I was talking to a buddy of mine who is a Rangers fan, and was kind of shocked to hear him say that he was worried about playing us. I told him if we win Friday we will win the series, he agreed, so no wager...but I hope they don't make a liar out of me.

When we first took over the lead of the division the talk was our easy schedule. Now that we've went into Chicago and won a series if we could do the same in Texas it sureLy would quiet that.

Maybe we're a good team after all? Who knew!

Marson's average is .063

limited sample. and with 3 walks his OPS is 433!. Kotchman is at 506

Has there been any recent news about the player formerly known as Fausto Carmona?

Thought abuot him during the winning streak and figured who needs him. Thinking differently now. Have not heard a word. Note that a minor leaguer named Manny Carmona made his seasondebut yesterday.

Cool Standings is not impressed with the Indians. Of course we have a negative 15 run differential so far

Central W L PCT GB RS RA EXPW EXPL DIV WC POFF
Cleveland 19 16 .543 - 152 167 78.7 83.3 19.9 7.8 27.7
Detroit 17 18 .486 2 147 155 84.3 77.7 36.2 9.3 45.5
Chicago 17 19 .472 2.5 142 141 82.2 79.8 28.1 9.8 37.9
Kansas City 14 20 .412 4.5 136 158 76.4 85.6 15.1 6.6 21.7
Minnesota 10 25 .286 9 120 187 56.5 105.5 0.7 0.2 0.

http://www.coolstandings.com/baseball_s ... n=2012&i=1

White Sox are only team in the division with more runs scored than allowed but are in 3rd place. Does that mean they are likely to rise in the standings or does that mean that they are bad in close games or ???

civ ollilavad wrote:White Sox are only team in the division with more runs scored than allowed but are in 3rd place. Does that mean they are likely to rise in the standings or does that mean that they are bad in close games or ???

YES or both if you want my opinion. I think that the numbers people fail to take a good bull pen into consideration. I seen them argue that winners in one run games are random with a large sample size. My experience with the Indians is that the team is much more confident with a good bullpen and even the hitters do better late in the game. So the team wins more than its share of 1 run games when the bullpen is solid. Of course, we have also seen the opposite effect as well.

Stats prior to today's game. AL Central teams rankings among AL teams in ERA, OPS, Fielding Pct

Offense (OPS): Cleveland 6, Detroit 7, KC 8, Chicago 10, Minnesota 12
Pitching (ERA): Chicago 7, Cleveland 9, Detroit 11, KC 12, Minnesota 14
Defense (Pct): Chicago 4, Cleveland 5, Minnesota 8, KC 9, Detroit 11

Adding the 3 rankings: Cleveland 20, Chicago 21, Detroit 29, KC 29, Minnesota 34

Steve Goldman:

Juan Diaz recalled from Akron, McAllister sent down (through no fault of his own).

This is just a way to get some availability from a position player before Tomlin is reactivated and while Hannahan may still be hurting.

Travis Hafner received a cortisone shot in his right knee on Thursday.
Hafner hasn't played since fouling a fall off his right knee during Wednesday's game. It was originally deemed as a day-to-day-type situation, but that's clearly not the case. In fact, Indians trainer Lonnie Soloff said if Hafner's knee doesn't respond by next week, other scenarios will be examined. It's fair to say that includes the possibility of surgery. Stay tuned.

Source: Paul Hoynes on Twitter May 25 - 6:12 PM

So it begins...

...and it continues

Matt Underwood:
Santana is on 7-day DL