once again, it has been awhile. there is life aside from the tribe, unfortunately :). so, now more than ever, a posting is necessary. it seams the team is in disarray. the previous second ranked team in offense in the AL has evaporated. gone away, gone fishin, gone hiking, gone anywhere that's not a baseball field. a mere shadow of its formal self.

as almost expected though, cleveland won to tie for first. the only reason i say 'as expected' is because neither team can separate from one another due to an excessive amount of loosing. the few times we win, they win.

without the accurate aid of statistics to back me up, here is what i see, not in any particular order:

1. grady strikes out too much. he has been mostly bad at the plate, with a few really good games mixed in.
2. casey is casey, a non clutch hitting .250 hitter with above average power.
3. hafner is still not pronk, and now he is less than 100%.
4. victor is all of a sudden joining the crowd and striking out.
5. loften may not be acclimated to platooning duties. his stats say he should be, but i think it is affecting the 40 year old.
6. franklyn, although he hit a big home run today against a rook making his 1st major league start, is mostly over matched by quality, experienced pitchers.
7. recently brought up asdrubal is not ready to make his major league debut in a tight pennant race. IT SEEMS. when we traded eduardo perez for him last year, he was no bat, all D. omar-esque, at this stage. this year he did very well at both AA and AAA. now he is in his third level this year, the bigs.
8. i like him, but trot is over-the-hill. his range is bad (putting it nicely) too, and that has cost us.
9. no wonder we are struggling, here is reason (player) nine. jhonny. the same jhonny who very manny-esquely got foolishly picked off first in game 3 against the yanks. don't remember? we were down 4-0 in the seventh against the yankees. bases loaded, nobody out, the tiring andy pettite on the mound. we are trying to avoid the sweep. and manny, er jhonny, gets picked off 1st base.
10. unfortunately. this spot belongs to another big culprit, by boy josh barfield. i rooted him on so much in yesterdays game. twice he could have produced the game winning run as he batted with a runner at 2nd, and 2 out. in those two key AB's, he struck out both times, on the minimum 6 pitches. ouch!

here is why, despite being cleveland, i think we can prevail, also in no particular order.

1. jhonny usually finishes the season strong.
2. pronk's stats cannot stay this low. we are going to TB. no better place for him to remember how to crush pitching. the double today was a good sign too.
3. victor never slumps for long. enough said.
4. kenny can adjust. i believe he will. especially with the lead-off spot his again.
5. we are spoiled with grady. as the saying goes, D never slumps. he still can wear a pitcher down on those strike outs by working the count. grady gave up his lead off spot, but wedge will never abdicate grady's spot in center.
6. franklyn has been around for some time now. i think he is learning.
7. the pitching, for the most part, is hanging in there. having c.c. and fausto is like having two aces.
8. i still believe in josh. i have nothing to back this up. i just think he showed enough promise in his rookie year.
9. trot is big in many ways off the field. his bat has somewhat come around. and he has more experience than anyone else in the clubhouse.
10. asdrubal is doing alright so far. he might be one of those rooks who pitchers take awhile to adjust to. chris gomez was a nice pick up. i bet asdrubal goes when we need a 5th pitcher.
11. we have two 5th pitchers in AAA who have won in the bigs. that is an amazing understatement in regards to cliff lee. i bet he is chompin on the proverbial bit to get back up here.
12. casey has played good D, and he also typically sees alot of pitches.
13. september call up time is near. that mostly is good for all.
14. detroit has its problems too. and they play the yankees 8 times, real soon.

i could make a list of reasons other than the offense for why the collapse could continue. but i hope it does end. comes to a screeching halt. so i will not continue with anymore list.

go tribe!

u gotta believe.