The only weak link is the starting rotation.

It was great to see Bauer pitch such an awesome game last night. If he can continue with that kind of effort, we have another alternative. It's worth keeping an eye on Tomlin also. I really like that pitching staff they've assembled in Columbus. We have some decent pitching depth in the system if we need it.

It was interesting to watch the finale in Oakland. Francona used his entire roster in that one. He made all the right moves. I like the resiliency. Bourn might be back as early as this coming week with the rehab assignment today in Columbus. I'd like to see Morgan remain on the team when Bourn comes back. I like Morgan's skills. Nice speed off the bench. A great go-to guy coming off the bench.

Who goes when Giambi returns?

Great game, what is with Morgan's baggy pants? Looks like one of those old baseball clowns from the 50's and 60's.

TFIR wrote:As I was watching this game yesterday an interesting thought happened for me.

They were down 2-0 and I said to myself "no problem, they'll come back".

That's not necessarily the usual attitude I've had since the 90s, and evidently last year has changed my way of thinking. They came back so many times, and of course AGAIN yesterday, that I've come to respect the tremendous resiliency that this team constantly demonstrates.

Yeah but a 5-0 deficit makes it a little harder to inspire hope…….but at least its there.

For sure.

Obviously it's not going to happen every time, but just knowing (both for us and for them) that it's been done so many times shows that it's very doable.

First demotion will be Pestano - [but I assume Bourn will be the first addition; Giambi isn't ready for rehab stint yet. ] Vinnie finished spring training poorly and he's the only reliever who has struggled in the first week. Doesn't have the old velocity and simply doesn't have big league stuff right now; too bad, everyone likes him. Hope he still has an option remaining.

More questionable is who will be the second demotion. Chisenhall needs a good start to keep himself in the majors; so far so good. Morgan and Johnson provide nice utility help and they're exactly the kind of players Francona likes to have around. Although in a sense Johnson is Aviles No. 2. LH hitter will be more suspectible to being trimmed which puts Chis and Morgan on the top of the list. On the other hand in a few weeks who knows who will need a DL stint himself when Giambi returns.

Next interesting question is what they'll do with Carrasco when he likely flunks another audition as a starter. To the bullpen? Is their anyone we'd rather drop from the pen? Atchison is the only possible candidate. And CC Lee could be a superior addition to Carrasco.

And another interesting competition between Bauer and Tomlin to replace Carrasco. Tomlin is another good guy we'd like to succeed, but Bauer has much more upside (and plenty of proven downside!)

Would not be surprised to see Giambi suddenly put on a longer term IR when needed. Did he bat in ST ? Reporters were not given access to him during ST.

Beyond Masterson, we have to get some quality starts from the rest of these guys. I'd hate to see a good bullpen run out of gas before July.

Not getting a quality start from Masterson, either today

Lousy pitching today. Still, we had a chance except for a couple double plays in key situations.

Blake Wood turns out not to be so perfect after all. Nice Tribe rally from a 6-1 deficit, but Wood allowed 3 and the second rally effort fell short, 10-7. Atchison did well in middle relief. Gomes with a 2 run homer. Kipnis plated 3. Murphy over his slump quickly with 4 hits. 3 for Brantley. Only Cabrera is not hitting yet (158), he didn't start, pinch hit an out to end the game. Aviles played short, hitless too.

Santana, Morgan and Chisenhall with all with OBP of 500 or greater.

In the third inning of a scoreless tie, the Padres hitters did the following:
Single, Double, Fly Out, Ground Out

The Indians followed with:
Walk, Walk, Ground ball/force play, Ground out, Fly Out, Ground out

And remarkably the runs tallied by those performances were 0 for San Diego; 3 for Cleveland.

Kluber starts the 4th by allowing his 4th leadoff hit. Double puts two in scoring position. Pop Up for the first out. Double scores two and we're nearly back to even.

San Diego now is up to 7 hits off Kluber in 3 1/3. 4 of them doubles. He's not significantly more effective than in his first start, although the opposition is a very weak offensive team; Padres came in with 12 runs in 6 games and team avg of 188

civ ollilavad wrote:Very early returns put Murphy in competition with Trot Nixon for over the hill OF not able to bounce back. 2 year contract guarantees he hangs around a long time.

How's he doing tonight?

David Murphy has always hit, with the one exception of last year. Unless you are a total stud, and those are few, you are going to have down years.

He was hitting .316 coming into today. 3 run homer today. I think he will end up being a good, relatively low risk, signing.

The numbers don't lie - anyone can take a look.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/playe ... da07.shtml

To summarize, .275 career hitter in over 2,700 at bats?!?! With .440 slugging. If that's not a good hitter with a ton of at bats = track record, not sure what is.

Oh, and he is 32. Signed for a piddly 2 years. He is not over the hill.