, but let's wait until he starts hitting lefties a bit more before we anoint him, like, the Asian Paul O'Neill.
06/30/2009
26
26
Everybody here has to be tired of waving the white flag ... Given his age and contract status, trading Mark DeRosa was a no-brainer. I trust that the player-to-be-named-later will be worth something, as the last thing the Indians' bullpen needs is another non-housebroken reliever like Chris Perez ... The Indians have leaked word that Carl Pavano is available. You know what else is available? Cat poop. I'd advise all suitors to value those two entities equally.
06/23/2009
26
23
Franchises we want to love but can't, because by sucking so fiercely they lay waste to our preseason predictions, exhibit A: the Indians of Cleveland town. They're inventing new ways to lose nowadays, most involving the bullpen. I'm not big on rushes to judgment or heeding the do-something! cries of the chattering hordes, but this situation practically begs for a scapegoat and Eric Wedge is just sitting there, minding his own business.
06/16/2009
23
28
The seagulls, vermin and fist-sized mosquitos give the Indians a true home-field advantage, which was evident once again last week when Shin-Soo Choo's game-winning hit glanced off a bird of some indeterminate phyla ... I've reversed course on the trade-Cliff-Lee-while-he's-peaking thing. I still think there are wiser ideas than inking a 32-year-old pitcher to a contract of more than three years. But you simply can't deal a guy like Lee unless you get a return package like the one the Indians did for Bartolo Colon -- and given the game's changing economics, we'll never see a trade like that ever again.
06/09/2009
28
22
I don't know what "it" is, but the Indians do not have it. ... Fausto Carmona, now plying his craft in sub-single-A ball, is the baseball equivalent of a Ferrari that never recovered from its first flat tire. ... They'll be the game's most interesting team in the days leading up to the trade deadline, for whatever little that's worth. As humorous as this may be for anyone who experienced his limb-breakin', car-crashin', Twinkie-datin' Yankees tenure to contemplate, Carl Pavano should prove quite the hot commodity for any of the NL teams -- the Phillies, the Mets, the Brewers -- searching under rocks for rotation depth.
06/02/2009
22
27
When Carl Pavano qualifies as a bright spot, you're living in a world without sun. ... Now that Grady Sizemore has admitted the obvious -- that he was playing hurt -- and gone on the disabled list, there's only one question left to be answered: Who are my fellow media types and I going to fawn over in his absence? We yearn for Grady Sizemore like a huddled mass yearns to breathe free. It'll be emotionally taxing to transition ourselves over to Joe Mauer on such short notice. Send virtual hugs via Facebook if you're so inclined.
05/26/2009
27
26
Up until Monday night's miracle comeback, they spent the week inventing new ways to lose, many involving relievers and carelessly handled land mines ... I'd watch a pay-per-view where Guantanamo Bay interrogators do whatever they can to get stoic guys like Grady Sizemore and Chase Utley to admit that they're playing with injuries. Who would crack first? My guess: they'd allow themselves to lose consciousness before conceding "I stubbed my tootsie the other night."
05/19/2009
26
24
You Cleveland fans get LeBron, so I don't want to hear any bellyaching about this pustulant boil of a team. ... At least Asdrubal Cabrera has realized his competent-middle-infielder destiny. ... Victor Martinez is serious about being a leader this year. We know this because he jibber-jabbered with Rays skipper Joe Maddon about some perceived slight or petty violation of the game's "unwritten rules." That's what leaders do: They lead by jibber-jabbering.
05/12/2009
24
22
They violated the cardinal rule of team meetings, which is "only hold one on the day your ace is slated to pitch" ... Lotsa hard-luck losses last week and all, especially the one swiped away in the ninth inning by Curtis Granderson, but it's May 12 and they're 12-21. There are only so many excuses ... Here are three words I never thought I'd string together: "Carl Pavano, stopper" ... Fausto Carmona apparently won't be talking with reporters again this year -- which is a terrible shame, as the world will sink into a miasma of darkness and ignorance without regular updates about the grip on his sinker.
05/05/2009
22
26
It is getting harder and harder to defend the Indians, no matter how strongly we words-n-numbers folks feel that they "do things the right way" ... I don't know if Eric Wedge is the problem, but this team sure seems to need a pep talk, a comforting pat on the shoulder or a win-tonight-or-lose-your-clubhouse-music-privileges ultimatum. Just do something already ... You could forgive Cleveland fans for starting to believe that the notion of a functional, shut-down bullpen is as much of an urban legend as cropsy or the corrosive gastrointestinal effects of Pop Rocks.
Preseason Power Rankings
Date
Ranking
Previous
02/16/2009
9
-
I know every baseball writer is supposed to love love love the Indians because they go about their business rationally and with deep, abiding respect for numbers, and I know we're supposed to be doing backflips about their chances in '09 because of their undermanned second-half surge last season. And yeah, I'm mostly drinking the Kool-Aid, owing to their placement in the weak AL Central. I just can't get too enthused about a team with platoon candidates at both outfield corners (insert could've-used-Abreu-or-Dunn blurb here) and a rotation that stacks question marks Fausto Carmona, Carl Pavano, Anthony Reyes and Jeremy Sowers behind primo drop-off candidate Cliff Lee.
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