Tribe Watch '13 (Week 23)

Record: 76 - 66

Standing: Second in AL Central (5.5 games behind Detroit; 2 games out of Wild Card)

Because of the holiday weekend, I never did a Tribe Watch post last week. However, given the way the Indians had played against Atlanta and Detroit, I really wasn't in the mood to talk about baseball. This week definitely saw some improvement. We managed to take two out of three against Baltimore (of course, the only game we lost was the one I attended) and the New York Mets. Taking two out of three against Baltimore was important because we are battling with them for that second Wild Card spot. I really would have liked to sweep the Mets, but could not managed to get a victory today. While it is just one loss, it was a particularly frustrating one because it featured three themes that when present usually equal to a Tribe loss. #1, when Yan Gomes and Ryan Raburn are not in the lineup, our offense is non-existent. #2, if we have men on base in a clutch situation, it always seems as if Asdrubal Cabrera is up to bat and he will inevitably not come through in the clutch. #3, Chris Perez will give up runs when he is in a non-save situation. Hopefully Terry Francona is picking up on these themes as well and will do something to rectify them as we head into the home stretch. Every game now becomes really important if we want to make the postseason. Our schedule is weak which means we can win a lot of these games. However, there are still a lot of teams capable of making the playoffs so we have to be careful not to lose ground to any of them. That push to the postseason continues this week with a three game series at home with the Kansas City Royals and then onto Chicago this week for a 3 game set with the White Sox. Kansas City won't go away, so beating them will be important to quash their hopes of making the playoffs. The White Sox are horrible and its essential that we sweep them, even if it is in Chicago. It's fun to be able to still be talking Indians baseball in September and have it mean sometime. It can also be nerve racking, but that's part of the fun. Let's root this team on to victory (especially since the Browns seem like they will be awful once again this year). Go Tribe!

Tribe Watch '13 (Week 12)

Record: 38 - 36

Standing: Second in AL Central (4 games behind Detroit)

A rather ho hum week for the Tribe. They managed to take two out of thee from both Kansas City and Minnesota. I certainly can't complain about that. Winning series is the name of the game and if we can keep that up, we'll be in good shape. Right now though, there's not a lot of energy or excitement behind the wins. We're not hitting as well as we could. We're not pitching as well as we could. We're doing just enough to eke out wins. For now that's ok, especially against divisional opponents. The wins against KC certainly helped put some separation between us and them for now. But I'd certainly like to see some more of that magic that we had during our really good stretch a month ago. Right now, I think a few key injuries are preventing that. Those won't last, so hopefully that means we can get that spark back sooner rather than later. In the meantime, let's just keep winnings and you'll find I'll have very little to complain about. Looking ahead to this week, we begin a lengthy road trip that involves playing a pair of 4-game series; first against Baltimore and then against the White Sox. Baltimore is showing that their postseason appearance last year wasn't a fluke. The Indians have not played well thus far against AL East teams, so it would be nice if that would begin to change. As for Chicago, they may have plummeted to the bottom of our division, but that doesn't mean we should take them lightly. I'd love to see us take advantage of their poor play and really beat up on them. If they do, you'll be looking at one very happy Indians fan come next week. Go Tribe!

Tribe Watch '13 (Week 8)

Record: 27-22

Standing: Second in AL Central (1.5 games behind Detroit)

Well we all knew that the good times couldn't last forever. After an impressive run, the Tribe came back down to Earth this week. After an improbable win on Monday, the Indians lost both games against Detroit and then lost 3 of 4 in Boston. While the outcome wasn't desirable, I don't think there's any reason to push the panic button just yet. There's a lot of evidence to suggest that we will not have a repeat of the past two years where we get off to a great start and then absolutely collapse in the second half of the season. Even though we did lose five times this past week, our offense still did their job for the most part. I think our struggles can partially be blamed on some absolutely lousy weather this week. There was at least three games that were played in the rain, which can never be fun. If there is an area of concern, it's one that I wouldn't have thought of prior to the beginning of the season - the bullpen. Several of our losses this week were a result of our relief pitchers' inability to hold onto a lead. Vinnie Pestano has not been as effective since returning from the disabled list and closer Chris Perez left today's game with an injury. We'll need the back end of our pitching staff to pick it up if we want to continue to compete. The biggest issue is that the Indians have an extremely rough schedule over the next 3-4 weeks. If we can hold tight during this stretch, we should be ok as the remainder of the schedule is relatively light. If we go into a tailspin during the next month, it may turn into a repeat of the last couple of seasons. That rough stretch begins this week with an interesting 4 game series against our in-state rival, the Cincinnati Reds. It's interesting for the fact that the first two games will take place in Cincy and then the last two will be in Cleveland. The Tribe will then remain in town over the weekend as they take on the Tampa Bay Rays. I'm confident they'll be able to ride out this storm and remain with Detroit in that fight for first place. Regardless of outcome, I'll be watching them every step of the way. Go Tribe!

Life imitating art?

I won't post the whole article here, but you can click on the link below for a fun article where a Yahoo reporter talked with several of the players on the Cleveland Indians to ask them to compare themselves to the various characters in the classic movie, Major League. Despite a number of new faces on the Tribe this year, it sounds like this group has already bonded well and ready to have as much success as their film counterparts did. One can only hope!

The 2013 Cleveland Indians imagine themselves as the Indians from 'Major League'

Tribe Watch (Week 6)

Record: 23-18

Standing: First in AL Central

Closer Chris Perez gained some press yesterday by chastising the Cleveland fans for not supporting this team more and he has a point. Despite a loss today, this team won 5 out of 7 games this week and remain in first place by three games. However, I'm not going to be too hard on the fans since the Indians do having a losing record at home (we've been tremendous on the road for some reason) and I still don't think the team has played as well as it could be playing. The frustrating thing is that we're not seeing multiple guys get hot at the same time. It seems like one person each game has a breakout performance while everyone else struggles. If we can be more consistent, who knows how far this team can go. As happy as I am with their success this week, I know that this upcoming week is going to be a major swing week. We get an off day tomorrow and then play the two teams right behind us in the standings - a three game set against Detroit at home and then a 3 game series in Chicago against the White Sox. If we play well this week, we could give ourselves some real distance in the standings heading into June. If we struggle, we could easily see ourselves out of first place by next Sunday. For now though, let's listen to Chris Perez and support this team. Let's show them that this truly is Believe-land and that we love our Indians. Go Tribe!