A Quest Called Tribe

How is the 2011 Indians season different than that of 2010?  Here it is in a nutshell.  In 2010, "closer" Kerry Wood would enter, get knocked around and then toss his glove into the stand over the dugout at the Tribe suffered yet another loss.  In 2011, closer Chris Perez becomes frustrated at his rust after not being needed for a week and vaults the pill over the center field wall after a 4-run Indians win.  Gotta love it.

Two days after I lamented Michael Brantley's team leading batting average of .298, boy have I gotten my come uppins.  After tonight's victory the Tribe boasts Trvais Hafner (.345), Brantley (.302) and Asdrubal Cabrera (.288) all in the top 22 in hitting for the AL.

It's very nice to see Carlos Santana starting to hit a bit more (3-for-6, 4 BB in the series, .325 AVG & .460 OBP over his last 11 games), although it has still yet to play out if Manny Acta's faith in him will be rewarded with true cleanup hitter production.  The highlight of the day for me, however, was not his dinger, but the throw he made to pick KC backstop Matt Treanor off of 2nd base.  Awesome.

Speaking of round trippers, Asdrubal Cabrera spanked his 7th of the season.  That is, loyal readers, a career high.  AzCab put up 6 in 581 plate appearances two years ago.  Much of the credit for the power surge is owed to double play parter and fellow Cabrera, Orlando.  O-Cab sat down with the younger middle infielder during spring training and explained that Asdrubal embodied more raw power than he had been showcasing.  Orlando recommended that Az pick an at-bat for himself every night, as long as the situation allowed, and just let 'er rip.  He has and the result has been the team lead in home runs.  This is a tangible example of the leadership and experience that Orlando Cabrera brings to the clubhouse and why he will stick with this team all the way to the playoffs.

I'm still not sold on Carlos Carrasco (5.1 IP, 5 H, 2 R/ER, 2 BB 5 K), but I have figured out a way to rationalize his presence in the rotation.  Not only is he an entire shade better than Jeanmar Gomez, but Carrasco (2-2, 5.03), who came into the season as the nominal #2 starter, could now very easily be regarded as our #5 man.  He's certainly the last of the bunch that I would pick to take the hill on any given day.

Lastly, I'll be surfing the North Coast this weekend and had my sights set on diggin' the Tribe/Reds game on Saturday whilst grabbing my free Shin Soo Choo jersey.  Cool, right?  Well, I made the mistake of putting an associate in charge of ticket acquisition.  Tonight, roundabout 9:40p, he informed that the game was sold out.  "No!", I said.  "How is this possible?"  But true it was.  Scrambling, I was able to snag some cheapies off of Stubhub before even those flew off of the shelves.  It will be awesome to drink in the vibe of a capacity crowd at the Jake for the first time since the ill-fated 2007 ALCS.

And I though I had nothing to say tonight.

Cheers

P.s. The Cavs pick at spots 1 & 4 in the NBA draft.  They got the top spot with the pick acquired from the Clippers, which had a 2.8% chance of being selected for #1.  Wow, but we'll chat about that tomorrow.