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What about my Indians?
Cleveland Indians
67-80 15.5 games back of MIN (last place)
C Josh Bard .310 26 96
1B Randall Simon (DL) .301 17 58
2B Thomas Perez .274 4 25
3B Morgan Ensberg .327 14 73
3B Robin Ventura .129 0 0 (31 AB, 38 y/o)
SS David Eckstein (DL) .283 3 28
SS Felix Escalona .221 7 51
SS Mike Richmond (R) .216 0 2 (51 AB, 23 y/o)
LF Matt Lawton .285 8 43
LF Chris Magruder .230 5 36 (269 AB)
LF Quentin Westcott (R) .154 0 0 (13 AB, 32 y/o)
CF Roger Cedeno .304 7 33
CF Aaron Rowand .309 20 93
RF Damian Rolls .307 4 46
Rotation
RHP Kip Wells 9 12 5.38
RHP Dan Reichert 12 5 3.49 1cg
RHP Hector Johnson (R) 8 10 5.61 (19 y/o)
RHP Ryan Jensen 7 9 3.91 2cg
RHP John Burkett 3 12 5.33 1cg
Bullpen
LR (R) Braden Looper 2 0 3.99
LR (R) Pat Herman (R) 3 2 5.31 (21 IP)
LR (R) Corky Combs 0 0 4.12 (19.2 IP, 2nd Season, 24 y/o)
MR (R) Antonio Alfonseca 4 7 5.79 2sv
MR (R) Roy Castillo 6 10 5.88 (3rd Season, 23 y/o)
SU (R) Tim Spooneybarger 14 4 2.50 3sv
CL (R) Billy Koch 3 6 3.02 32sv
What's wrong with the Cleveland Indians? Not sure.
But I believe it's more a combination of things rather than just one specific area.
First I see that there has been a failure in the area of player development. This has been addressed by hitting the free agent marked and by making trades. In my opinion, the Indians have done well in this area, but it may be too early to reap the benefits of this. So that would be area #2: Need to wait for the team to come together while possibly adding another arm...which leads me into my third area.
Left handed pitching. Bottom line, Cleveland needs a left handed pitcher. One. At least one. If for no other reason than to throw off the competition a little.
But, in the grand scheme of things, I don't believe that the Indians are quite as far away as their record suggests.
My advice: Stay the course, continue to develop talent and don't panic.
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