What if 2011?

What if you have one of the best closers in the game?

What if your hero comes back?

What if he's healthy?

What if he doesn't need to put them on his back?

What if they can learn?

And trust?

And lead?

What if they can pick it?

And spin it?

And win it?

What if defense?

What if promise? 

What if ace?

What if pitch?

What if switch?

What if clutch?

What if today is tomorrow?

What if speed?

What if power?

What if they believe?

What if you believe?

In his first start, against the Tigers, Jeanmar Gomez threw 7 innings, giving up 5 hits, a couple of unearned runs, walking one and striking out four to earn the win in his Major League debut.  In his second start against the Tigers, Shin-Soo Choo hit a homerun off of Justin Verlander.

Any time a fringe starting prospect comes up and has some immediate success, you always worry about what will happen when the league gets a book on him and/or hitters start to learn his stuff and approach and adjust to him.  Gomez has been successful thus far by attacking the strike zone with marginal stuff.  Tigers hitters came into today intent on being aggressive early and often.  While mistake pitches weren’t getting launched over the fence, Gomez didn’t have the movement, deception, or placement to keep them from spraying hits around the field to the tune of 8 runs in 3 innings and chasing Gomez for his worst start as a Major Leaguer.  It will be up to Jeanmar to adjust going forward in order to stay relevant at this level.

Justin Verlander pitched like staff ace Armando Galarraga and worked 8 innings surrendering  just the one mistake to Choo.

The Tribe bullpen, forced into action early, pitched 5 scoreless innings, two by Frank Herrmann and one each by Rafael Perez, Tony Sipp and Chris Perez.

Jayson Nix made two, one ridiculous, plays on pop-ups into the camera bay, the second one flipping all the way in, landing on his neck, further bolstering his grinder stereotype status and cementing his roster spot on the 2011 Indians roster, I'm sure.  Lou Piniella, managing his last game with the Cubs today, also just moved past Andy Marte on the Indians 3B depth chart.

Shelley Duncan took advantage of Matt LaPorta’s off day in order to widen his gap in the more pathetic slump race.

For the first time through the lineup, Justin Masterson appeared to have a clear game plan - to work the Orioles seven left handed hitters away.  Brian Roberts started off by dinking a single into left and the rest of the lineup played into Masterson’s hands, making weak contact, mostly to the right side on the ground and Masterson was cruising through three innings.  The second time through the lineup, Masterson’s outside pitches seemed to either miss the plate, catch too much of the plate, or get taken the other way by Baltimore hitters.  Next thing you knew, the Orioles plated four runs in the inning.  It could have been worse if not for an amazing play by Asdrubal on a hard shot up the middle by Felix Pie that bounced off of Masterson’s foot and caromed towards a charging Cabrera, who stuck his bare hand out as he slid the other direction to a stop and held the runner at third before throwing out Pie from his butt, seemingly all in one motion.

For the first time through the lineup, Jake Arrieta appeared to have a clear game plan - to throw lots of strikes to the Indians hitters.  Arrieta threw four pitches for balls to the Indians first nine hitters.  Arrieta was cruising through three innings.  The second time through Michael Brantley, Arrieta threw four pitches for balls.  After a throwing error and an Asdrubal Cabrera single, the Indians plated a run.  After the Orioles big inning, the Indians hitters had a better read on Arrieta’s offerings and started smacking low liners around the field and ignoring pitches that were missing the zone.  Next thing you knew, the Indians plated five runs in the inning.  It could have been worse if not for a perfectly executed relay after the 2-RBI Shin-Soo Choo double to nail Cabrera at the plate to end the inning.

After the big inning, Masterson continued to labor, actually throwing more pitches in the 5^th than he did in the 4^th by the time he faced Pie again, who challenged Asdrubal to figure out a way to catch his 3-run home run.  Masterson left the game after 5 with the Indians trailing 7-6.

After the big inning, Arrieta re-adjusted, quickly working a 1-2-3 inning.  The Indians would continue to make some solid contact off the Orioles starter, not finding the holes they did in their 5-run inning.  Arrieta, going right at the Indians would last six innings before giving way to the Baltimore pen to close out the last three.

Tony Sipp worked the sixth inning, giving up a line drive home run to Corey "Yeah That One" Patterson.  Frank Herrmann worked a boring 7^th inning and then gave up the cycle to the first four men he faced in the 8^th on six lousy pitches.  Rule 5 would come in to give up yet another 3-run bomb to Luke Scott, who in one fell swoop would show Indians fans what might have been if the Tribe had only kept him for the last seven years and Arizona fans what might have been had they only traded Dan Haren sooner to open up a roster spot - two things that had about the same likelihood of happening.

Michael Brantley would hit his second homerun in junk time off of somebody named Armando Gabino to finish the scoring.  Luis Valbuena got the start at third, committing an error on a hot shot right at him.  Jordan Brown hit two doubles that landed in front of outfielders and never reached the wall and weren’t hit nearly as hard as two Valbuena outfield line-outs.

So, it seems like every article you read these days that talks about the Indians near future says that Kelly Shoppach is a likely candidate to be non-tendered this off season.  Is a catcher one year removed from a break-out 21-bombs in 112 games, .865 OPS season really not worth offering an arbitration salary to?

The recently talked about Bill James projections have him playing 113 games for someone this year at .249 BA / .333 OBP / .465 SLG / .798 OPS and 19 HR.

The payroll is pretty low already.  Would Shoppach's contract make that big a dent - so big it's not worth the value he brings as a free swinging, slugging catcher? The Indians don't plan to compete this season.  Santana is the obvious future.  But what about 2010?  Is there not value in a player like this for the coming season?

Being that it's August 10th in a lost season, it's about time to start thinking about something the Indians do some of pretty much every year.  Fausto, being the most recent example.  That is to lock up young talent to long term deals, buying out the player's arbitration years and some of their first free agent seasons.  It's part of the blueprint that has pretty well stood the test of time.  Even if those players don't stay through the whole contract.  The risk/reward usually works out for both the player and the team.  Seems to me the strategy is to keep paying a guy at the minimum until he's done enough at the big league level to convince you he's a guy to hang on to.  But not to wait too long, and get too close to arbitration.  So a LaPorta probably wouldn't be a candidate just yet, where an Asdrubal seemingly would be.  Perusing the 40-man roster, there really only seems like a few guys that come close to fitting that mold.  Who do you think the Indians will and/or should sign to long-term contracts soon?

Per Castrovince Minutia:

Eric Wedge said David Dellucci should return sometime next week. The reports have been positive on Dellucci's rehab stint at Triple-A Buffalo. He's hit in all six games played, including a 3-for-4 effort last night. He's made one start in the outfield. As for who the Indians will cut loose to make room for Dellucci, I doubt it will be Trevor Crowe. It's more likely the Indians will use Dellucci's callup to go back to a 12-man pitching staff.

The first discussion is, of course, which is needed more on the active roster right now: A 5th outfielder, not counting (DeRosa or G-Raff) or the extra arm in the Pen?  Then once you have decided that, who goes from that selection set?

If the answer is to keep the arms and ditch the pinch-runner, the most obvious choice would be Crowe.  An argument could be made to use up Francisco’s option as well.  The difference, or lack there of, between the two has been discussed before, but either could reasonably be the odd man out.

If the answer is to trim back to a more traditional 12-man pitching staff, then there are a number of ways to go.  Sipp has been marvelous thus far, but in this economy sometimes the last guy in the door is the first guy out, even if he’s shown he can be pretty valuable.  Chulk and Masa would need to be DFA’d.  Chulk, it would seem, has shown enough that someone out there would snag him up.  Masa, coming into the year, would have been an obvious choice here, but has been pretty effective so far.  Perez might have been the choice a few days ago with the struggles he showed, but has come out of it somewhat in his last two outings.  Smith, who has yet to show he can get lefties out, has also given up some hits and walks to righties that have been costly.

I think it’s between Crowe and Smith.  What do you think?

What:

Starting what I'd like to become a slightly more regular practice if it goes well... All Chicagoland Let's Go Tribe locals are welcome to get together for some good beers, some uncomfortable silences, some celebrity encounters** and some Indians baseball.

When:

For this installment, we're going to hit up the first evening game this Wednesday to watch ¡Fausto! mow down the Rangers. 7:05pm Local Time (CST).

Where:

***Goose Island Wrigleyville - 3535 North Clark Street ***

With indeterminate numbers, we'll probably mull around the general bar area.

***I spoke with some idiot today that said they won't get the EI package until later if the Cubs stay in contention.  But that makes no sense, as they would get Cubs games regardless.  I'm pretty confident they'll at least be getting the free preview of EI this week, but need to check back when someone more with it is working.  But I wanted to get this going so people can clear their night.  We can update a change of venue here if need be.

**Andrew will be signing copies of The Annual if you want to bring your copy and $10, a small price to pay for the experience.  Note: He will only sign the page with the Zachson photo.