Tribe Watch '13 (Week 14)

Record: 46 - 42

Standing: Second in AL Central (2.5 games behind Detroit)

It looked like the Indians were going to continue their winning ways after that impressive four game sweep of the White Sox the weekend before. The Tribe managed to win the first game of the series against the Kansas City Royals, but then dropped the last two to end their long road trip on a bit of a down note. Upon returning home, it appeared as if the team had some jet lag and they went on to lose the first two games against the Tigers. Things would have been very bleak had the Indians not managed to pull off a victory yesterday. With that win, the team still now has a chance at earning a split with Detroit if they manage to win tonight. One of the key issues during the losing streak this past week was poor pitching. In some cases it was the starters not having good outings. When they did have a good start, then it seemed to be the bullpen that struggled. Even though we won yesterday, the bullpen still blew a 5-run lead before the Indians managed to come back and win it for good. Clearly, our staff has to step up their game if they want to remain competitive in the division. But it's also time to start thinking about who we can possibly get in a trade to help shore up this staff. As we hit the halfway point in the season, it's time for us to make the moves needed in order to make sure we play postseason baseball. Speaking of the halfway point, this is the final week of the season before the All Star Break. After tonight's game with Detroit, we have a pair of three game series at home with the Toronto Blue Jays and the Kansas City Royals. The Jays have been steadily improving since getting off to a horrendous start, so it would be nice if we could cool them off again. Plus, we need to start playing better against teams from the AL East. As for the Royals, we've played them very well thus far this season, so let's hope we can keep that up. We certainly don't want them to gain any ground on us and believe they still have a chance in the division. It certainly would be nice to head into the break being in first place, so let's cheer on this team and make it happen. Go Tribe!

Tribe Watch '13 (Week 10)

Record: 30 - 32

Standing: Second in AL Central (5.5 games behind Detroit)

What an utterly disastrous week for the Indians. The team was already struggling and then they proceed to get swept by both the Yankees and the Tigers. Our losing streak is at 7 games. We have lost 11 straight games on the road, which is the longest streak the Indians have had in over twenty years. We are back under .500 for the season. And we are now 5 and half games out of first place. There just are not many bright spots for this team right now as the offense is not producing and the pitching, while not terrible, have been giving up runs in key situations. The only thing I'm holding on to right now and keeping me from believing we are destined to have another second half implosion is the fact that we are playing an unbelievably rough schedule right now. It's been weeks since we have played a sub .500 team. We've got one more tough week and then things cool off considerably. We have to find a way to weather this storm. This week the Indians finish up this brutal road trip with a 3 game series in Texas. Then they will come back home this weekend to play the Washington Nationals. If we can have even a moderately productive week, it may help us refocus and get back to our winning ways against the lesser teams that we'll eventually play. If we have another week like this past one, then there may not be any recovery from it, which would set us up for another long disappointing summer. It may look bleak at the moment, but we gotta keep this town as "Believeland". Send some positive energy toward this team - any little bit could help these days. As always, Go Tribe!

Tribe Watch (Week 10)

Record: 33-32

Standing: Second in AL Central (1.5 games back)

This has been a pretty dismal week for the Tribe as the only managed to get one victory. The week began with a rough time in Cincinnati as the Reds swept us. Then we returned home and only got one win against the Pirates. Once again, pitching problems plagued this time. Both Cincinnati and Pittsburg seemed to hit off our pitchers at will. While our hitters could be doing more, this team will live and die by our pitching, so they need to start getting their act together if we have any hopes of contending. If there's a silver lining after such a pathetic performance, it's that the White Sox played just as poorly and thus we did not really lose any ground in the standings. We can't expect that to always happen, so we need to start winning again. We'll get a chance for some revenge against the Reds this week as they come to Cleveland for a three game set. Then we head back out onto the road this weekend for a set against the Houston Astros, a team that isn't very good. Capitalizing on weaker competition will be important. Plus it'll give us an opportunity to do some advanced scouting since Houston will become a part of the American League next year. As interleague play wraps up, I'll be watching to see if we can end this stretch of games on a positive note. Go Tribe!

Tribe Watch (Week 8)

Record: 28-25

Standing: Second in AL Central

The Indians' performance this week did nothing to really motivate me to do this write up, but here I am anyways. This week the Tribe saw themselves fall out of first place, partially because those nasty Chicago White Sox are red hot and partially because we only managed to win two out of six games against Kansas City and Minnesota - a pair of divisional opponents that we need to beat. While our offense continues to struggle due to some key injuries, the bigger issue was the pitching. A staff that looked dominant against the Tigers has really faltered the past three series. If we want any chance of competing in this division, both our starters and middle relievers need to step up their game. We have another off day tomorrow and then head out onto the road for a lengthy trip. It will begin on Tuesday with a stint in Detroit. This weekend interleague play will resume as we square off against the Cardinals. At this point we can't afford to lose any more ground in the standings so we'll need to play competitive against this pair of decent teams. June has not been a good month in recent history for the Tribe, so let's change that up this year. Since the Indians won't be playing many home games this month, everyone needs to do their part in rooting on this team from their living room. Hopefully if we send good vibes their way, they can regain their winning ways. Go Tribe!

Tribe Watch (Week 7)

Record: 26-21

Standing: First in AL Central

This week shows you how difficult it can be to a baseball fan. The Indians begin the week on top of the world by sweeping our rivals, the Detroit Tigers in close, exciting, and competitive games. The fact that the sweep culminated in beating Justin Verlander, who may be the best pitcher in baseball today was about as awesome it gets. And then we get to the weekend where everything that could go wrong, did. Frankly I could use one of those Men in Black neuralizers to forget it even existed. We ended up getting swept by those classless, vile (and many other words I can't use here) Chicago White Sox. Our pitching looked pathetic in all three games. To show you the disparity between the two series, our pitching staff gave up 6 runs total against Detroit and 31 to Chicago. And what's even more troubling is the number of Indians who are now currently hurt. Asdrubal Cabrera, Carlos Santana, Travis Hafner, Jack Hanahan, and Lou Marson are just some of the names who had to sit out games because of injuries. Let's keep our fingers crossed that most of the injuries are minor and they can return to the lineup sooner rather than later. Otherwise, we may be seeing a complete repeat of next year. The Indians first opportunity to erase the nightmare of this weekend comes tomorrow when they begin a three game set against the Royals. We'll then wrap up the week with a series against Minnesota this weekend. Both of these teams are bringing up the rear of the AL Central, so let's hope they remain our whipping boys and we can start extending our lead in the AL Central again. If we can get back to the way we played against Detroit, it should be a fun season. If we continue to play like we did against Chicago, well...let's not even think about that. Go Tribe!

Tribe Watch (Week 5)

Record: 18-16

Standing: First in AL Central

It was a week that kept looking like it was going to turn out better than it actually did. We began with a great sweep of a doubleheader against Chicago on Monday and then proceeded to lose the next two games to them. Then we started our series against the Red Sox by beating them up, only to see us lose the next three games to them. Up until this week most of the losses we've had, were close, competitive games. This week, however, we had games where all parts of our team faltered. Pitching and clutch hitting need to improve. In terms of roster moves, that too produced a mixed bag. Starter Josh Tomlin went on the DL with a sore wrist, but we finally got rid of some dead weight in the bullpen by designating Dan Wheeler for assignment. Looking ahead to this week, we begin with a short series in Minnesota against a Twins team that has just been awful so far this year. They may just be the perfect team to face to help us get our confidence back and in a good groove. It's then back home to place the Mariners, which is another team that is not very good. Finally we head into the weekend to begin interleague play against (ugh) Ozzie Guillen and the new look Miami Marlins. Here's hoping this will be a good rebound week so that we can maintain our hold on first place in the division. And as always, I'll be there watching each game and rooting my team on. Go Tribe!

Tribe Watch (Week 20)

Record: 62-61

Standing: Second in AL Central

The Indians were victims of a Motor City Massacre this weekend. After finally exercising some demons in Chicago by taking two out of three from the White Sox, we went into Detroit and got steamrolled. Neither the offense nor the starting pitching looked strong. Tomlin continues to give up too many home runs, Huff had an off days and Jimenez got rocked for 8 runs in four innings of work today. The bats finally started to come to life today and nearly overcame a seven run deficit, only to fall short thanks to some poor base coaching in the ninth. We currently sit four and half games in back of Detroit right now. Mathematically, we are not out of it by a long shot, especially considering how many games we still have left against teams in our division. With that said, I'm beginning to think now that this team just doesn't have the right combination of killer instinct and talent to push them past the Tigers and win the division. It always seems like there's at least one core area of the team that's faltering. And of top of that, the injuries continue to mount up. Rookie Jason Kipnis, who had provided a real offensive boost to the team went on the 15-day DL and Travis Hafner, once again, left in the middle of the game hobbling with some sort of foot or leg injury. While doubt may be creeping into my mind about this team, I certainly hope that they are able to remain confident. It'll be of the utmost importance to do so heading into this week. We head home for a long home game stretch against three teams with poor records. We'll begin with a four game series against the Mariners, which includes a double-header and then move onto a weekend set with the Royals. Winning ball clubs are the ones who are able to beat up on weaker competition, so we need to win most of these games in order to stay competitve. If we can, then all we can hope for is for Detroit and Chicago to lose some games and we'll be right back in it. We'll see where things stand next week. Until then, Go Tribe!