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May 13, 2008 - By Tony Lastoria
Super piece here from Tony that has been in the workd for some time now. In it, our Consigliere offers up an expose on the release process in the minor leagues. Tony contacted a handful of minor league players, all of whom we kept anonymous, and all of whom have been released over the last two years in spring training or the offseason. The interviews provide great insight into what happens to the vast majority of minor league players that don't make it to the bigs. And how the Indians organization handles breaking the news to these players.
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May 12, 2008 - By Steve Buffum
Despite interference from Mother Nature on Sunday, it was a good weekend to be an Indians fan. The Tribe offense sprang to life, erupting for a six run seventh inning on Friday night to beat Roy Halladay, then came back and scored six more in the first inning on Saturday to spearhead a 12-0 win for Aaron Laffey, who looked excellent once again. As he does each Monday, Buff recaps the weekend of action from the Indians ... and gets us ready for today's twinbill.
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May 10, 2008 - By Tony Lastoria
A 4th round pick out of high school in the 2004 Draft, Chuck Lofgren has generally been regarded as the second best pitching prospect (behind Adam Miller) in the Indians farm system for the last two to three seasons. Lofgren got off to a very slow start to the 2008 season, but has rebounded big time. Should he keep this up, Lofgren will soon be in AAA Buffalo, and could be a guy the Indians look to when the rosters exoand in September. Tony had a chance to speak with Lofgren when he was out to visit AA Akron, and their conversation is detailed in this piece.
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May 9, 2008 - By Paul Cousineau
As frustrating as the Indians' offense has been and as many teeth have been gnashed and walls damaged watching the Indians' hitters flail away, let's sit back and appreciate what we're watching from the Indians' pitching staff - which, as a baseball fan, is a truly amazing thing to witness from night to night. In his latest, Paulie hits on just how good the Indians pitching has been throughout this tumultous start to the 2008 season.
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May 9, 2008 - By Steve Buffum
Paul Byrd's performance against the ... wait, there goes a homer ... Yankees was not particularly sharp ... wait, there goes another homer ... but Buff can still find things in yesterday's loss ... wait, there goes another homer ... to write about, including some nice offense from improbable sources, an update ... wait, there goes another homer ... on the bullpen, and a categorization of Mike Mussina's new pitching arsenal. The B-List recaps the game ... oops, false alarm ... while wondering if the upcoming 4-game set against Toronto will feature double-digit runs ... by either team ... all together.
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May 9, 2008 - By Tony Lastoria
You know the drill by now. Tony Lastoria spends each baseball season visiting all the Indians minor league affiliates, talking to players and coaches and watching ball games. He then cranks out Minor Happenings for us each week, by far the most comprehensive compilation of information on the Cleveland Indians farm system, and a huge asset to this website. This week, Tony hits on the great starts to the season for Jeremy Sowers and Chuck Lofgren and talks about the guy he sees as the Indians future third baseman.
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May 8, 2008 - By Steve Buffum
Buff does not do justice to Cliff Lee in today's B-List, because no one can. However, he does discuss how the Indians can actually score runs, how relief pitchers named Raffy are handy, and addresses a topic no man should have to: Travis Hafner and the Worst Plate Appearance in the World. The Indians go for the sweep today in the Battle of the Old: go Tribe!
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May 7, 2008 - By Steve Buffum
Last night's game was one of those where the emotion shifts from despair to joy in one swing of the bat. The swing came courtesy of David Dellucci, and Buff addresses this, the quality of the bullpen, why players with arms are valuable, and much more in today's B-List. Can't wait for tonight's pitching matchup: Go Tribe!
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May 6, 2008 - By Jarad Regano
With pretty much everyone returning from an AL contending team that took the Red Sox to a seventh game in the ALCS, there was plenty of reason for hope and optimism that the Indians would finally win a ring this year. However, the start of the 2008 season has been rough for the Indians and for many fans those feelings of optimsim have disappeared right along with the Indians hitting. With a little over a month of the season in the books, Regano takes the half full and half empty approach to assess ownership, the front office, the coaching staff and players.
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May 6, 2008 - By Paul Cousineau
Heading into the 2008 season, the Indians' offense was thought to be a decent offense built around a few exceptional hitters with the rest of the lineup filled with young projectable hitters or role players. Instead, through the first week of May the Indians' offense has fallen flat on their collective face with no obvious turnaround and a lineup full of players not meeting (much less exceeding) expectations that were held for them as 2008 dawned. Paulie Couz breaks it down in his latest.
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May 5, 2008 - By Gary Benz
It's reasonably accepted in baseball circles that good pitching tends to beat good hitting. It's why general managers build teams from the pitching mound out. But following the Cleveland Indians this season, particularly in the last seven days, what we've learned is that it's equally true that bad pitching also beats bad hitting. Gary makes the case that after manager Eric Wedge's comments on Sunday that hitting coach Derek Shelton may be on the hot seat.
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May 5, 2008 - By Steve Buffum
The Indians' best game of the three-game series against Kansas City came Friday, when they were rained out. In today's B-List, Buff touches on a second straight excellent performance by Aaron Laffey, the return of the Inning of Crap, and an offense even a mother would not love, but would consider leaving on a hilltop to die of exposure. Remember to mail Buff those contest entries as soon as you remember them.
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May 3, 2008 - By Paul Cousineau
April is in the books. It was a disappointing month mostly for the Indians, yet a poor start to the month for the Tigers and a poor close to the month for the White Sox still have the Indians right in the thick of things. As we change the calendar, Paulie's got a mixed bag of tomahawks to hurl at our readers. Paul hits on Betancourt's entry music and the Indians dominant starting pitching ... and shockingly suggests the potential return of Trot Nixon and the post game rally pies.
May 2, 2008 - By Steve Buffum
Very exciting ballgame last night before a very sparse crowd at The Prog. In the end, it was Asdrubal Cabrera who delivered, ripping a liner into the right center field gap to bring home the winning run in the bottom of the 11th. In today's B-List ... Buff offers up his first contest of the year, and it's a fun one. We'll put together a nice little prize pack for the winner. And as always, we get Buff's humorous and analytical look at last nights win.
May 2, 2008 - By Tony Lastoria
Tony was out in Akron to visit players and see the team play on Tuesday, and this week's "Minor Happenings" has all kinds of juicy nuggets from that trip this week. T also had a chance to speak with Chuck Lofgren and Chris Gimenez at length while he was there, and you'll see features on those two top prospects run on our front page as well over the next week. Well, at this point, this column needs no big intro. It's the most comprehensive coverage of the Indians farm system you'll find anywhere. It's "Minor Happenings".
May 1, 2008 - By Steve Buffum
Five starts. Five wins. A 0.96 ERA. 37 innings pitched, 32 strikeouts. Just two walks. Tribe fans, we are witnessing something truly special right now with Cliff Lee. And this is a guy that a lot of you wanted to give away in a trade this off-season. Understandably, Buff is giddy about Cliffie's super start. And he writes about it, as well as the Indians 8-3 win over the M's last night, in today's B-List.
April 30, 2008 - By Steve Buffum
The offense is still AWOL. The back end of the bullpen is still a mess. The Indians are in the midsts of their fourth three game losing streak in the seasons first month. And we suffered another painful loss last night. The team is frustrated. The fans are frustrated. The B-List is frustrated. Hey ... at least we got Cliff Lee on the bump tonight.
April 30, 2008 - By Paul Cousineau
Travis Hafner is a mess right now. And we as fans, we're trying to figure this out. Hence the thread in our Indians message forum on Hafner's struggles that has 100 replies and over 2,000 views. We called in Paulie Cousineau to try and figure this out. And in his latest, Paulie goes deep inside the numbers on Pronk, disecting the nature and outcome of his at bats, searching for the answers on what exactly has happened to the Tribe's once feared slugger.
April 30, 2008 - By Dan Wismar
In theory, when a major league ballplayer files for free agency, he may, after negotiating through an agent, elect to sign a contract with any team he chooses, based on his evaluation of the many factors involved in such an important life decision. In theory. In practice however, the modern baseball player must sign with the team that makes him the highest contract offer. How "free" then, is free agency? Dan Wismar tackles the topic in his latest piece for us, focusing specifically on how the matter has affected the Indians.
April 29, 2008 - By Steve Buffum
Aaron Laffey was a hard luck loser last night in his 2008 Indians debut, holding the Yankees hitless through the first five innings before allowing four runs in a goofy sixth inning. The Tribe offense, sporting Dellucci in the leadoff spot and Jamey Carroll in the two hole, went back to sleep, doing little damage amidst a bevy of Mike Mussina slowballs. In today's B-List, Buff recaps the loss, Laffey's performance, and laments the rapid and shocking decline of one Travis Hafner.
April 29, 2008 - By Tony Lastoria
Lake County Captains outfielder Matt Brown is off to a sizzling start to the 2008 campiagn after the Indians made him their 13th round selection in last year's draft out of Wichita State. The hard working, likable young prospect also went through a personal tragedy three years back that has helped him channel and improve his focus. Tony was out in Lake County to see the Captains play last week, and had a chance to speak with Matt about both the start and the tragedy. Another great piece from T.
April 28, 2008 - By Steve Buffum
The Tribe took two of three over the weekend from the Bronx Bombers, getting solid performances from Paul Byrd and Jeremy Sowers, and losing a 1-0 heartbreaker of a pitchers duel yesterday. As he does every Monday, Buff recaps the weekends worth of Indians baseball, paying special attention to the starting pitching efforts, the resurgence of Kobayashi, and Raffy B as a closer. Buff also gives us fresh installments of terror on the basepaths, adventures in relief pitching, and as always ... the Completely False Statement for the Google Search Engine.
April 27, 2008 - By Erik Cassano
It's still early, and baseball careers normally aren't defined over the span of one month, so it's easy -- prudent, even -- to take Cliff Lee's fast start with a wait-and-see grain of salt. After all, we've seen it in baseball more times than we can count: Today's headliner is tomorrow's forgotten footnote. But even if you're still cooling your heels and not joining a "Cliff for Cy Young" campaign just yet, you should still take special notice of Lee's historically dominant 2008 start.
April 26, 2008 - By Tony Lastoria
The Lake County Captains pitching staff is loaded with many promising pitching prospects from the front of the rotation to the back of the bullpen. It has been the strength of the team and been the catalyst to their 15-7 fast start putting them in first place of the South Atlantic League's Northern Division. One of the key components to that hot start has been right-handed starter Chris Archer. And Tony had a chance to speak with him when he visited with the team last week.