Tribe Watch '13 (All Star Break)

Record: 51 - 44

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

Over the weekend, the Indians TV announcers mentioned how manager Terry Francona spoke with the team and promoted the idea of finishing strong to close out the first half of the season. It appears that the Tribe took those words to heart as they took two out of three from Toronto and then swept the Kansas City Royals. Now as the team takes off for a few days before transitioning into the second half, we can examine where they currently stand. I think the best way to define my feelings is cautiously optimistic. The Indians have a better record than they did at this point last year and are relatively healthy. The weak schedule in the second half also works in their favor. But before we can pencil this team into a postseason slot, there are a few things that should be addressed. First of all, while our overall record is good, we have played terribly against Detroit, Boston, and New York. Two of those three teams are in first place in their respective divisions. For this team to be seen as legitimate contenders, we need to play better against good teams. There's also a couple players who need to do more offensively. Mark Reynolds in particular has been trending downward when it comes to hitting. We need him to play better to shore up our lineup. And of course, we could always use more pitching. The starters, which not great, have performed admirably and should be improved when Zach McAllister returns. The bullpen. however, seems like it could use some additions. Hopefully as the trade deadline nears some moves can be made to address these issues. For now, let's enjoy the time off and get ready to come out fighting come Friday when we begin a weekend series with the Twins in Minnesota. I'm looking forward to wild and fun second half. Go Tribe!

Tribe Watch (All Star Break)

Record: 44-41

Standing: 2nd in AL Central (3 games back)

The Indians appeared to be finishing up the first half of the season strong only for things to go awry on the last day. First the good news...the Indians managed to take two out of three from the Angels and then were poised to win the series against Tampa Bay until they coughed up a big lead on Sunday and ended up having to settle for a split. Still, the last three series of this first half featured the Indians playing some of their best baseball. We'll need to continue playing like that if we want to remain in the race for the AL Central title. Speaking of which, despite our improved effort we were unable to make up any ground in the standings as those damn White Sox had been nearly unbeatable for the past couple of weeks. Let's hope to God that they suffer a setback in the second half of the season. But they certainly won't be our only concern because don't look now, but the Tigers are only a half game behind us and 3.5 games back of first place. At this point, it definitely looks like a three team race, but who will take it is anybody's guess.

Looking ahead, there will certainly be some interesting storylines that will play out. One will be what, if any moves, will this team make before the trade deadline. Given our standing, we are certainly in a place to be buyers, but will our cheap owner actually cough up any money to get someone that can significantly help this team down the stretch. Another question is what we can expect from two wild cards who are currently missing in action - Grady Sizermore and the man formerly known as Fausto Carmona. Both could return this season but it remains unclear how much they can really help us if they do return. Lastly, will be if we can get consistent play from our current players. We've seen everyone on this team produce, but so far it's been spotty. We need to find a way to have everyone clicking at the same time and if we do, I like our chances. It should definitely be a fun second half and I'm excited to see it play out. Things get underway this Friday when the Indians head out onto the road and play a weekend series in Toronto. Enjoy the All Star break and Go Tribe!

Tribe Watch (Week 12)

Record: 40-38

Standing: 2nd in AL Central (1.5 games back)

I was almost ready to write this team off for this season after they got swept by the Yankees earlier this week. All facets of our game looked bad, but in particular the offense was non-existent. However, as if often the case in baseball, things turn quickly. The Indians managed to recover by taking 3 out of 4 against the Orioles and had solid hitting in each of the four games. On the roster front, it was another good news/bad news situation. On the positive side, it appears Travis Hafner will rejoin the team on Monday, which could provide a boost to the offense. However, during the Baltimore series young third baseman, Lonnie Chisenhall was hit by a pitch that broke a bone in his arm. After having surgery the report is that he'll be out 10-12 weeks, which pretty much means he won't return this season. Though the Indians are still in second place, they could put themselves in a good position heading into the All Star Break if they manage to play well this week. They return home to play a couple of tough opponents. First up will be the Anaheim Angels. We were fortunate enough to play well against them earlier this season when they were struggling. It'll be interesting to see how we fare against them now that they have had a resurgence. We'll then finish off the first half of the season against the Tampa Bay Rays. They have been bitten by the injury bug all season long, yet have still managed to play well so we can't let our guard down against them. And of course, the trade deadline is still looming, so it should be interesting to see what, if any, changes are made to the roster in the coming days. All of it makes for some exciting baseball that should be fun to watch. Go Tribe!

Tribe Watch (Week 17)

Record: 53 - 52

Standing: Second in AL Central

Let's of course get to the big news of the week which was the trades the team was able to pull off before the deadline. I already talked about the Fukudome deal earlier this week, so I won't expand on that. We also traded Orlando Cabrera to San Francisco for a minor league outfielder who's currently injured. Cabrera was doing absolutely nothing but hitting ground ball out when he was playing for us and when his playing time got cut, he started to whine, so I'm glad to see him go. Even if the guy we got for him doesn't pan out, it'll be a relief just to have unloaded OCab. Of course, the big move was the trade with the Rockies where we were able to get Ubaldo Jimenez. For the first part of last season Jimenez was absolutely unstoppable on the mound and seemed like a lock for the Cy Young award. However, since the midway point of last year, he's scuffled a bit, but has shown signs that he was re-emerging as that preeminent pitcher. No doubt, at his best, this guy can be the future ace of this club. Some are concerned about this deal because in order to get him, we had to give up four prospect, two of which were our highly touted first round draft picks of the past two years. This is always a risk, but it's one that I'm hoping pays off. Overall, I'm conflicted by these moves. I really like that our front office tried to be proactive and not be content with what they had. However, it seems like they missed the boat at trying to secure our greatest need, which is a right-handed power hitter. Our offense is absolutely scuffling right now and needs some kind of spark. I'll assume they feel the guys who are currently injured like Choo and Sizemore will still be able to come back and produce in time for the home stretch of the season. I sure hope so or otherwise these trades will have been for naught.

As for the performance on the field, the less said the better. As I just mentioned, our offense is really anemic at this point and we cannot score any runs. The only two wins we got this week came in walkoff fashion and we were really only able to get those because our pitching had been able to keep us in the game. This was a definite missed opportunity to get some wins, especially against weaker opponents like the Royals. This upcoming week could get real ugly. We have a huge 7 game road trip against Boston (for 4 games) and Texas (for 3). Those are two of the three divisional leaders and a pair of teams that have really good offenses. If we can't score any runs, we could easily see ourselves quickly falling down the ranks in the division. But despite this uphill climb, we've got to put our best foot forward and hope for the best, all the while saying Go Tribe!