Cleveland Sports Forum

Starting pitching has been amazingly bad. Except for opening day gem by Masterson and three good efforts against offensively challenged Padres we've had a remarkable run of bad starts. Half the games the starters haven't made it through 5 innings. No reason to think this will last, but it's putting a ton of work on the bullpen (which has been terrific, fortunately.)

That is the recipe for competitiveness for a cheap team such as the Indians. Get a bunch of bull pen guys who throw very hard and hope the game is close when nominal starter hands them the ball.

Yeah, too bad we didn't pony up for this guy.

Ubaldo Jimenez allowed five runs on 10 hits over 5 1/3 innings in a loss to the Blue Jays on Sunday.

It hasn't been the start to the season Jimenez or the Orioles had hoped for, as he's allowed at least four runs in each of his first three starts, all losses. Home runs have been one of the issues thus far, with opponents hitting four in just 16 innings pitched this year. He'll carry an unsightly 7.31 ERA and 2.06 WHIP into his matchup with the Red Sox in Boston next weekend

Fine job by Kluber on Sunday. He could well turn out to be a solid middle of the rotation starter. Salazar has the stuff to be a solid starter. So does Bauer. But all in all it's a pretty inexperienced group so inconsistency can be expected. What we are lacking is a good veteran to hold things together, even if only as a reliable 3rd starter. [Like Brett Myers? Well, maybe not quite.]

There's seems to be hardly anyone left on the Forum. Can we invite others to join us? There are probably some Indians fans left out there.

That (inviting some new members to the forum) seems like a good idea to me.

I really miss Donna. She was a good influence on the rest of us.

If you have any new members to suggest, just let me know and I can have them register.

We have almost 60 members, but how many post? I wonder how many still lurk.

Surprise: Michael Bourn activated, Nyjer Morgan sent down. I know Tito likes to have plenty of pitching though.

That's too bad. I hope he hits major league pitcher better than he hit AA pitching.

I'd keep Morgan. He could DH some days, he could give Bourn days off. Unfortunately for Morgan all 3 regular OFs are Lefties as is Giambi who is returning so, although they might Jason to get his first hit of the season before activating him. As long as Morgan remains available if Bourn gets hurt again, or we decide he can be a more useful bench player than Elliot Johnson later this summer, I'm satisfied, barely.

When Giambi is activated I do hope that Francona is willing to slice his bullpen to an already large 7 men. Wood has been terrible in his last two outings and Lee has done better. Although Wood may be option-less while Lee can be demoted every couple weeks this year at least.

Joe - what's the matter with Morgan AND Bourn. That's the way I would have gone.

Anways, I'd be willing to wager some pretty good cash that Morgan will be back up sooner than later. Either through injury or the release of Johnson (or whatever else comes up).

The reason must be Morgan has an option and Johnson doesn't.

I would like to see 25 guys that will give us the best chance of winning. I don't think we have them at this point. I don't care if the staff consists of all righties or all lefties. I don't care if we have five left hand hitting outfielders. I don't care if we have rookies on the roster. Just play with the best 25 men as possible.

I still think it is (very) temporary. Let it play out Joe.

Also, I do think you are letting past issues cloud your judgement. This is a new era. The Tito era. You can bet that he has a HUGE say on all roster moves like this one.

In Tito I trust. The guy is a baseball genius. This guy takes the guesswork out. Relax and root. Tito will take care of roster and talent issues.