Simply put, I am Indians fan because, when they are playing well, there is nothing better on the face of the planet and that is what they are doing right now, in spite of predictions to the contrary. Captain Jack Hannahan has, unquestionably, been the MVP of the team thus far. For those of you who might have forgotten, I fell head over heels for Jack on Opening Day 2011 when I emerged from a blackout to find that he had won me a pool on the first Tribesman to homer. I had held very little respect for the Manahan prior, but these days, I just cannot get enough of him. For you cave dwellers, Jack is 6-for-8 with two outs and runners in scoring position this season, leads the team in batting average and RBI, has drawn comparisons to Casey Blake (as a late bloomer) and was even referred to yesterday by Tony Lastoria (head Indians minor league blogger) as "Jack freakin Hannahan," so the MFer thing is catching on, even for those of such sophistication not to cuss.
The headline is about Derek Lowe and well should be. Following up a true stinker of a start against the M's, Lowe has returned to the form of his upside, limiting damage. That means Derek gave up 8 hits in six innings, but worked out of trouble, holding the Royals to just one run. That kind of performance is exactly what the Indians are paying a tiny fraction of Lowe's salary for. Still, one would expect a lot more of last night than the Seattle start, which will probably make him the Tribe's most consistent, if not overall best, pitcher.
The high point of the game for me came at the close of the Royals' half of the eighth. Vinnie Pestano, without his best stuff, had worked himself into a real jam, putting the tying runs on base with two out. The small contingent of fans (9,137) on their feet, Pestano induced Alcides Escobar to ground back to the mound. Before firing a BB to Casey Kotchman, Vinnie tensed his entire body and took deep breath, disgusted with his performance in allowing KC to score. That's the kind commitment that breads victories.
Speaking of Kotchman, I have heard many a call for his removal in favor of Matt LaPorta. How quickly we forget. True, Kotchman's OPS is an abysmal .511 and Matty is reaming AAA to the tune of 1.051, but LaPorta has done this before. He rakes minor league pitching, always has. The issue is that Matt cannot hit quality breaking stuff. We're not just talking about weakly flailing at pitches that dive out of the zone, also including is a baffling inability to make solid contact with breaking balls in the strike zone. This problem has not been solved in Columbus, regardless of his gaudy numbers and, until it is, LaPorta cannot be an asset at the Major League level.
That being said, if Shin-Soo Choo has to go to the disabled list with this hamstring thing before Johnny Damon is ready, I would expect Matty to get the call back to the bigs. While he is not stellar in left, I don't think any would disagree that he a shade better than Jason Donald.
A couple of quick stat facts in closing - The Tribe was 0-for-5 with the bases loaded yesterday and is hitting just .150 (3-for-20) on the season. On the other hand, in the four games this season against Kansas city, the team is batting .322 with a .983 OPS.
Cheers.
No comments:
Post a Comment