0, ..., 2, 3, 4, 5....

You'll notice that there is no #1 in the title, just like the Indians starting rotation.  Since each made an excellent 2012 debut, co-aces Justin Masterson and Ubaldo Jimenez have been an embarrassment to the concept and to their team.  Their combined opponents' batting average is .343.  In 24 and 2/3 innings they have walked 19 and allowed 36 hits for a WHIP of 2.23.  2.23!  Our two aces are putting more than two men on base in every inning that they pitch.  No wonder their ERA in those 5 starts is 7.30.

Today, Masterson was just as bad as he was on Tuesday in Seattle.  Now, the A's offense sucks a whole bag of dicks, so they were only able to score four runs in Bat's five innings.  Still, both Masterson and Jimenez did their level best to hand their games away to the anemic A's by walking six men in each start.  Justin found the plate with just 61 of 111(!) pitches this afternoon.  He has that 6'6" frame, so the issues have always been consistency and repeatability.  After that dazzling opening day outing, Bat has been just a whirling dervish of arms and legs with little resultant success.  He has been every bit of maelstrom that we saw in 2009 and most of 2010.  Speaking to that point, his past three starts have been the first such stretch failing to total 14 innings since his very first trio with the Tribe.  The 10 walks that he has surrendered over his past two starts is the highest total of any pair in his Major League career.  Someone needs to light a fire under this zen child before his campaign follows his limbs and flies straight off the reservation.

Before I forget again, the word on the street is that Johnny Damon has a clause in his contract that stipulates that if he is not in the bigs by May 1, he can ask for his release.  Given this timetable (one that woManny refuses to acknowledge, shocking), I would expect Johnny in Columbus perhaps as soon as Tuesday.  The 24th marks the Clippers return from a two week road trip and the first game of a three series home stand that will carry them through that May Day deadline.

One player who will apparently not be joining the Clips for their homecoming is left hander Tony Sipp.  Despite his general ineffectiveness this season, woManny has already announced that is will be Nick Hagadone headed south when Asdrubal Cabrera is activated.  Recall what I said, the Indians make decisions base on absolutely everything except on field performance.  Hagadone was dominant in three appearances, only getting dinged today because Jason Donald apparently cannot play shortstop either (we'll get to that) and the official scorer has seemingly never been edified to the existence of the error.  Donald double clutches and pulled Jose Lopez off of first, who then proceeded to drop the ball allowing the Athletics to score their final run.  No error, earned run on Nick.  Ridiculous.

As was the assignment of a hit to Kila Ka'aihue when Jason Kipnis was unable to make a throw from right center field on a ball hit into the shift.  Let me see if I have this right: if Jack Hannahan is unable to effectively field the shortstop position during lefty pull shifts then it is perfectly acceptable to ding him with an error (twice), but it Kip doesn't have the arm to make a throw to first that is certainly no longer than that from third, he is given a pass?  I was watching a Brit show called Misfits the other day.  The plot revolves around a group of "young offenders" who get super powers.  One of the five has yet to manifest and he is not pleased.  As he obnoxiously rants on the injustice of the situation another suggests that he might just be "super retarded."  Him and the official scorer in Oakland.

Back to Donald.  While he has made a couple of amazing plays on the road trip (the spin behind second and the leap on the liner), his inability to execute the everyday plays has become painfully obvious.  On nearly every ball, he needs to double clutch the ball and/or shuffle his feet and/or pat hit mitt before making what I would describe as a below average throw to first.  In fact, the only bit of either play mentioned above that involved a throw needed Casey Kotchman to go full extension for completion.  Thank allah that AzCab is back on Tuesday.

Crap.  I haven't said anything positive.  Um...  Travis Hafner had an RBI and two walks.  He's hitting .357.  Raffy Perez pitched two shutout innings.  Uh...  Yeah, they had four hits and left 15 guys on base as a team.  That's all the good there is.

Cheers.

P.s. The idiots on STO kept saying that the 7-1 road start was best since '81 when Manning was on the team.  I stand by my own research.  It was 1988.  Look it up.