(Part 5 in a series...see Part 4 , Part 3 , Part 2 , and Part 1 )

Now it's time to trade the outfielders, and it's not an easy task to figure out who should stay and who should go. Besides the one guy.

GRADY SIZEMORE

$3.0M salary, signed through 2011, controlled through 2012 (team option)

PRO: ...

CON: Sizemore is one of the most valuable players in baseball, taking into account age, ability, upside, consistency, contract status, and (dare I say the words) intangible value. Trading him at this moment would be franchise suicide.

CON: OK, let's get specific. Grady Sizemore is in his Age 25 season, and he's already had three full seasons under his belt. His career OPS+ is 124, and his lowest full season OPS+ is 122. His on-base percentage has increased each season. He's gradually become a better base stealer as his young career has unfolded. That's on top of the things that have pretty much been there from day one: his defense, and his power. He's just starting to enter his prime, that period where his power should mature while he's still young and athletic enough to be a terror on the bases and a vacuum cleaner in the field. And the Indians have him under control for most of that period.

 

FRANKLIN GUTIERREZ

$404K salary, signed through 2008, controlled through 2012

PRO: Because of the guy I just mentioned, Gutierrez is a right fielder with the Indians. Other teams will think of him as a plus center fielder with a very good arm, and won't care as much about his offense. And as Gutierrez is several years from getting expensive, he's that much more valuable to clubs with a hole in center.

PRO: He's not hitting enough to start in right field, so the Indians might be better off getting center fielder value out of him by trading him. The only problem is that he may be the best right fielder in the system right now....

CON: The Indians don't exactly have a surplus of power-hitting outfielders to replace Gutierrez, and would see a huge drop-off in outfield defense no matter who'd they plug in.

CON: Still only 25, and hasn't really had consistent playing time until this year. The power potential is there, and the defense is good enough to keep him in the lineup even if he isn't hitting. And even if he doesn't hit, he'd still be a fine fourth outfielder for the next couple years.

SHIN-SOO CHOO

$383K salary, signed through 2008, controlled through 2013

PRO: Kind of redundant, with Ben Francisco being the better hitter and Franklin Gutierrez the better fielder.

PRO: Not a center fielder, and would have to be platooned if he does play regularly. From a tactical standpoint, it makes sense to play him in right field to take advantage of his arm, but Gutierrez has a better arm, not to mention range. Of the outfielders mentioned here, he's the one the Indians would miss the least.

CON: He's relatively young (25) and cheap, and that's worth a lot to a team that suddenly has a lot of big contracts on the Disabled List.

BEN FRANCISCO

Minimum salary, signed through 2008, controlled through 2013

PRO: As with a lot of his young outfield brethren, Francisco would fetch a lot of interest because of his low service time. But Francisco has a more consistent track record of hitting through the minors and his little time in the majors. He would be very enticing to a team looking for an offense-first corner outfielder.

CON: If Francisco played for another team, don't you think we'd be clamoring for him? During the offensive blackout in May, Francisco was one of the few in the lineup who consistently hit for power. That he's hitting second or third in the lineup just weeks after his callup says volumes about the 2008 offense.

CON: Even though there isn't much upside to his game and his defense is decent at best, the Indians don't have any better options at the corners right now.

DAVID DELLUCCI

$3.75M, signed through 2009, controlled through 2009 (free agent)

PRO: Francisco has outclassed him at the plate, and Dellucci's defense (especially his arm) has always been a liability.

PRO: His contract isn't an albatross, but it'd be nice to free up $4M for next year.

PRO: Is 34, and corner outfielders who rely mostly on power don't age well.

CON: Is a great guy in the clubhouse, which shouldn't be completely ignored.

CON: With Travis Hafner on the DL, he's a good fit as the DH; the Indians can put his power in the lineup without worrying about other teams running on his arm.

TRAVIS HAFNER

$8.05M, signed through 2012, controlled through 2013 (team option)

PRO: Offensive game has withered away in the space of a year, and physically can't play the field beyond a game or two at a time.

PRO: A Hafner who can't hit obviously won't be worth the $57M contract he signed last season.

PRO: Has a limited no-trade clause in that extension, so it will be more difficult to deal him the longer he's not hitting.

CON: The offensive struggles could be a least in part related to a shoulder injury, so he could regain at least a portion of his prowess after his shoulder has recovered.

CON: Hafner made a commitment to stay in Cleveland instead of electing  free agency; dealing him so soon after signing the extension wouldn't exactly send a good message to those on the team who are making decisions about free agency.

This week:  2-4 Overall:  25-31 Scoring:  24-28 Old Mood:  1.1 New Mood: 1.2

W L % GB Chicago 30 26 .536 - Minnesota 29 27 .518 1 Cleveland 25 31 .446 5 Detroit 24 32 .429 6 Kansas City 17 27 .404 7.5

The series:  Hosted the White Sox (loss, win, loss) and visited the Royals (win, loss, loss).  Blah.  Went 2-4.  Blah.  With a 4.25 ERA.  Blah.  Scored four runs per game.  Blah.  Hit .243/.318/.435.  Blah.  Not the worst you've ever seen, just.  Blah.  Certainly not at all good either, though.  Blah.

The big story:  As outright awfulness receded into mere malaise, word finally started to leak out that the respective collapses of two of the Indians' best hitters, Victor Martinez and Travis Hafner, probably owe more to injuries than to anything else.  In retrospect, the profundity of Hafner's problems this season never really made all that much sense as a simple collapse of skills, and there is no real precedent for a hitter's version of Steve Blass Disease.  Still, perhaps because of our habitual fatalism, Indians fans never much figured Hafner was injured, so much so that when he was finally placed on the DL this past Friday, many fans speculated that the injury was phony, merely an excuse to make room on the roster for another player while Hafner was sent away to clear his head for a while.

The Indians told local media that Hafner would be available to play first base during Interleague play, and then he wasn't.  The Indians told local media nothing about Joe Borowski's triceps strain, counting on them to not even notice a substantial drop in velocity, let alone write about it.  And until this weekend, the Indians said nothing about Hafner's shoulder being a significant problem, and they never mentioned that it was probably Victor's hamstring that had hamstrung his power, again counting on them not to notice or report it.  Local media was shocked — shocked! — that the team had not been more forthcoming about those injuries, apparently forgetting that the team said nothing in 2006 about Victor playing half the season with a broken toe, or that they already knew that Jhonny Peralta had a vision problem.

Injuries happen, and players try to play through them, and sometimes teams know, and sometimes teams agree to let the player try.  Knowledge about injuries represents a competitive advantage in many sports, and since MLB is not yet dominated by gambling as some pro sports are, reporting requirements are meager.  Socker sniffed, "A credibility gap is developing between the Indians and the local media ... I find it difficult to believe that people in authority at Progressive Field think it serves their purpose to create an aura of distrust between the team and the media."  (Does he really not see this as a self-condemnation, as he implies that he has nothing to report if the team doesn't spoon-feed it to him?)

These developments bring little solace to Indians fans, as players sometimes don't heal in the course of one season, and sometimes they don't heal at all.  All it does is lend a small light of understanding on the widespread offensive collapse.  We've got young hitters struggling in their first full season (Gutierrez, Cabrera), streaky mediocrity from a few veterans (Blake, Dellucci), two of our best hitters playing hurt (Martinez, Hafner), and unsteady results from two more (Peralta, Sizemore) — oh, now I get it.  That leaves us with only one everday player totally sucking without even a halfway-decent explanation (Garko), and the slow-head-shaking resignation that all this crap apparently really can happen to one lineup in one season.

In other news:  Jake Westbrook returned to the rotation with a reasonably solid start, retiring the first 12 batters of the game before succumbing to a series of line-drive hits in the 5th.  Craig Breslow was claimed off waivers by the Twins, and Jorge Julio was designated for assignment to make room for Westbrook.  Hafner's trip to the DL was timed to make room on the roster for Shin-Soo Choo who returned from the DL to play his first big-league game in over a year.  Hafner's absence prompted Wedge to start utilizing his players in more of a rotation, sharing time fairly evenly among Gutierrez, Blake, Aubrey, Choo, Francisco and even Marte.  Adam Miller's finger gave us the finger once again, apparently for the entire season.  Oh, and I guess there was this "triple-steal" thing, supposedly.  Whatever.  We scored a run on that play, which seemed like pretty big news, but on the other hand, we didn't drive in that run, and that didn't seem like news at all.  Blah.

Post of the week:  Looking for nominations as always ...

Who fed it:  Just when we least expected it, Frankie Gutierrez had a huge week in limited playing time, hitting for average (.357), getting on base (five hits, two walks and a HBP) and flashing that enticing power/speed combination with a home run, a triple, and more than one spectacular play in the field.  Peralta had another huge week (1093) and after almost three weeks of hot hitting is on pace for more than 30 home runs.   Blake (1012) and Dellucci (953) were both highly productive in four starts each, and both were bouncing back from substantial two-week slumps (523 and 411).  Sizemore (948) had his worst two games of the year in the past week but still banged out three home runs and a triple; he's basically stayed hot for six weeks solid (947 after May 12).  Masa bounced back from some rough outings last week with two scoreless innings.  Absolute Best:  Peralta.  Relative Best:  Gutierrez.

Who fed it breakdown:  Very slim pickings for standout pitching performances this week, but I'll go with Perez; he gave up one earned run, and one unearned, in the second of his three appearances this week, but those runs were fluke crap, not at all his fault.  He faced 14 batters and induced six grounders and five strikeouts, allowing no walks and just one line drive for a single.  Borowski, meanwhile, allowed three line drives and eight fly balls — eight looooooooooooong fly balls — and, miraculously, no runs on no walks and three hits.  Just ask my shorts.

Who ate it:  Francisco cruelly fell back to earth this week (458), slugging just .208 while drawing more walks (three) in his last 19 PA than he had in his first 82 PA this season (two) — in both respects, possibly a sign that pitchers have started to pitch him more carefully.  Aubrey also struggled (322) to maintain his hot start, getting just one single in his last 11 AB en route back to Buffalo.  Garko's pathetic week (2-for-13, double, 2 BB, 498) was remarkably similar to his prior pathetic week (2-for-11, 2 BB, 490), or for that matter to his whole pathetic last six weeks (.186/.259/.299).  Paul Byrd coughed up 9 ER over 11 IP, and while he walked only one of the 50 batters he faced, he ominously struck out only one as well.  Absolute Worst:  Francisco.  Relative Worst:  Aubrey.

Who ate it breakdown:  As has become the norm over the last few month, Victor was mediocre but not notably awful over the past week, hitting .261/.292/.348.  The real depths of his problems show up over multiple weeks, however, as his line over the past month is .222/.273/.272.  In 88 PA, he's got only four extra base hits — all doubles, of course — and only three non-intentional walks.  It's become a serious breakdown.  Although leading the majors in batting average just three weeks ago, Victor's contributions at the plate have seriously collapsed.  Deepening that black hole in the lineup has been Shoppach, who is just 3-for-31 over the past month while inconsistently filling in for Victor, with two walks and no extra-base hits.

via www.fangraphs.com

Highest WPA		Lowest WPA
Grady Sizemore	.261	Victor Martinez	-.126
Rafael Perez	.223	Ryan Garko	-.099
Casey Blake	.220	Asdrubal Cabrera	-.095

The good news last night is that someone had to win. With the two worst offenses in baseball locking horns, you'd think a 2-1 game would be likely. But no, the bats came alive to league-average levels, quite an accomplishment for the two teams.

Cliff Lee has fallen off from his early season high standards, averaging a game score of about 40 in his last three contests; in his first seven games, his average game score was about 74. In last night's start, he allowed 10 hits and four runs, but to his credit, he did get through six innings, allowing Eric Wedge to use only those in his Circle of Trust. With an offense so punchless, it's almost required for a starter to go at least six innings, lest the middle relievers have to hold a one-run lead or a tie game.

Last year, the Indians' offense was lead by Victor Martinez and Grady Sizemore, while Travis Hafner, while having a down year by his standards, still was a viable offensive force. This year, Travis Hafner has been useless, and now is hurt, while Victor Martinez only remains the cleanup hitter because of reputation. Which leaves Grady Sizemore as the only one of the Indians' big three having even an average offensive season. Grady hit two home runs last night, giving him 10 on the season; After his 10 and Jhonny Peralta's 11, the next highest home run total on the team belongs to David Dellucci, with 5.

Besides the offensive heroics, Grady made a game-saving defensive play. With two outs and runner at second in the ninth, Jose Guillen hit a long drive to left-center field. Sizemore ran the ball down just before the fence, bobbled it briefly, hit the wall, and held onto it. If he doesn't make the catch the Royals tie the game, and would be just a single from winning it.

via www.fangraphs.com

Highest WPA		Lowest WPA
Grady Sizemore	.131	Fausto Carmona	-.371
Ben Francisco	.106	Jorge Julio	-.245
Jamey Carroll	.091	Kelly Shoppach	-.054

This time, it wasn't the offense that was the culprit; it was everything else.

Fausto Carmona not only got ripped early, he left the game in the third with an injury. Carmona's bugaboo continued to be control; his two free passes in the first inning lead to a four-run Ranger outburst. He settled down in the second inning, but two batters into the third, he strained his hip after making a pitch to David Murphy. With Jake Westbrook not far from returning to the rotation, losing Carmona shouldn't be a huge deal if the injury's not serious, but in the long-term, the Indians are going to need Carmona pitching at the top of his game to make any run at the playoffs. And it isn't just a matter of him returning to the mound, but figuring out whatever mechanical problem is dogging him. That's going to take time, and now that Carmona is on the shelf, it's going to take a lot longer.

Jorge Julio game into the game inheriting two runners and poured gasoline onto the already blazing fire, walking the first two batters he faced, then served up a grand slam to Jarrod Saltalamacchia. By the time the inning was over, the Indians were down 11-3, and if you've been following this team, the Indians scoring 11 runs in a week would have been considered an offensive outburst, let alone one game.

But the Rangers' pitching wasn't a whole lot better, and the Cleveland offense took advantage of it. Kason Gabbard couldn't stay in the game long enough to qualify for the win thanks mostly to control. He walked six in 2.2 inning, and left after Grady Sizemore hit a three-run homer to cut the Rangers lead to 11-6. The game felt like a vintage 1999 game, when decent pitching was optional and scoring early and often was required. The two teams used eleven pitchers between them, and not until the late innings did anyone make an appearance without giving up at least a run.

The wackiness continued in the sixth, when Ben Francisco became the latest major-leaguer to have a home run taken away by an umpire. Francisco's ball obviously hit above the yellow line, but was called a double by third base umpire Damien Beal and later confirmed by the entire crew. Eric Wedge was understandably irate, and was tossed after arguing the call. The botched call cost the Indians two runs, and while those two runs weren't the difference in the game, who knows what would have happened with a three run deficit with three innings to play.

The Indians' seven-game losing streak is already three more than the longest streak last year. They certainly aren't out of things as far as the division is concerned, but things have to turn around now.

via www.fangraphs.com

Highest WPA		Lowest WPA
CC Sabathia	.582	David Dellucci	-.107
Grady Sizemore	.114	Victor Martinez	-.073
Ryan Garko	.082	Travis Hafner	-.058

CC Sabathia obviously was embarrassed by actually giving up a run in his last start. So tonight he pitched the best outing of an Indians starter in the past four days (which is saying something), shutting out the Athletics on five hits and striking out 11. And with that shutout, all five starters in the Cleveland rotation have pitched at least seven shutout innings in their last starts, an amazing feat. The Indians as a team now have seven (!) shutouts. Cleveland starters have now gone 43.1 innings without allowing a run. The run prevention has been such that despite an offense last in the league in batting average and slugging, they could wake up tomorrow the leaders of the AL Central.

The offense tonight didn't need to do much, but could have done a whole lot more. Grady Sizemore lead off the game with a home run, and Ryan Garko added a homer in the fourth. They could have ended all doubt in the fifth, when Joe Blanton loaded the bases with nobody out with two walks after a Ben Francisco double, but Jhonny Peralta swung weakly at a pitch on the outside corner and topped a grounder right back to Blanton, who started a 1-2-3 double play, That turnabout seemed to rejuvenate Blanton, who was probably one hit from hitting the showers. Blanton went on to pitch through the seventh.

This week:  5-2 Overall:  19-19 Scoring:  32-13 Old Mood:  3.1 New Mood:  4.5

W L % GB Minnesota 20 17 .540 - Cleveland 19 19 .500 1.5 Chicago 18 19 .486 2.0 Kansas City 16 21 .432 4.0 Detroit 16 22 .421 4.5

The series:  Visited the Yankees (win, win, loss) and hosted the Blue Jays (win, win, win, loss).

The big story:  The team put together a strong week behind a dominant rotation, but the daily lineups wore the strange hue of a series of odd decisions — moves that occasionally excited but more often puzzled, or even smelt of desperation.

Newly promoted Ben Francisco was used in all seven games, including five starts, performing similarly to (and not demonstrably better than) the man he replaced, who was traded to Pittsburgh for (we can guess) something in between a bag of balls and a case of bats.  Slight-hitting Jason Tyner was also promoted, adding to our already overstocked cupboard of weak-hitting outfielders, or perhaps more accurately subtracting by addition.  Even more strange than Tyner's promotion was his being given a start immediately upon his arrival.  We have four better-hitting outfielders — five if you count Blake — most of whom are also good or great defenders, so what was the point of this?

There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to it, unless it was to send the other players a message, something along the lines of:  "You guys suck so bad, we might as well be playing Jason freakin' Tyner.  That's right, you guys, it's that bad.  Our hitting is as pathetic as the goddam Twins now."

And then there's Andy Marte, long buried at the end of the bench, who shockingly got three starts this week — and yet already has fewer at-bats this season (22) than Ben Francisco (25), who has been on the roster only 11 days compared to Marte's 43.  Some guys just have to play, apparently, and some guys don't.  (See full screed.)  It's a good thing we don't have to understand these decisions, because who could?

In other news:  Cliff Lee ascended to a new level of other-worldly Chuck Norrissitude, leading a rotation that allowed just nine runs in seven starts, including five games allowing one run or zero.  Five!   Five starts allowing one run or zero!  This week alone!  Since April 17, Indians starters have allowed just 35 runs in 23 games, good for a 2.07 ERA.  Sabathia even managed to climb out of the ERA cellar, having needed four excellent starts to get his ERA down to 6.55 — still awful, but good enough to surrender the "lead" to Nate Robertson at 6.64, of our alleged rivals the Detroit Tigers.  (Happily, the bottom five also includes two other Tigers, Justin Verlander at 6.43 and Kenny Rogers at 5.82.)

Asdrubal Cabrera delivered a stunning series of defensive gems in a two-game stint at shortstop, but he made history when he returned to second base last night, turning just the 14th unassisted triple-play in the history of major league baseball.  Rather than save the ball for himself or for the Hall of Fame, AbaCab casually flipped the ball to some fans sitting behind the Indians dugout as he jogged in from the field — just another routine play, I guess.

Post of the week:  Okay, maybe let's start using that recommend-until-it's-green thingy.  And no, I'm not eligible, thank you.

Who fed it: Cliff Lee pitched 16 scoreless innings, starting a new streak perhaps to rival his previous 27-inning tear.  Carmona and Laffey provided another 16 scoreless innings, Carmona's in a complete game shutout, the quartet of Perez-Lewis-Julio- Breslow contributed eight more, and man, that is just a lot of scoreless innings.  Julio has been pounding on the door of the Circle of Trust, having retired 22 batters since the last time he allowed a run (April 16) while allowing just two singles and two walks.  Breslow meanwhile was fighting just to have his existence recognized, appearing in just his second game in the past four weeks.  Casey Blake had the best offensive line of the week with a 912 OPS, though that was more of a reflection on the team's hitting than anything else.  Sizemore hit another two home runs, matching his pair from last week, and has a 1063 OPS over his last dozen games.  And, well, that's about it for the hitters.  How did we ever score 12 runs in that one game?  Absolute Best:  Lee.  Relative Best:  Lee.

Who ate it:  Garko was the worst-hitting starter this week by far, with just two singles, a double and the obligatory HBP to show for 19 trips to the plate.  He bears an atrocious .140/.219/.175 line over his last 16 games, with as many strikeouts, double-plays and sac-flys (14) as times on base (also 14).  I can't tell if we're supposed to consider Francisco a bench guy or not, but if we assume that he isn't one, then the bench (Carroll, Shoppach, Marte and Tyner) was unbelievably awful this week — 4 for 43 awful, .093/.152/.093 awful — often frustrating Wedge's attempts to shuffle the lineup and give extra days off to his  struggling sluggers, i.e., half the roster.  You know who else sucks?  Rafael Betancourt, whose ERA is something around 9 since being anointed the closer, I can't even stand to look it up.  Absolute Worst:  Garko.  Relative Worst:  Betancourt.

The other guys. false alarms and open questions:   Will return next week; I kind of got sidetracked by the whole Marte thing.

via www.fangraphs.com

Highest WPA		Lowest WPA
Aaron Laffey	.115	Ryan Garko	-.016
Victor Martinez	.114	Ben Francisco	-.016
Grady Sizemore	.106

The pitching was excellent again, but this time, the offense was as well. Grady Sizemore lead off the game with a home run, and before the inning was over, the Indians had a 6-0 lead. Blue Jays starter Dustin McGowan had no command of his fastball, which for a team that loves fastballs was a very welcome development.

But the twelve-run outburst shouldn't overshadow what Aaron Laffey's performance. Pitching with a huge lead most of the game, Laffey still maintained his game plan of attacking the lower portion of the strike zone. The Indians haven't missed Jake Westbrook, and that isn't demeaning to Jake; Laffey's allowed just 4 earned runs in his three starts.

Asdrubal Cabrera had two hits, but his defense was what stood out tonight. Cabrera, playing at shortstop, made several nice throws going into the hole between short and third. Though Jhonny Peralta playing shortstop makes sense today, Cabrera's the future at the position.

This week:  2-3 Overall:  14-17 Scoring:  15-18 Old Mood:  5.2 New Mood:  3.1

W L % GB Minnesota 16 14 .533 - Chicago 14 16 .467 2.0 Cleveland 14 17 .452 2.5 Kansas City 14 17 .452 2.5 Detroit 14 19 .424 3.5

The series:  Hosted the Mariners (loss, win, win) and the Royals (loss, loss).

The big story:  The lineup suffered a massive power outage from every player except Sizemore, as our other 12 "hitters" combined for zero home runs, zero triples and just nine doubles over 145 at-bats — and incidentally only 11 walks over 163 plate appearances — for a .262 slugging percentage.  (The major league average last season was .422.)  Our middle infielders produced just one single in 30 at-bats.  Blake and Hafner combined for just four hits, though all were doubles, in 29 at-bats.  The other four regulars (Martinez, Garko, Gutierrez and Dellucci) went the "empty batting average" route, hitting a solid .294 but combining for just three doubles and three walks between them.

The team's curious response was to jettison Jason Michaels in favor of Ben Francisco.  Curious, because after a horrendous 3-for-33 start in the team's first 15 games, Michaels had posted an 880 OPS over the past 16 games and was not part of the team's problems in any visible way.  Curious, because Michaels has a very team-friendly contract.  Curious, because Francisco had gotten off to an equally slow start in Buffalo and had made less of a rebound.  Curious, because the two players bring a very similar mix of skills to the roster.  Curious, because most in the industry expect Francisco to be a role-player or fringe everyday player, just like Michaels.

Curious, in sum, because it's not clear the Indians have done anything at all except replace one face with another, and usually, that kind of superficial move is reserved for the manager's job.  But, you know, they say you can't start a fire without a spark.  I guess.  Whatever.

In other news:  The rest of the rotation also continued to dominate, allowing just one earned run all week before the 7th inning, capped off by Aaron Laffey, who tossed an even better Sunday gem than he did last week, making the Indians look smart for not taking an easy chance to skip his turn in the rotation.  Paul Byrd continued a totally unpublicized four-game tear in which he's given up four home runs but only six runs total, and just one walk total, averaging 6.6 IP with a 1.71 ERA.  Garko more or less broke out of a hellacious 0-for-24 slump.  Wedge seethed a lot.  Betancourt was less than inspiring, failing to record a scoreless appearance in three tries.

Meanwhile, over on the Bizarro Planet, Cliff Lee was untouchable for six more innings before finally ending his un-scored-upon streak at 28 innings — giving up a three-run bomb, reducing his outing to a mere quality start, and ballooning his ERA all the way up to 0.96, still easily the best in the majors this season.  Like two regressions passing in the night, Sabathia's start was eerily similar to Lee's, beginning with six scoreless innings and ending with three straight hits to start the 7th.  Sabathia pitched well overall but still owns the league's worst ERA at 7.51.

Post of the week:  Maybe I need to rethink this.

Who fed it:  Byrd pitched the best game of the week, allowing just four singles and one walk.  Two of those five baserunners were erased trying to steal second, and none of them ever reached second.  Byrd retired the leadoff batter in all eight innings, and only two batters reached base with less than two outs.  Laffey was nearly as good in his start, allowing just one unearned run on four singles and two walks.  Sizemore busted out a 1311 OPS, including as many extra bases (nine) as the rest of the roster combined, and as many walks (five) as the four corner positions plus DH and catcher.  Perez had an odd but successful week, at one point earning a "Hold" without facing a single batter; he faced four batters over three other games, producing three groundballs and one flyball, resulting in a single and three outs.  Jensen Lewis allowed no hits and one walk over 4.1 innings, and Tom Mastny struck out one guy and allowed another to reach on a groundball error, the only two batters he's faced in the last 19 days. Absolute Best:  Sizemore.  Relative Best:  Byrd.

Honorable mention:  in his final start as an Indian (and only start of the week), Jason Michaels hit a double and a sac fly.  The next day, he scored the 11th inning game-winner as a pinch-runner in his final game here.  Not as dramatic as a farewell home run, but a fitting send-off for a role player who always seemed to be working his ass off out there.

Who ate it:  It's been feast-or-famine almost every week for Peralta, and this week, it was an all-out 0-for-13 famine.  Cabrera was nearly as bad at 1-for-16.  Blake's strikeouts (six) were double his times on base (three); he's played every inning of the last nine games, producing a line of .100/.206/.167.  Betancourt, filling in capably for Borowski, yielded two home runs and four singles while retiring only five batters.  Hafner hit two doubles in one game but went 0-for-10 in three others; he's struck out 14 times in his last 56 trips to the plate, hitting just four singles and four doubles and drawing only five walks for a line of .167/.250/.250.  Breslow totally crapped the bed in his only appearance in the last 19 days.  Absolute Worst:  Peralta.  Relative Worst:  Betancourt.

The other guys:    The Twins surged while the White Sox struggled and the Tigers scuffled.  The division more than ever looks like it will go to any team that can manage anything close to 90 wins, as the Tigers' pitching and the Indians' hitting look no more likely to come together than the White Sox or Twins going on a big flukey run.

False alarms:

• Not one single hitter having a good year by his own standards.
  
• Betancourt, terrible.
• Roger Clemens, apologizing for something.
• Not one formidable opponent in the AL Central.

Open questions:

• Can the starters walk on water long enough for the lineup to regroup and win a few games?
  
• Is there something fundamentally wrong with the organizational approach to hitting, and how long can Derek Shelton keep his job?
  
• When Cliff Lee returns to reality, what will that look like?
  
• Which teams are really in the AL Central race, anyway?
• Just how bad will the game have to be going before we see Mastny or Breslow again, and how bad will they be after a 15-day layoff?
• Too soon to write Laffey's name into our starting rotation plans, 2009-2013?
  
• Can Betancourt regain anything remotely resembling his 2007 dominance for any amount of time, or will he scuffle back-and-forth all season as he did in 2006?
• Is Jensen Lewis back on track, sort of?
• How many relievers would have to be failing completely for Adam Miller to get the call to the big-league bullpen?  Do we even want to see him there?
• Could Sowers be on the block soon?
• Could the Indians really consider Marte more or less expendable and Blake more or less untouchable?
• Really?

via fangraphs.com

Highest WPA		Lowest WPA
David Dellucci	.090	Franklin Gutierrez	-.133
Jensen Lewis	.085	Rafael Perez	-.126
Grady Sizemore	.073	Casey Blake	-.115

Broken record time: the offense was terrible again, leaving it up to the pitching staff to win with a tiny margin of error. Franklin Gutierrez made a mental/physical error in the seventh inning in not catching a shallow fly ball. For Franklin that's a fairly routine catch, but he upped the degree of difficulty to going into a slide to make the catch. So instead of Kansas City scoring their second and final run of the inning on a sacrifice fly, the inning was extended an out. Billy Butler and Mark Teahen both singled with two outs, and that was the ballgame.

Eric Wedge wasn't happy with the offense after the game:

"There's not much you can really say about it that hasn't been said," Wedge said. "We got guys here with too much experience over the last couple years to be swinging the bats like this. ... I'm just not seeing quality at-bats."

I would expect a roster move on Monday. Jason Michaels for Ben Francisco makes the most sense.

 

Highest WPA		Lowest WPA
Paul Byrd	.540	David Dellucci	-.248
Asdrubal Cabrera	.479	Rafael Betancourt	-.182
Travis Hafner	.233	Casey Blake	-.152

This was one of those game which would have been devastating had the Indians not won it. Paul Byrd pitched into the eighth inning, allowing no runs. Of course, the Indians only had a one-run lead, but there was only the matter of Rafael Betancourt pitching the ninth. Right?

Well, the run wasn't really due to Betancourt's pitching. Ichiro singled to start the inning, but after that it was the Cleveland defense that pushed the run home. Betancourt first threw a wild pitch, which if you've seen Rafael pitch you'd be shocked at. Then Ichiro attempted to steal third, and Victor Martinez got off a good throw. Too bad we'll never know if he would have thrown Ichiro out or not, since Casey Blake didn't catch the throw. The ball went down the third base line, and just like that the game was tied. Victor's feed was slightly off-center, and Blake tried to catch and tag in the same motion. Even if Ichio is safe, he's still on third, and given how both offenses hit, it was not a given that they'd get the runner in with less than two outs.

So the game went to extra innings. Enter Masa Kobayashi, who on the first pitch of the inning grooved a fastball to Richie Sexson, Now the Indians were down 2-1, and Seattle closer JJ Putz started to warm in the bullpen. The same guy who lead baseball in WXRL  last season (Betancourt was second). As it turned, it wasn't a good game to be a very good reliever, for Putz struck out Travis Hafner to start the inning, but then allowed three straight base runners to load the bases. Then he walked Grady Sizemore to force in a run and the tie the game. He struck out Casey Blake and David Dellucci to extend the game, though.

The Indians won the game in the eleventh in a similar fashion off of Mark Lowe and Sean Green. After Victor Martinez flied out, Jhonny Peralta walked, Travis Hafner doubled against the no-doubles defense, and Jamey Carroll reached via a HBP. This time, however, the big play came with two outs. Franklin Gutierrez struck out, leaving everyone to gnash their teeth at the probability that the Indians would leave the bases loaded again. But Asdrubal Cabrera lined a single to right and those depressing thoughts evaporated quickly away.