I've been pimping the bench we have since the beginning of the season. I thought it was the best bench we've put together in over a decade.

I followed Aviles for every WBC game as his team (Puerto Rico) won it all and Aviles played a major role on both offense and defense. You have to believe that Terry Francona had a major contribution in bringing Aviles into the fold.

Speaking of Francona, I also think that he's done an excellent job of keeping all of his players in the game. He's done a great job of getting everyone playing time. You can't diminish the fact that almost every playoff team gets there and stays there because of a strong bench and a deep bullpen. I think we have both. Speaks volumes.

I think we can expect a great ride to the finish. This is a team put together with a lot of thought and I don't think we'll be seeing the collapses of the past two seasons coming back to haunt us this year. As I've also stated, this team has a lot of different ways to beat you and it comes along with strong leadership from the manager.

Speaking of the manager......again! I'm really excited by Francona's game time strategies and his bullpen management. His experience is really paying off huge dividends so far. The best thing a manager can do is place his team in a position to win and its up to the players to execute. We've been doing a great job of both.

For me, to date, this has been one of the most satisfying seasons in recent memory.

TFIR wrote:If a team is in first place after the halfway point, 6 games over .500 and a "fan" is that pessimistic, the problem lies NOT with the team.

Sad to have that jaded a look at a sport (of all things).

Sorry TFIR, I know from your years of posts you are a lover of fandom, and find fault in little.

Personally I feel the apparently demented and aging Dolan is wasting his money and getting "pennant blocked" with Mark Shapiro on his payroll.

Numbers look good now, of course.


We've stared at this map and course of collective fandom in many years prior.


My greatest belief is that this run of luck will fizzle out in August, and we will still be stuck with the Mark Shapiro/Chris "whatever his Shapiro clone name is" contract they gave my distant relative....Nick Swisher.

That's a helluva horse collar and $15 million per year for a guy hitting less than .240, at present.

Detroit is coming to town.

Let's see what happens when the jettisoned Cleveland Indians of the Mark Shapiro regime show up to play for an equally addled city.

(does anyone get that most of Obama's support that won him the Presidency came from cities that most are advised to not walk or drive in during daylight?)

So I was wrong. They caught the Tigers. Now lets see what happens in the second half of the season.

How many times do I have to ask to leave politics out of the Forum? I don't care how much you hate Shapiro, rant and rave at your pleasure. I just don't want to hear one more word about your political opinions; there are many other places on line for you to share those gripes.

Drunks don't listen.

CALIFLA: If you continue to ignore requests to leave out the politics, I will have to put you on "moderated" status.

Baron wrote:

This Tribe team went 18-12 May and 15-13 in June. Another team went 14-14 in May and 14-13 in June.

By my counting...you get 33-25 over two months. Important to remember there was a 4-16 stretch in there as well, from May 21 through June 10. Maybe the bad is an outlier -- much in the way a lot of 10-run outbursts masks a lot of games with 3 runs or less (when looking at RPG average), so, too, does a 4-16 stretch mask a lot of steady winning.

Big month -- a series against every team in the division, with a home/home against KC. The ASG break, of course, has derailed lots of team's momentum.

If the season ended today, Tito would get my vote for M.O.Y. Amazing what he has done in righting the ship after that horrendous 20-game stretch, the Perez issues, A-Cab/Swish injuries, etc.

fkreutz wrote:Be interesting to see how attendance is the last 10 games before the break....

The Indians have decided to change the prices of seats continuously. THe same seat could be $12 one night, but $21 or higher on another. Or it could change depending on when you buy it, Ticket prices can double overnight. And they don't sell upperdeck outfield seats until all others are sold. For Saturday's game, the cheapest lower deck seats are over $50. Bleacher tix range from $33-40. Depending on the row, seats in the same section in the upper deck are either $25 or $35. Plus ticketmaster charges.

It's called "dynamic pricing." I don't like it.

http://itspronouncedlajaway.com/?p=9991

I think we can expect a great ride to the finish. This is a team put together with a lot of thought and I don't think we'll be seeing the collapses of the past two seasons coming back to haunt us this year.

I agree joez. I do think the injuries and lack of depth in past years led to the downfalls later in the season. Also, we didn't have Masterson being the backbone of the starters like this year.

Would be interesting to see if Myers can benefit the bullpen when he comes back?

Other people have told me about "dynamic pricing"; I think Indians are one of the last teams to use it. Some times you can get bargains, some times not.

TFIR wrote: Would be interesting to see if Myers can benefit the bullpen when he comes back?

I think he hurt us most of the time.

Might rank up there with the worst FA signings.

Up there with Wayne Garland.

Wayne got hurt. Myers just plain old stunk. And don't forget Juan Gone --- dont' remember what we paid him but we got 1 AB!

LOL, hard to beat that one.

You could make the argument Myers has not been healthy either. He was very effective out of the bullpen earlier in his career. That's why I have my hopes.