Burned On the River

On April 7th, 2006 the Indians shipped 24 year-old second baseman Brandon Phillips downstate to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for reliever Jeff Stevens.  Phillips, who had feuded with manager Eric Wedge and batted just .208 in parts of four seasons with the club, had languished behind incumbent Ronnie Belliard, accruing just 31 AB's over the previous two seasons.  Well, Belliard would suffer through an injury plagued campaign and lose his spot to Josh Barfield less than 365 days later.  Stevens was eventually sent to the Cubs in a package for Mark DeRosa and has posted a 6.27 MLB ERA since.  Phillips, on the other hand, has won a pair of Gold Gloves, notched two All-Star appearances and absolutely killed his former team.  Following an RBI single and a two-run bomb tonight, Phillips raised his career average against the Tribe to .347 and his OPS to .942.  Both of those are his second highest versus any opposing club (who knew he killed the Mets).  Oddly enough DeRosa was traded to the Cardinals for... Chris Perez, who we have yet to see against the Reds...

Again, there is little to write about.  For the second straight night, the ballgame was as bland as dry toast and tap water.  Michael Brantley (.285) hit in his 20th straight, Jose Lopez (.265, 3 HR) tagged Aroldis Chapman for a solo homer on a 100 MPH fastball and Derek Lowe walked 6 in 6 innings.  Yawn.

We did see the Indians debut of newly acquired reliever Esmil Rogers.  Now, I lambasted the Tribe yesterday for bringing in another cast away reliever with no record of Major League success.  Today, I am a bit less critical.  I was solidly impressed with Rogers' first inning with his new club.  He fanned 2 of the three he faced, hit 97 on the gun and, most importantly, threw 10 of his 11 pitches for strikes.  Esmil was averaging 6.3 BB/9 with the Rockies and has been plagued by control issues throughout his big league career.  If this kid (not a kid, 27 in August) can come in and pitch with that kind of command on a regular basis, he will be a welcomed addition to a bullpen that has allowed 7 runs in 5 innings against the Redlegs.

Oh, but the brain trust doesn't get off that easy.  To make space for Rogers on the 25-man roster, the Tribe demoted... Matt LaPorta.  This is a team that has scored 14 runs in the 5 inter-league road games and they decided they'd go with one fewer hitter?  Now, it's not like Matty was contributing or anything (2-for-11, 2 K), but someone has to.  Indians pitchers are batting .250 (3-for-12) on the trip while other 6-9 men are hitting just .160 (9-for-56).  That's right Johnny Damon (.178), RETIRE!  We need a real bat!  Instead of trying to plug bullpen holes for which we have excellent AAA corks (Chris Ray?  Frank Herrmann? Hello?), maybe we could try to hook a right handed bat that has fallen out of favor, just as Brandon Phillips did so many years ago.

Or maybe we can just keep settling for one run after loading the bases with no one out. 

Roll Tribe.

Cheers.

P.s.  Nice move by the fan in right field, trying to steal the ball out of Choo's glove.  You tried to help the team!  They'll probably ask you to come hit BP with them tomorrow.  Tell all your buddies over a nice cold Miller High Life.  It's the champagne of beers!  No one thinks you're a bunch of hilljack bums.  Stay classy, Cincinnati.