Tribe @ Twins - 5/15 matinee

[CAVSTRIBEBROWNSin07!]

First pitch at 1:10.

1. Choo
2. Kipnis
3. Asdrubal
4. Santana (DH)
5. Brantley
6. Lopez
7. Damon
8. Kotchman
9. Marson

Lowe 5-1, 2.47 ERA

1. Mastroianni
2. Mauer
3. Willingham
4. Doumit
5. Dozier
6. Parmelee
7. Komatsu
8. Casilla
9. The Adorable One

Marquis 2-2, 6.26 ERA

[CAVSTRIBEBROWNSin07!]

I was thinking that this lefty heavy lineup has a significant advantage against Jason Marquis, but then I realized he's Jason Marquis. A blind right handed raccoon has an advantage against him.

[CAVSTRIBEBROWNSin07!]

And my god, it takes typing out the Twins lineup to realize how truly putrid they are. I haven't seen such an ugly roster since Cavs circa late in the 26 game losing streak.

[CAVSTRIBEBROWNSin07!]

7 pitch 1st for Lowe. I got up for less than 2 minutes and missed the inning. Incredible.

[andrew6586]

And my god, it takes typing out the Twins lineup to realize how truly putrid they are. I haven't seen such an ugly roster since Cavs circa late in the 26 game losing streak.

Rebuttal...
1. Choo
2. Kipnis
3. Asdrubal
4. Santana (DH)
5. Brantley
6. Lopez
7. Damon
8. Kotchman
9. Marson

[CAVSTRIBEBROWNSin07!]

Well played.

[scrambler]

Casy "little Albert" Kotchman is now a post Mendoza line hitter...now if we can just get Marson above the half-Mendoza line we'll be in that much better shape!

[andrew6586]

Casy "little Albert" Kotchman is now a post Mendoza line hitter...now if we can just get Marson above the half-Mendoza line we'll be in that much better shape!

Woah, woah, woah, woah. One miracle at a time.

[skatingtripods]

Seems like Kotchman and Choo are coming around.

I like moving Choo to leadoff because he has to make a conscious effort to take pitches. That'll help him find something better to hit. He's been too aggressive in the middle of the order.

[skatingtripods]

Johnny Damon's terrible.

[Jumbo]

Kotchman's line in May coming into today: .282/.341/.410. That's not terrible.

Weird fact of the early season: AL first basemen as a whole are batting .235...worst in the league.

[skatingtripods]

That swing from Choo made me go from 6 to midnight.

[Jumbo]

This Choo leading off thing seems pretty good.

[skatingtripods]

Wow. Asdrubal crushed that ball.

[redneckofsc]

Lowe is now 3rd in the AL in ERA (after the 4th inning), tied for 2nd in wins, could be tied for first if he gets a win today, and tied for 1st in GIDP

[skatingtripods]

Santana finally got the hanger he's been swinging for.

[Jumbo]

The Twins will be lucky to win 50 games this year.

[redneckofsc]

Finally hit some HR, and yes, Damon is bad.

[CAVSTRIBEBROWNSin07!]

Back to back!

[scrambler]

Jason Marquis....Oh my God. WE have 2 leadoff doubles, a leadoff triple and a leadoff home run today.

[redneckofsc]

Damon is starting to remind me of the Brady Anderson experiment.

[rebelwithoutaclue]

Lowe is now 3rd in the AL in ERA (after the 4th inning), tied for 2nd in wins, could be tied for first if he gets a win today, and tied for 1st in GIDP

He's pitching great, and he's been a great pickup, but other than Texas and Boston (21 baserunners in 12 innings) he's pitched against the dregs of the league. This. Is. Not. Sustainable. Not even 3.0 K/9; more BB's than K's.


Also doesn't help that the guy's bread n' butter is ground balls and the Indians are the 4th worst fielding team in the entire league.


Prepare for the fall.

[Am I Here Again?]

I don't care if Marquis is a crappy pitcher or not. IMO a game like this is what the Tribe needed after that crappy series in Bahstun.

[skatingtripods]

He's pitching great, and he's been a great pickup, but other than Texas and Boston (21 baserunners in 12 innings) he's pitched against the dregs of the league. This. Is. Not. Sustainable. Not even 3.0 K/9; more BB's than K's.


Also doesn't help that the guy's bread n' butter is ground balls and the Indians are the 4th worst fielding team in the entire league.


Prepare for the fall.

While I agree with your overall sentiment, and especially his astronomically high LOB%, Anaheim and Toronto aren't "dregs". Yeah, the Angels suck in the standings, but their lineup is still very dangerous, struggling or not.

Furthermore, KC's lineup has a lot of good hitters as well.

He's caught good lineups when they were struggling, but he kept them down. There's something to be said about that.

It's not like he has three starts v. MIN, two v. SEA, and another v. OAK. He's faced lineups with a lot of talent.

[peeker643]

Johnny Damon's terrible.

Yeah...yeah... yeah... this is becoming Redneckian....

Anyway, if he's still as Duncanian after the same number of ABs that it took for Kotchman and Choo to "come around" let me know and I'll help you throw him in the trunk of car and bury him in a shallow grave.

[skatingtripods]

Yeah...yeah... yeah... this is becoming Redneckian....

Anyway, if he's still as Duncanian after the same number of ABs that it took for Kotchman and Choo to "come around" let me know and I'll help you throw him in the trunk of car and bury him in a shallow grave.

Let's not wait to see if he comes around. I'll start digging.

[peeker643]

Yeah...yeah... yeah... this is becoming Redneckian....

Anyway, if he's still as Duncanian after the same number of ABs that it took for Kotchman and Choo to "come around" let me know and I'll help you throw him in the trunk of car and bury him in a shallow grave.

Let's not wait to see if he comes around. I'll start digging.

You just don't want to like him because he's taking ABs away from your version (a shitty, can't play version, BTW) of Jamey Carroll.

We should bury Damon next to his dead arm though. Any idea where they laid that to rest five years ago?

[skatingtripods]

You just don't want to like him because he's taking ABs away from your version (a shitty, can't play version, BTW) of Jamey Carroll.

We should bury Damon next to his dead arm though. Any idea where they laid that to rest five years ago?

Seen Jamey Carroll swing the twig in this series? He's done too.

I don't like Damon because he'll NEVER outhit his defense at this stage of his career. Muhammad Ali would have more bat speed than Damon. And less movement in the batter's box.

At least Duncan has the potential to accidentally hit one out. Best you'll get from Damon is a slap single.

[peeker643]

You just don't want to like him because he's taking ABs away from your version (a shitty, can't play version, BTW) of Jamey Carroll.

We should bury Damon next to his dead arm though. Any idea where they laid that to rest five years ago?

Seen Jamey Carroll swing the twig in this series? He's done too.

I don't like Damon because he'll NEVER outhit his defense at this stage of his career. Muhammad Ali would have more bat speed than Damon. And less movement in the batter's box.

At least Duncan has the potential to accidentally hit one out. Best you'll get from Damon is a slap single.

Borscht...

Damon will drive balls when he's in major league shape.

And you don't worry about outhitting your defense when you're a DH.

Apparently the idiots in the dugout prefer a guy that can't hit, play defense or throw to Duncan in LF. That's not exactly resume' material for Shelly.

I've seen Carroll walked on 4-pitches and 5-pitches in the last 15 hours. Still strikes fear into a pitcher's heart.

And there's no discernible difference between Carroll at 36 as opposed to Carroll at 26

[skatingtripods]

Fine. Damon sucks. Duncan sucks.

We can end the back and forth now because until Damon reaches .260/.330/.390/.720, I'll continue to loathe him. And I'll probably still hate him if he reaches those numbers.

[skatingtripods]

Guess Alexi Casilla forgot that he has absolutely no power.

[redneckofsc]

Lowe now 2nd in the AL in ERA

[skatingtripods]

Curious to see if Acta lets Lowe finish it. He'll probably have to go 120+ to do so. If Lowe had the 21st off, it'd be a no brainer. But he's in line to pitch on Sunday, so it's a tough spot for Acta.

You know Lowe wants to finish it.

[peeker643]

Lowe's been excellent again all day but it sure is nice to have to come with a strike or miss in the middle of the plate against this Twins team as opposed to an actual major league club.

[Jumbo]

Most of the Twins are terrible, but Josh Willingham would have fit in very nicely on the Indians.

[skatingtripods]

I know I'm gonna jinx this, but I wonder when the last CG SHO without a K was.

[rebelwithoutaclue]

I know I'm gonna jinx this, but I wonder when the last CG SHO without a K was.

Looks like it's Jeff Ballard from 1989 though his was a 0 K, 0 BB game so there might be others that are more recent that did include walks.

[skatingtripods]

I know I'm gonna jinx this, but I wonder when the last CG SHO without a K was.

Looks like it's Jeff Ballard from 1989 though his was a 0 K, 0 BB game so there might be others.

I couldn't see exact dates, but B-Ref's Play Index said that 355 games were found.

Edit: Updated search with 9 IP.

[British_Pharaoh]

Now there is one trade that doesn't look shitty.

Lowe has been excellent all year

[rebelwithoutaclue]

Now there is one trade that doesn't look shitty.

Lowe has been excellent all year

Loved the trade when they made it (though it was partially based on an improved defense with Kotchman and Hannahan instead of LaPorta and Chiz, which hasn't come to fruition) and it's looking even better now. Even if he can't keep it up against the not-Twins, if he can keep doing it against AL Central teams, he could be in line for 15 wins.

[peeker643]

Nice to see him get the CGSO but I don't want Derek Lowe throwing 120 pitches again any time soon.

Keep that old arm fresh for as long as you can.

He is your ace, ya know.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

'Bout time Choo did something worth a shit.

[dazindiansfanuk]

After the Tigers just pounded 6 runs off Peavy, Lowe leads the league in ERA.

It's not gonna last, but loving it at the moment.

[British_Pharaoh]

Man, what an inning for Peavy. He was crusining (and in my fantasy team)

[CAVSTRIBEBROWNSin07!]

I know I'm gonna jinx this, but I wonder when the last CG SHO without a K was.

Looks like it's Jeff Ballard from 1989 though his was a 0 K, 0 BB game so there might be others that are more recent that did include walks.

Scott Erickson did it in 2002. Ballard was the last guy in the NL, perhaps that's where you went wrong.

[drum]

Damn the Twins suck.

[Prosecutor]

Yeah, they suck and they're paying Joe Mauer $23 million a year every year until 2018 and he has a no-trade clause all the way to the end. Seven more years to go and the guy is a .270 singles hitter with no speed. And we've been crying about Hafner's contract.

Heck, I even heard Mauer getting booed a couple of times.

Could be an interesting game tonight. Seattle has King Felix going which means the runs will be almost impossible to come by. He shut the Indians out for 8 innings in his first start against them. But he is right-handed and the Tribe is something like 16-7 against righties, so I suppose there's a chance.

Ubaldo has been very good at home and Seattle is 11th in runs with an average of 3.6, so if he can get the ball over the plate once in a while there's a chance we could have a close, low scoring game. Which is what we had the first time we faced Felix and we ended up winning. But I don't see the Tribe winning two in a row against this guy.

[gotribe31]

Just for reference, the 23-year old Chris Jones is 1-1 with a 3.94 ERA, 14 K and 8 BB in 16 IP for the AA Mississippi Braves so far this year.

[Am I Here Again?]

.......Ubaldo has been very good at home and Seattle is 11th in runs with an average of 3.6, so if he can get the ball over the plate once in a while there's a chance we could have a close, low scoring game. Which is what we had the first time we faced Felix and we ended up winning. But I don't see the Tribe winning two in a row against this guy.

Except that Hernandez pitched eight innings, the Tribe got their two runs in the ninth off relievers. http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/mlb/ga ... p&c_id=mlb