Cleveland Sports Forum

It turns out Axford only loaded the bases and Bobby The Raspberry surrendered the slam. But that hardly clears Axford's responsibility for the Pirate loss.

Oops. I was switching between a couple different games and missed that Axford had been lifted.

Bartolo is USA citizen

New YORK

Dominican starter Bartolo Colon and his wife Paula officially became American citizens on Saturday, before the final game of the 2014 season for the New York Mets.

The spokesman for the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services United States, Katie Tichacek, posted a message on his Twitter account with a picture of the righty of 41 years with his wife during the swearing in ceremony before the flag of stars and stripes. It was a private ceremony and the team was not aware of the details.

This year, Colón became the third Dominican pitcher to win 200 victories.

Detroit Free Press baseball writer analyzes the Tigers failure and future:

It's not quite over. Not yet, not as long as Miguel Cabrera stays healthy and Mike Ilitch stays rich. Still, when Hernan Perez ended the Detroit Tigers' season by hitting into double play Sunday, it felt like the end of an era and the end of relevant baseball in Detroit.

The Kansas City Royals are the darlings of the sport now, or at least of the Central Division.

And the Tigers?

Well, they're the Midwest's version of the New York Yankees, a big-spending, star-chasing, brand-building outfit whose fans no longer enjoy a playoff chase. It's all about the ring now, and has been for a while.

Enough with the tease.

If 2006 was cute, then 2014 was its opposite: a six-month horror show, bereft of joy, filled with late-inning anxiety. The run to this year's postseason felt heavy from the start. No wonder the champagne spray last week tasted like relief.

And yet, before we list the litany of everything that went wrong, and before we look ahead to an uncertain future, let's give a nod to what went right. The last nine years reminded this region what meaningful baseball looked like and showed us how much more fun the summer can be when you care about a score in July.

Six of those years involved a playoff chase. Five of them ended with a spot in the postseason. Remarkably, not until this season did the Tigers lose before the league championship series. If you think that's just a bunch of sunshine, talk with those who love the Oakland A's.

That squad blew a four-run lead in the eighth inning and lost in extra innings in the AL wild-card game, after sporting baseball's best record at the halfway point.

The team with the best record in the American League, the Los Angeles Angels, just got swept. The team with the best record in the National League, the Washington Nationals, is about to. So yeah, baseball can rip your heart out.

But this isn't about those other pretenders, it's about your pretender. And that's what the Tigers were this season: a squad good enough to squeak into the playoffs but too flawed to stay there.

And it ain't just the bullpen.

Sure, that's the easiest place to start, and had the relief guys been even mildly competent, we'd be talking about Game 4 tonight, and whether Rick Porcello could find his way out of a September slide.

Yet isn't that the point, too? That this was always about the starting pitching?

It's easy to criticize the model of hoarding top-shelf starters and big bats now that it has failed for the fourth year in a row. I already can hear the questions: What about speed? Defense? A third-base coach? A more creative manager?

Fair points all, ones that general manager Dave Dombrowski must seriously consider this winter. But before we dismiss the current structure, let's remember this: Didn't the Baltimore Orioles just take down the Tigers with a similar makeup?

Baltimore was built on starting pitching and power, too. It had the third-best rotation in the league and hit a lot of homers. The difference between the teams was performance.

The truth is Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander didn't pitch well in the postseason. If they had, I'm not writing this column. Not now, anyway.

Though I'm guessing I'd be writing it sooner or later. This year's team simply wasn't good enough.

What stung so much Sunday wasn't that the Tigers underachieved, it's that last year's team did.

The cloud of Game 2 remains. Joaquin Benoit's hanging slider. Torii Hunter's somersault over the fence. A team on the verge of a winnable World Series blew it against the Boston Red Sox, though it's true that Cabrera's groin injury hurt their chances.

Losing to the Red Sox remains this era's most crushing defeat. The Tigers knew they had the best team in the game. They just didn't win. It happens, I suppose. A team gets hot. Heck, a batter gets hot, and one swing changes a season.

Sometimes the other teams simply have been better (the Texas Rangers in 2011). Sometimes the other teams were hotter (the San Francisco Giants in 2012). And sometimes the Tigers played poorly (the World Series in 2006).

This postseason, we saw all three.

So where do they go from here?

Scherzer almost certainly is gone. Victor Martinez could be gone. Torii Hunter, too. This team is old and expensive, the manager young and stubborn.

Brad Ausmus' decision to use Joba Chamberlain and Joakim Soria in the eighth inning of Game 2 is the blunder of the year. For whatever reason, he didn't have it in him to try Al Alburquerque, whose numbers in the previous month were far better than either of those pitchers.

That sort of lock-down thinking will have to change going forward, especially as Dombrowski tries to remake the team.

Ausmus is smart and witty and related well to the players. He just didn't display enough moxie to maneuver this team in crisis --though, in the end, it might not have mattered. The flaws were simply too deep.

That falls on Dombrowski, who made several smart moves last winter -- J.D. Martinez, Ian Kinsler -- but undone by his bullpen signings and the Doug Fister trade. Fister alone might not have made the difference, but Dombrowski should've gotten players to help immediately.

This team was built to win now. Not five years from now. In theory, trading for the future is fine, just not when the owner is in his mid-80s and is desperate for a title.

So here he is, overseer of a club that couldn't quite make it, full of aging stars who aren't quite the same, handcuffed by a roster that isn't quite deep enough. Maybe a couple of those stars return and a couple who already are signed regain their form.

It's possible that Justin Verlander and Anibal Sanchez join David Price to form a very good 1-2-3 next year, and perhaps Porcello takes that final step. This rotation could be a foundation, and if Martinez re-signs or a similar bat comes in, this team will contend in the division once more -- if the bottom of the order and the bullpen are rounded out.

Dombrowski faces his most challenging off-season in years, since at least 2009, when the Tigers lost to the Twins in Game 163 and he knew that he needed more firepower.

He does now, too.

If the Tribe wants to excite their fans then Victor should be signed as long as he wants to come back.

The Tribe has young players and needs a leader. Victor on a 2 year contract sounds about right.

That would be a great idea. The team is good, the fans aren't interested. Victor's return could help alleviate that, but to be honest with LeBron and Manziel in town, I don't think anything will spur much Indians Fever.

By Jamyson Frierson (IBI)

October 9, 2014

The Orioles do not have as strong a rotation or bullpen as the Royals but they do have a lineup that can outhit almost any team in baseball. The signing of Nelson Cruz is possibly one of the best offseason signings in baseball history by Baltimore as he is having an MVP season with 40 homers and 108 RBI.

would you agree with that assessment, Joe?

I don't know about the best off season signing in baseball history but it has to rank somewhere near the top. Talk about a difference maker this year. He was on my 2014 wish list. I can't help but wonder what a difference his bat would have made in Cleveland this year.

I also had Bobby Abreu and Jose Abreu on my list. 2 out of 3 would not have been bad.

Ubaldo joins Masterson on the postseason inactive list.

Jeremy Guthrie gets to go to the World Series! Wonder what t-shirt he'll wear.

If anyone wants a good manager, here's one who's available:

Joe Maddon, who took over as manager of the moribund Tampa Bay franchise in 2006 when the team was still known as the Devil Rays and led them to six consecutive winning seasons and their only World Series appearance in 2008, has opted out of the final year of his contract and is leaving the team.

MADDON’S MANAGERIAL RECORD
Year Team League W L Pct.
1996 Angels AL 8 14 .364
1999 Angels AL 19 10 .655
2006 Devil Rays AL 61 101 .377
2007 Devil Rays AL 66 96 .407
2008 Rays AL 97 65 .599
2009 Rays AL 84 78 .519
2010 Rays AL 96 66 .593
2011 Rays AL 91 71 .562
2012 Rays AL 90 72 .556
2013 Rays AL 92 71 .564
2014 Rays AL 77 85 .475

Baseball America correspondent Marc Topkin reported via Twitter that the Rays, who recently lost general manager Andrew Friedman to the Dodgers, tried to “diligently and aggressively” sign Maddon to a contract extension, but were unsuccessful.

Maddon told Topkin his decision to leave the Rays was combination of financial issues and curiosity over what opportunities will present. “When am I going to get this opportunity to find out exactly what people think under these circumstances,” Maddon told Topkin.

It’s unclear what Maddon’s next move might be, although rumors abound that he’ll follow Friedman to the Dodgers. Don Mattingly will manage the team in 2015, Friedman said in his opening press conference.

“Joe Maddon has exercised an opt-out in his current contract, a contract which was not scheduled to expire until after the 2015 season,” principal owner Stuart Sternberg said in a statement issued by the club. “We tried diligently and aggressively to sign Joe to a third contract extension prior to his decision. As of yesterday afternoon, Joe enabled himself to explore opportunities throughout Major League Baseball. He will not be managing the Rays in 2015. Joe has been our manager for nine seasons, and the foundation of success laid during his tenure endures. We thank him for all that he’s meant to the organization.”

Maddon was 754-705 in nine years with Tampa Bay and managed parts of two other seasons with the then-California Angels. He won manager of the year twice, including in 2008, when he led the Rays to the World Series, where they lost to the Phillies.

According to Topkin, the Rays will hold a news conference at 1:30 p.m. EST to further discuss Maddon’s decision.

Maddon’s move leaves the Twins and Rays as the only major league teams without managers after Houston hired A.J. Hinch, the Rangers hired Jeff Banister and Arizona hired Chip Hale.

Continuing our World Series theme of looking back at Royals and Giants players when they were prospects, today we look at Jeremy Guthrie, who was the No. 22 pick overall in 2002 out of Stanford and who received a $3 million bonus from the Indians. Freelance writer Jim Ingraham had the story in April 2004 as Guthrie, by then 25, was struggling to the point of a demotion to Double-A. Take note as to who was the Indians farm director in 2004.



CHICAGO–This wasn’t the way it was supposed to work. By now, Jeremy Guthrie was either supposed to be in the major leagues, or packing his bags to go there.

Instead, the Indians’ former No. 1 draft pick floundered at Triple-A Buffalo and was reassigned to Double-A Akron Monday.

On Sunday, Guthrie made his fourth start of the season and took the loss as Buffalo was roughed up, 9-6, by Ottawa. Guthrie pitched four innings, giving up eight runs on nine hits and four walks.

In his four starts thus far, Guthrie is 1-2, 7.91. He is averaging nearly one walk per inning (18 walks in 19 1/3 innings). He has also hit four batters and thrown two wild pitches.

Drafted out of Stanford by the Indians in the first round–the 22nd player taken overall–in 2002, Guthrie appeared to be on the fast track to the big leagues last year. He started the season at Akron, and in 10 games went 6-2, 1.44. Indians officials expected Guthrie to spend the second half of the season at Buffalo, and then come to training camp in 2004 and compete for a spot in the Tribe’s rotation.

But then Guthrie hit the wall.

He was promoted to Buffalo on May 25, and that’s when his troubles began. He was 4-9, 6.52 in 18 starts for the Bisons. In a total of 22 starts at Buffalo, Guthrie’s numbers are very un-phenom-like: 5-11, 6.73 and an opponents’ batting average of .317.

Farm director John Farrell has been studying tapes of Guthrie from college and Akron last year, and comparing them to tapes of him this year, and those comparisons helped Farrell pinpoint the cause of Guthrie’s current problems.

”It’s a definite mechanical issue involving his stride direction,” Farrell said. ”He’s throwing more across his body because of it, and it’s caused him to have an inconsistent release point, which explains the high number of walks. We saw it first in spring training, and it hasn’t gotten any better.”

Farrell recently went to Buffalo to meet with Guthrie one-on-one.

”Mentally he’s fine,” Farrell said. ”He recognizes the changes he has to make. What’s frustrating to him is he knows he’s a more capable pitcher than this. He’s a very good athlete, and has shown an ability to adjust in the past.”

In some ways Guthrie’s situation is similar to what Brandon Phillips went through with the Indians last season. Guthrie is facing failure for the first time, just as Phillips did last year. For an athlete who has known nothing but stardom, it can be a humbling experience.

”With Jeremy, I don’t know if it’s a confidence thing, or whether he’s just not able to relax and adjust,” Farrell said. ”Maybe he’s pressing, trying to achieve the results he feels he should achieve.”

Farrell said there is nothing wrong with Guthrie physically.

”He’s fine,” Farrell said. ”He’s been throwing 90 to 95 mph in every start, which he couldn’t do if he was injured. But this is not a velocity issue. It’s a location and strike throwing issue.”

Through it all, though, Farrell said Guthrie has not made excuses, and has met his slump head on.

”He’s not disillusioned,” Farrell said. ”He knows he needs to get himself squared away before he can be considered ready to be considered a major league pitcher.”

I'm in Sarasota now, and Maddon's leaving is big news down here, of course. Nobody expected it.

Santos better polish those interview skills. He's been swinging and missing on all these managerial openings.