Split-squad action again today, with one game going on right now vs. the Nationals & the other one happening tonight at 7, also vs. the Nationals. Sowers with the start for the Tribe in the matinee, gave up one hit but worked a scoreless first. Seems to be somewhat of a AAAA roster for the day game:

Carroll, 2B   
Michaels, LF   
Francisco, CF   
Shoppach, C   
Marte, 3B   
Snyder, RF   
Brown, 1B   
Sandoval, SS   
Mills, DH

And as I'm typing this, Andy Marte just hit a homer deep to left off of Matt Chico. 1-0 Tribe.

Indians/Tigers in Winter Haven on MLB.tv and Gameday Audio. Tigers are throwing out the split squad (so we don't get to see Cabrera, but do get Renteiria). Cliff Lee on the mound for the Indians, trying once again to prove that he should be the 5th starter. Indians lineup looks like:

Sizemore, CF
Barfield, 2B
Dellucci, LF
Martinez, C
Blake, 1B
Francisco, RF
Marte, 3B
Mills, DH
Sandoval, SS

The first ST game available on MLB.tv today -- I never thought I'd be so happy to hear Matt Underwood's voice. Paul Byrd gets the start for the Tribe vs. former Tiger Jair Jurrjens. Today's lineup is:

Carroll, 2B   
Dellucci, LF   
Hafner, DH   
Peralta, SS   
Garko, 1B   
Blake, 3B   
Michaels, RF   
Haad, C
Crowe, CF

More Grapefruit League action as the Tribe takes on the Reds. Alas, yet another game with no audio or video, so we'll all have to use our imaginations and follow along with the box score. Lee gets the start for the Tribe vs. Matt Belisle, Indians' lineup looks like:

Sizemore, CF
Gutierrez, RF
Martinez, C
Francisco, LF
Cabrera, SS
Shoppach, DH
Marte, 1B
Gonzalez, 3B
Herr, 2B

Tickets for the Yankees single-game seats went on sale this morning & I just bought a pair for the middle game of the Indians series in May (Wednesday, May 7, to be exact). Not sure if any of you other east-coasters are interested in heading up there, but I figure it's my last chance to see "the house that Ruth built" (or whatever) and I'd really enjoy watching the Yanks getting beat down in their own home. Anyone else heading up for any games that series?

Alternately, maybe consider this the catchall road trip thread, since I'll probably also head down to Camden Yards for a game or two this year (Indians/Orioles series isn't till September, though) & would of course like to meet up with any of my fellow Tribe fans for a beer or three.

This interview is somewhat interesting -- it's a Sox fan/Baseball Prospectus author talking with Jonathan Van Every, who was picked up from the Indians this fall as a minor league free agent. Really, I only found this interesting because he didn't seem like he was super pleased with the way his development had been handled by the Indians:

DL: Were you being asked to do things that you felt were maybe not in your best interest as a player?

JVE: I think so. I don't think that it was crazy for them to ask those things of me, but I was kind of going outside of my game and thinking too much on the negative side. I was thinking about not striking out, not doing this, not doing that, instead of about what I could do to get better or how I could get more hits. Thinking more on the positive side and developing a new routine helped me tremendously.

...but not to the Indians. The Rangers picked him up from Cincinnati in exchange for Edinson Volquez and another minor-league pitcher. I know some people around here were clamoring for us to trade for the guy, but I guess that means he's off the table now.

Story at http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071221&content_id=2335816&vkey=hotstove2007&fe xt=.jsp

Yes, once again time for the Rule 5 draft, in which guys who've been with teams for 4/5 years (depending on the age they were drafted) and who aren't on the 40-man roster are available to be drafted for the low, low price of $50,000 and a yearlong spot on the 40-man roster. Speculation seems to be that Brian Barton is very likely to get chosen, potentially with the first pick by the Rays (and then traded to San Diego?).

Anyway, the draft itself starts at 10 and is being blogged by Baseball America here. If you want to get your hopes up about the potential All-Star the Indians could pick up this year, here is a rundown of all the drafts since 1998. Johan Santana! Joakim Soria! Travis Chapman!(Travis Chapman?) It's worth noting that the Indians haven't been to active in the draft, since Chapman is their one & only selection on that list (who was eventually sold to the Tigers before being sent back to the Phillies). Also, I don't know if the Indians even have room on the 40-man to pick a guy, so in that case, just enjoy watching & seeing who the other teams poach from our minors.

The NY Daily News has a Q&A with Chris Antonetti, the much-sought-after Indians Assistant GM. Unfortunately, nothing too interesting or revealing in it. The same reporter actually has a better Q&A with Trevor Crowe in which he reveals that he was a Braves fan growing up. On the plus side, he's apparently a great racquetball player, so he's got that going for him.

At the risk of adding more people to the potential pool of ticket buyers, I figured I'd note that according to this article, the Indians have received permission from MLB to start sales of 2007 playoff tickets. So starting on Friday at noon, you can hit up indians.com/postseasontix & sign up for the lottery or if you're impatient & have some money, you can put a deposit down on 2008 season tickets to be guaranteed 2007 playoff tickets.

I skipped the second base positional rankings because no Indians showed up there (though as they noted in the article, 2B prospect rankings are always thin since it seems that it mostly ends up being failed SS at 2B), but the rankings for third are up & they feature an Indian, though likely not one you would've expected about a year & a half ago:

7. Wes Hodges, Indians
Age: 22.9
Hitting: .299/.372/.465 at High-A (76 G)

A second-round pick last year who got first-round money (a cool million), Hodges has been impressive in his pro debut. He's a gifted hitter who should hit for a good batting average, but it will be the development of his secondary skills that defines his future value. Right now he draws an acceptable number of walks, and hits for a decent amount of power. If he can bring either of those pieces into the above-average range, he's far more dangerous. If he can improve both--and, according to scouts, the potential is there--look out.

Also (speaking of 3B prospects), I hadn't noticed this before, but Jared Goedert came back to Kinston on 7/19 after over a month on the DL. He was part of last night's 22-10 victory over Lynchburg with a 5 RBI evening, though he was outdone by Josh Rodriguez' 9 RBI.

Back to being a pay article (though I will say that for the baseball fanatic a Baseball Prospectus subscription is well worth it), the next in their series of positional rankings is here. Unsurprisingly, no Indians rank in the top 10, though Jordan Brown gets an honorable mention:

Jordan Brown, Indians: Can hit for average and draw walks, but power is below average.

Also, they note that Beau Mills, while drafted as a 3B, is splitting time between 3B & 1B while unfortunately struggling a bit with the bat (.244/.287/.372).

Baseball Prospectus is doing a series of articles ranking the best prospects in the minors, by position. The first article on catchers is free, but for those who can't be bothered to click the link Max Ramirez shows up at #7:

Ramirez has always hit for average, and has always drawn walks wherever he went, and now he's starting to tap into his power potential with 12 home runs in 250 at-bats, just one off his career high. The question mark remains his defense--his arm is below-average but not awful, but his receiving skills are significantly below average, to the point where many question his ability to stay at the position long term. However, as one scout who went over the list with me said, "Hey, Victor Martinez is still catching..."

Now that we're at the halfway point of the schedule (+1), I took a look at the remaining schedule to see who we get to play to close out the season, in the hopes that the schedulemakers saw fit to give us a season-ending 20 game stretch vs. the Devil Rays. Alas, no such luck, but a quick glance at the schedule did reveal the following gems:

Due to the early season weirdness that saw us playing (or at least trying to play) Seattle & Anaheim in April, we get to play the Twins (13), Tigers (11), Royals (12) and White Sox (12), a whole bunch down the stretch.

Speaking of scheduling weirdness, the Indians get just one day off (7/30) from 7/13 until 8/12 -- then they're off 8/13, 8/16 and 8/20.

The last weeks of the season see us playing noted divisional foes (?) Oakland and Seattle before closing it out against the Royals, so unless KC suddenly storms back into it there won't be any exciting last week divisional play for us. Last series against Detroit is 3 games at home, 9/17-9/19.

The remaining games are split 39/42 home/away, which includes one makeup game in Seattle on 9/26 where we'll be the "home" team despite the game being in Safeco.

Jake Westbrook, the Cleveland Indians right-hander working his way back from a strained left abdominal muscle, allowed seven hits in 1 1-3 innings for the Triple-A Buffalo on Friday night. Facing Toledo, Westbrook gave up seven singles and walked one. He struck out two. He threw 47 pitches, 28 for strikes, but delivered first-pitch strikes to only four of 12 batters

Inspired by this thread where a few posters were talking about the cost/win value of the MLB teams (and, you know, boredom), I made up a Google Spreadsheet that anyone should be able to edit. It's got total team payrolls for the start of the year (so it doesn't count Clemens yet) and wins & losses current as of.. right now. If anyone comes up with anything interesting, post it here -- it's gotta beat doing work. And if editing doesn't work, email mike at frantic.org & I'll add you as a collaborator.

So I know there are a few other Philly (or whatever other east coast city) Tribe fans on the site -- I'm thinking about maybe doing a roadtrip to Baltimore to catch a game in Camden Yards during the Indians' games down there on the weekend of 5/5. Would anyone else be interested in either a carpool down there or just meeting up for a beer or two at the game?

I was thinking Sunday's 1:35 start (which is Orioles women's cap day, oh boy!), but could probably be convinced to go to Saturday's game if that'd work out better for a group.

It's on the MLB.com audio feed (with the Houston announcers, who seem to think that "Terry Blake" is in RF and "Jhonny Perlotta" is playing SS).

Byrd gets the start & it's in the NL park, so he gets to hit as well. Michaels in CF giving Grady a day off, otherwise it's pretty much the season starting lineup. Follow the boxscore here if you can't listen to the audio.

Should be on STO today, for those of you with mlb.tv or who're playing hooky from work. CC Sabathia gets the start vs. Jason Vargas. Hafner's at 1B again & Aubrey gets the start at DH, which seems somewhat backwards, but I suppose Aubrey's back could use the rest. Box score is here if you want to follow along.