Baseball Cards: New Acquisitions

This year I decided to start collecting baseball cards. Not seriously, not like those dudes on Youtube who break box after box. Just casual collecting, of certain players, or getting a set of Indians players. I particularly look for autograph and relic cards of players I like, whether they play for Cleveland or not.

Over the past couple of years I've managed to get the odd Topps team set of Indians cards from a UK seller on eBay, but apart from him it is pretty difficult to get cards here in Britain. The postage from America is now pretty high and I'm lucky to get cards sent here for under $10. So I never really bothered with it, plus I spend too much money on useless crap as it is.

But after finding some cheap Justin Masterson cards earlier this year from sellers in the States, including a few that were autographed, I decided to scour eBay for deals and it's become a bit of a habit. So I currently have a Justin Masterson PC I'm working on (which I'll show off in a future post) but I still keep my eye out for any other cards that look good and more importantly, that I can get for a decent price (aka, a bargain).

So here are some new cards I've received in the post over the past couple of weeks:

Let's start with this Jason Kipnis card from Topps 2013 Series 2. It's a signed Chasing History insert that I bought for under $5 and is the first autographed card by Kipnis I have gotten so far. It's not signed on-card which is a shame, but an autographed sticker is better than no autograph at all. The young second baseman is one of my favourite guys on the club, how can you not love the guy, and I'll be looking to acquire more of his signed cards in the future.

Up next is this gorgeous on-card autographed Trevor Bauer from Topps 2013 Gypsy Queen. It set me back $6 which I thought was a pretty good price. I know, it kinda sucks that he's still in his Arizona gear despite this being a 2013 card but I don't really mind. It's quite nice to have an Indians player not in his Cleveland uniform. I just love that autograph too, it's absolutely perfect. This card had some trouble being dispatched so the seller was kind enough to throw in a couple of Bauer's rookie cards from the Topps 2012 base series as well. I hope Bauer can finish the season strongly in Columbus and I expect he'll get called back to Cleveland in a few days as part of the September call-ups. Fingers crossed he can impress.

This mini Asdrubal Cabrera jersey relic from Topps Allen & Ginter 2013 arrived just today. I couldn't wait for it to show up as its been a card I've had my eye on for a while. I love how the mini card is framed, it's a beautiful effect that really makes it stand out. The Allen & Ginter series produce some stunning cards and these 2013 editions are no different. This Cabrera card is the first jersey relic I've ever received and I just love the idea that I own a piece of game-used uniform he wore. I'll be buying a lot more from the Allen & Ginter series in the near-future, it's a set I absolutely adore. This card cost me just $2 as well. Now that's my kind of bargain.

I received another card along with my Cabrera relic today and it was this Adam Wainwright mini jersey relic, again from Topps 2013 Allen & Ginter. It cost me $3, which is a great price for an NL Cy Young contender (ok, so Clayton Kershaw should have it in the bag, but you never know). The Cardinals ace is having another great year, so I wasn't going to turn down the chance to grab one of his cards at such a great price. I know, he's not an Indian, but he's a pitcher I like and a pretty damn good one at that. So I jumped at the chance to add one of his cards to my collection and it's a beauty.

I hope you enjoyed this post, a slight detour from the normal run-of-the-mill stuff you get here at England Tribe. I've got some more cards lined up to buy in the near-future, especially some Allen & Ginter autographs, so watch this space for more.

Thanks for reading.

Braves Too Hot For Tribe, Indians Swept

Well this roadtrip didn't get off to a very good start did it? The Indians were swept in three games by the Atlanta Braves, and although the scores were always close, they never really looked like winning any of them.

Now lets get one thing straight: There's no shame in being swept by arguably the best team in baseball. The Braves currently sit with the best record in the major leagues, flying high at 81-52. They have one of the best pitching staffs in the National League, maybe even the best (the Cardinals and Dodgers may have something to say about that). And it's not like every game in this series was a blowout. Our pitching staff put in a superb shift as a collective, never allowing Atlanta to score more than 3 run per game.

Yet its still been a disappointing series. We've slipped to 4 games back in the wild card race. Let's take a look at some talking points from Atlanta:

Offense, Offense, Wherefore Art Thou Offense?

The Indians didn't lose this series through our pitching. The Tribe starters all pitched very well and our bullpen were fantastic. No sir, this series was lost by our offense.

It was a bemusing series for the Tribe hitters. They repeatedly got men on base, constantly putting the Braves under pressure. It felt like every inning we managed to get the first two guys on base but then proceeded to undo all that hard work by wasting away our scoring opportunities. One step forward, two steps back. Cleveland actually had more hits over the entire series than Atlanta did (22-21). But they never got the key hits, and they struggled to bring runners home over the entire series. The Indians mustered just 3 runs over 3 games, being shutout completely in the first game.

The frustrating thing is if the Tribe were just a little bit better hitting with runners in scoring position, the outcome of this series would have been very different and undoubtedly in the Indians' favour. I know, we can play that 'What If' game all year long but that's how close this series was, even if it never actually felt that close most of the time.

The People Versus Asdrubal Cabrera

Poor Asdrubal. He is not having a very enjoyable 2013. And the worst part of it all is he seems to have lost the support of the fans. The Twitter masses erupt with rage and venom every time Cabrera strikes out or makes a mistake in the field. It was pretty horrible to read the stuff people were writing about him when he made that awful base-running blunder in the 8th inning of Wednesday's 3-2 loss.

The Indians were in the midst of a game-changing rally, having just tied the game at 2-2 thanks to a Mike Aviles sac-fly. With Michael Brantley at the plate, the Tribe had Asdrubal at first base and a runner at third too, and looked poised to take a late lead. Brantley swung and missed at a pitch that Cabrera assumed was fouled off, so he jogged slowly back to first base to retake his position. But the problem was the ball never hit Brantley's bat, thus Cabrera became caught in a run-down and was tagged between the bases for the final out of the inning. It was a crushing blow that the Tribe never recovered from, and yet another scoring opportunity squandered in a series full of them.

It was a mental mistake any player could make but in a season that isn't going Asdrubal's way, it just had to be him. "It was my fault. That's it," Cabrera admitted after the game. The 27 year-old shortstop is hitting .241 with a .295 OBP, with 9 home runs and 43 RBI. He only has 27 walks all season to go along with 97 strikeouts, and has a measly 0.5 WAR to top it all off. 2013 has not been Cabrera's year to say the least.

It's looking increasingly likely that Cabrera won't be with this Indians team in 2014. With Francisco Lindor waiting in the wings as our shortstop of the future, Cabrera probably won't be manning the position in Cleveland next year. Should Cabrera be traded this winter (and the Cardinals have been interested for a long time now) then the Indians have Mike Aviles to fill in on an everyday basis until Lindor is MLB-ready. And based on each player's performances this year, the offensive production wouldn't be that different should Aviles take over in Cabrera's absence.

It's sad to see Cabrera struggling so mightily this season. For a long time he's been one of my favourite players but I can't really defend his performances this year. Ryan over at Lets Go Tribe has written a nostalgic piece about Cabrera's break-through with the team in 2007. It's a good article and worth checking out. But I have to agree with Ryan; Cabrera's tenure in Cleveland looks like it's coming to an end.

Player Of The Series

It's always tough to find a silver lining when the Tribe get swept but there were a couple of good performances in Atlanta over the last few days. Honourable mentions go to Mike Aviles for his heroics on Wednesday, and Lonnie Chisenhall coming off the bench last night to smash his 8th HR on the year. But there's only one man deserving of the award today and it's Ubaldo Jimenez. Jimenez surprised us all by lasting 7 innings, scattering 7 hits for 3 earned runs, all from a single home run by Brian McCann. But he struck out an astounding 10 batters and walked exactly zero. Yes, that's right, NO WALKS FOR UBALDO. Outstanding. He's actually struck out 20 guys in his last 2 outings as well. Congrats Ubaldo, keep this up sir.

That'll do it for today. The Indians travel to Detroit now for a three game series and will be looking to rebound from their trip to Atlanta. The Tigers have struggled a bit of late, being man-handled at times by Oakland recently, and Miguel Cabrera is carrying a few knocks and could be a doubt for the series. The Tribe need to make the most of Detroit's misfortune and get back on track.

Thanks for reading.

Tribe Too Much For Toronto

Are we beginning to turn things around against the AL East? Possibly, or maybe we're just pretty good against the Blue Jays, the cellar-dwellers of that monstrous division (hey, they're still pretty good). Either way, the Indians faithful can celebrate another series victory today, closing the gap on the Tigers a little bit more. Detroit fell to the White Sox this afternoon so the distance has been narrowed down to just 2.5 games.

The Tribe kicked the series off on Tuesday with a 3-0 win, thanks to a solid effort from Ubaldo Jimenez, who managed to keep the Jays scoreless through his 6 innings of work. He wasn't flawless and ran into trouble more than a few times, but he remained calm and escaped danger to earn his 7th win of the season. I managed to watch the entire game and kept fearing the worst, that Toronto would finally make us pay for Ubaldo's awful location, but the big hit never came for the Jays and the Indians emerged victorious. Ubaldo only walked 2 Jays during his outing, but he really struggled to get ahead in the count and constantly went deep into at-bats. He has to be more efficient and effective with his pitches in the future because when he pitches like this, he'll never make it past 6 innings. We're often lucky to get 5 from him. But I'm not going to be too negative, he worked hard and earned the Tribe the win and that's all you can ask for at the end of the day.

Cleveland dropped game two of the series 5-4 to even things up. Justin Masterson was decent through 6 2/3 innings but had location trouble again, walking 5 batters. He did enough to keep the Tribe in the game though but it all came crashing down in the top of the 9th inning, the Jays striking for 3 runs off Rich Hill and Joe Smith to put the game beyond the Indians. The home side did try to rally back into the game, scoring 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th, but it wasn't to be.

The Indians quickly put Wednesday's loss behind them and wrapped up the series in style today, winning 4-2 to take the series win. On a beautiful summer's day in Cleveland, rookie right-hander Danny Salazar made his first major league start for the Indians and pitched an absolute beauty, carrying a no-hitter into the 6th inning. He out-duelled Jays ace and reigning NL Cy Young winner R.A Dickey for the first big league win of his young career. It was quite a debut for the 23 year-old and he'll be the happiest man in town tonight. Salazar lasted 6 innings (he was on a pitch count) and gave up just 2 hits for 1 run, with 1 walk and 7 strikeouts. It's unlikely Salazar will stay with the big club though, today was just supposed to be a spot-start, but his superb performance might earn him an extended stay past the All Star break.

Player Of The Series

Is there any question? I have to go with the rookie from the Dominican Republic. To step up the way he did was amazing, to pitch with such confidence on your big league debut. Danny Salazar fully deserves the award for this series. He may have elevated himself above Trevor Bauer and Carlos Carrasco in the Tribe rotation pecking order as well. He showed no nerves on the mound and left the game to an enthusiastic ovation from the home fans. Well done Mr Salazar. I'm looking forward to his next start already.

The Tribe welcome the Royals to Progressive Field tomorrow for the final series before the All Star break. Friday's game will see Corey Kluber (6-5, 4.23 ERA) take the mound against KC's Bruce Chen (3-0, 2.41 ERA). The Indians can hopefully take this winning momentum into the series against the Royals tomorrow and close the gap on the Tigers even more before we send Kipnis and Masterson off to NYC for the Midsummer Classic.

Thanks for reading.

Bombed In The Bronx, Indians Swept

I hate the Yankees. I know, everybody does, but lately I really hate the Yankees. And I'm so glad that's the last time we have to play that bunch in NYC. They just have our number and somehow, despite their geriatric pensioners and spare-parts players, they are still winning and still competing in the tough AL East. I don't know how they're doing it, I really thought we'd get the better of them this year but the Yankees just seem to find a way to win practically every year.

So the Tribe kicked off this torrid roadtrip in the worst way possible, getting swept in New York. I don't think we should get too down though, the AL East teams are all ridiculously good on their day so I'm glad we're putting that division behind us for a while. Still, it's disappointing to see us playing so poorly of late and the Tribe are really being tested now. I'm going to skip the usual series re-cap today, since there is nothing positive at all to come out of New York these past three days for the Tribe faithful. Instead I'll weigh in on some of the newsworthy events that took place lately:

Asdrubal To The Disabled List

The series in New York got off to a bad start the second our star shortstop pulled up clutching his quad. So bad was his injury that he had to be helped from the field, he couldn't even walk on that leg. It's been giving him some trouble for a while now, but he's battled through the pain, grimacing every time he rounds first base to stretch a hit into a double. Asdrubal's right quad finally gave up though and he now find himself on the 15-day disabled list, with Mike Aviles taking his place at shortstop for the foreseeable future.

The injury couldn't come at a worse time, just when we need our best players on form for one of toughest parts of the schedule. Reports are that Cabrera will probably miss a month, which sucks because he's quietly been having a pretty good year. He currently leads the teams in doubles (18) and extra-base hits (25) and has been playing some exemplary defense at short lately, errorless in 32 straight games. Cabrera is one of my favourite players and I hate to see him out of the lineup. Hopefully he can rehab his quad quickly and get back to the club as soon as possible because we'll need him back firing on all cylinders if we're to stay in touch in the division race.

Perez In Trouble Again

But this time it's not baseball related. No sir, Perez is in trouble this time for a suspected narcotics package delivered to his suburban Cleveland home. Can you believe this? The guy has just had no luck lately, and even when he's not playing things won't go right for him. The details are scarce at the moment and I suspect it's all a massive misunderstanding. I seriously doubt Perez is involved in dealing drugs or anything of the kind and the story will become clearer over the next few days. Poor Chris, the guy just can't catch a break at the moment.

I'm going to leave it there for now, I'm a bit limited for time today. The Indians need to put the Yankees in their rear-view mirror for 2013 and move on. They've got an off-day now before flying to Detroit to face the Tigers tomorrow for a three-game series. Up first is Ubaldo (4-3, 4.83 ERA) against Tigers ace Justin Verlander (7-4, 3.70 ERA) who we've had some success against recently. We really need to turn things around and there's no better time or place than against our division rivals. Its still early in the season but we really can't afford to lose any more ground. It's also the MLB Draft tonight and the Indians have the 5th pick, so I may weigh in on who we select tonight with a post tomorrow (yet to be determined... we'll see). Until next time...

Thanks for reading.

Phillies Fall To Terrific Tribe

The Indians have begun their nine game home-stand with a bang, beating Philadelphia twice in a row to take the mini two-game series. Cleveland's winning streak is up to four games now and the club are a single game from getting back to a .500 record. What a lovely way to begin the month of May. Let's have a look at how it went down:

Offense Clicking Into Gear

April saw the Indians offense take on a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde persona. For a couple of games they wouldn't string any hits together, then 24 hours later they'd explode for double-digit runs and leave opposing fans cowering behind their sofa cushions. The inconsistency on a nightly basis was baffling. How could a team with this much power, this raw ability to crush the ball, be so limp at the plate all of a sudden? Well thankfully the last few games have seen the Tribe offense begin to find their rhythm and no game highlighted that more than Tuesday night. 

The Phillies brought Roy Halladay to the mound, not so long ago one of the best pitchers in the game, a two-time Cy Young winner and proud owner of a perfect game to his résumé. But this is not the same Halladay of yesteryear. Doc is having a rough time of it lately and the Indians only added to his misery. Poor Roy got shelled for 9 brutal hits for 8 earned runs in only 3 2/3 innings.

And that was only the beginning. The Indians hit 7 home runs in total Tuesday night in the 14-2 thrashing, taking it to the Phillies' bullpen after Halladay had left the game. The Tribe got homers from Santana, Reynolds, Chisenhall, Brantley, Stubbs and 2 from Ryan Raburn (more on him later). The offensive outburst somewhat overshadowed Zach McAllister's fine outing: Number 34 went 7 strong innings, scattering 5 hits with 4 strikeouts. Zach did give up 2 home runs to the Phillies but they were solo-shots and really the only mistakes the 6'6 righty made all night. 

The offense carried over their fine performance from Tuesday night into yesterday's game. The Indians' bats stayed alive in the 6-0 victory, ensuring the series win and sweep over the Phillies. Cliff Lee made his first start against his former team since his trade out of Cleveland in 2009 but even he couldn't quiet the Tribe lineup. I have fond memories of Lee's 2008 Cy Young season but I can't say I wasn't pleased to see him get smacked around for 9 hits in 6 innings of work. His opponent for the Tribe was our young pitching stud Trevor Bauer, making a spot-start before going back to Columbus today. Bauer lasted 5 innings, only surrendering 1 solitary hit but he walked 6 Phillies batters. He had a lot of trouble in last start in Tampa Bay when he had too many walks (7!), and again last night his control was just as wild. Nearly every fastball he threw was far too high, and he struggled to keep anything down. One positive though was his breaking ball; he had a mean curveball working, a thing of beauty when he got the Phillies' Ryan Howard to strike out looking in the 1st inning, then catcher Carlos Ruiz to whiff badly in the 2nd. Bauer still needs to work on his control before he can be considered MLB ready, that many walks is unacceptable and infuriating, but the potential talent is obvious. I don't expect it will very long before he becomes a permanent addition to the starting rotation.

The key hit in last night's game was Asdrubal Cabrera's 2 RBI double down the left field line in the bottom of the 3rd inning, scoring Brantley and Kipnis to stake the Indians to a 3-0 lead. They never looked back from there, tacking on 3 more runs over the remaining innings, coasting to the win. Cabrera has really been hitting well over the past week and looks to have put his early slump behind him now. Still, he's not as hot at the plate as this guy...

Player Of The Series

Take a bow Ryan Raburn. The versatile 32 year old has been making the most of his playing time lately, doing his best Joe DiMaggio impression. The guy can't miss, he's hitting everything. Since Bourn went on the disabled list, the speedy Drew Stubbs has shifted over to centre field with Raburn taking his place in right field. He got off to a bit of a rough start and I can remember a few times when Raburn swung at the first pitch to end a crucial rally with a double-play ball. But he's done a great job of late to change his critic's opinions.

It started in the final game of the series in Kansas City this past Monday, when Raburn unloaded for 2 home runs, and it didn't stop when Philadelphia came to town. Tuesday night saw him go 3-for-4 at the plate, with 2 more monster home runs in the 14-2 rout. Then last night he went 4-for-5 with a double and 2 RBI in the 6-0 win. He's been unstoppable at the plate, whether its a bloop single, a double in the gap, or another fence-clearing homer, Raburn has been on fire. So the award goes to Ryan for this Phillies series. What a beast.

So the Indians can enjoy their time off today before the Twins arrive in Cleveland tomorrow to begin a three game series, where we'll see Minnesota's Pedro Hernandez (1-0, 2.35 ERA) face off against our Justin Masterson (4-2, 3.12 ERA). Until next time...

Thanks for reading.

Tribe Take Two, Split Series In KC

After dropping the first two games of the four-game series in Kansas City, the Indians rebounded to win the final two match-ups, the highlight being Ubaldo Jimenez rolling back the years and pitching an absolute beauty last night in a 9-0 Indians victory. That win ensured Cleveland returned home from this long road-trip on a positive note, with a 5-4 record on their travels, which actually isn't too bad given the way they've played sometimes. Let's look at what went down in KC:

Inconsistent Indians

The offense is already becoming a bit of a frustration for some of the Tribe faithful. How can the lineup produce nothing at all for our ace Masterson on Sunday but then explode for 10 runs later in the day to back Kluber to a win? How do they wait until the 9th inning to score any runs for the by-then-left-the-game Scott Kazmir on Saturday night but they'll happily gift Ubaldo 8 out of  a total 9 runs last night? The inconsistency in hitting is starting to become a bit of a grind for some. This is a team that can get shutout one night then destroy a team for double digit runs the next. Kazmir put in a good effort on Saturday night, going 5 innings and only surrendering 2 runs but he didn't get any run support to help him out, the Indians scoring their only runs in the 9th inning of a 3-2 loss. Masterson didn't get any runs at all on Sunday, and even though he didn't pitch great, he still gave the offense a chance to keep the score close early on in the game. Nothing. Nada. Zero.

Now I'm not one of the guys on Twitter calling for heads already. I don't think we need to worry too much about the lineup, they will start hitting with some regularity once we get into the meat of the season (the past two days should show a little glimpse of that). It's still only April after all so there's no need to throw TVs out the window or anything like that.

There are some positive signs that the offense are beginning to turn things around though. Santana is hot right now, batting .386 with 27 total hits, with a whopping 1.141 OPS, leading the team by a wide margin in all three of those categories. I love what our catcher has shown us so far in 2013. There's also signs of Asdrubal Cabrera coming out of his recent slump too. He had a really good week, batting .412 in 17 at-bats with 3 RBI. Hopefully our shortstop is beginning to get into his groove a bit and can carry this bit of form with him into May and beyond.

We're Missing Bourn Badly

Since Michael Bourn went on the DL after cutting his right hand against the White Sox a couple of weeks ago, the Tribe offense hasn't been the same. The dynamic centre fielder had gotten off to a good start in Cleveland and appeared to be hitting some form before his unfortunate injury in a close play sliding into first base. With our leadoff hitter out of the lineup, Francona has been forced to shake things up a bit and I don't think the team has responded as well as the skipper might have hoped. The natural choice to fill in at the leadoff spot was Michael Brantley but our left fielder just does not look comfortable up there when he's forced to leadoff. Francona originally had Brantley batting in the 5 or 6 spot to start the season and he looked great there, shoring up the bottom half of the lineup, but the adjustment has thrown Brantley slightly out of sorts. Since taking Bourn's spot in the lineup Brantley has hit for a .265 batting average with a .342 OBP, whereas he was batting .282 with a .378 OBP before being asked to fill in at leadoff. Now I know its not that big of a difference and yes it's a small sample in April but the change in the lineup is obviously having some effect on Brantley, particularly to his mental approach at the plate. The stats won't show it but you can see he isn't as comfortable up there.

The knock-on effect from Brantley hitting leadoff is we've also lost that spark he provided in the bottom half of the lineup. The sooner we get Bourn back the better but nobody knows yet when he'll be ready to play everyday. He can come off the DL on Tuesday but Francona doesn't think he'll be ready to go just yet. "I don't think he's as comfortable as he wanted to be," said the Tribe manager. The stitches in his finger are now out but it's a pretty sensitive area as everybody knows, so you don't want Bourn to be rushed and re-injure the wound. However, the sooner he gets back the better and maybe the lineup can finally get back to normal: Bourn at leadoff and Brantley back in charge of the bottom half of the lineup.

Player Of The Series (New!)

Now I'm writing this only 30 minutes since I woke up at 7am. Am I still dreaming? Did the Pitcher Formerly Known As Ubaldo Jimenez really shutout the Royals, the previously AL Central leading Royals, over 7 fantastic innings? I've rubbed the dust from my eyes about a million times but it appears that yes, he actually did. It's a brilliant outing for Ubaldo who should really take some heart and confidence from this. The struggling righty partied like it was 2010 and stranded 3 hits over 7 scoreless innings with 4 strikeouts on his way to his first win of the season. Amazing, I woke up and thought the MLB site on my phone had broken at first.

He was backed by Ryan Raburn of all people, doing his best "I belong in the major leagues" impression, who had an unreal 4-for-4 night at the plate with 2 home runs, his first big flies for the Tribe. More of that please Ryan. Jason Kipnis, also no stranger to struggle in 2013, got his first homer of the season too. Overall, the stars aligned for Ubaldo last night and he made it count, and in style too.

I think I like the idea of a Player Of The Series section here at England Tribe and for it's maiden choice, I'm gonna go with Ubaldo, simply because it was so unexpected and amazing. Congrats Mr Jimenez, you're the lucky winner.

So the Indians finally return home today to face the Phillies for a bit of inter-league action. First pitch is at 7.05pm as usual with Zach McAllister on the mound for us against Philadelphia's Roy Halladay, who looks to be turning things around a bit of late after struggling to start the year. We're now at home until the 10th May when we travel to Detroit, so I'd like to see us go on a run now and get back into the fight for the AL Central. Go Tribe!

Thanks for reading.

Beantown Beatdown, Tribe Swept

The Red Sox were not expected to be competitors in 2013, with most 'expert's predicting them to finish in the bottom half of the AL East, a division the Boston club are used to winning (or at the very least competing with the Yankees for). The players and coaches obviously didn't pay any attention to that as they have gotten off to a very good start to the early season thanks to some very strong outings from their starting pitchers and good offensive production from off-season signings like Mike Napoli and Shane Victorino, two acquisitions largely ridiculed by fans and media at their time of signing. With that said it was never going to be easy for the Indians, up against the hot (and emotional) Red Sox for a three game series this week and it resulted in a sweep for the Tribe. Here's what I thought about this week's games:

Is The Ubaldo Era Over In Cleveland?

This question has already been asked many times (exceptionally well at WFNY by TD might I add) and until a final decision is made, or Jimenez makes a Jesus-like recovery, it will continue to be asked. After an off-season of promises that mechanics had been fixed and a relatively harmless spring, we were all set for Ubaldo to bounce back in 2013. Surely it couldn't get any worse than 2012? His first start in Toronto was good, only giving up 1 earned run in 6 solid innings on his way to a no-decision which the Tribe eventually won in 11 innings. But then came the home opener in front of a near sold-out Progressive Field, where Ubaldo got rocked by the Yankees, giving up 7 earned runs in only 4 1/3 innings of work. Not only did he look lost on the mound but his velocity was drastically down, creating Ubaldogate in the process (check out Adam Burke's brilliant article for the details). Jimenez was then scratched from his next start against the White Sox and had plenty of time to prepare and rest ahead of Boston's first trip to Cleveland on Tuesday night. I don't think Ubaldo would have been ready even if he'd had a whole year to prepare for the Red Sox. After the Dominican right hander cruised through the first inning 1-2-3, he melted down in the second. Ubaldo couldn't escape and left the game having pitched only 1 2/3 innings, walking 5 guys and conceding 7 earned runs. Two of those runs Ubaldo single handedly walked in himself when Boston had loaded the bases. All in all it was an unmitigated disaster and undoubtedly one of the worst performances of Jimenez's career.

So where do we go from here? Can the Ubaldo era be saved? Right now it doesn't look good (understatement of the year) and if he keeps up this level of play he's likely to be cut from the team. Tuesday night saw him lose complete control, unable to locate any of his pitches after the first inning. I realise Ubaldo is only three starts into this fledgling season but the situation is getting out of hand now. I feel really bad for the guy, because you can see on his face how painful it is for him to struggle like this. He doesn't want to be out there at all and the pressure has become too much to bare. The true test of where we go from here will be on Sunday afternoon in Houston, when we play the third and final game against the Astros. If Ubaldo can't get through Houston's miserable lineup, easily one of the worst in MLB this year, then maybe all hope is  surely lost for the 29 year old. We either cut ties with him altogether or see if we can send him down to Single A or out to Arizona to completely re-structure him as a pitcher, similar to what we did with Fausto Carmona/ Roberto Hernandez a few years ago. It's got to the stage now where he is a liability in the rotation and can only harm the team if he can't turn around his form. Can the likes of Kluber, Bauer, or Dice-K be any worse for us? Probably not. How long Francona and the front office give Ubaldo remains to be seen; The club might even have made a decision to omit him from the team by the time his scheduled start on Sunday comes around. It'll certainly be interesting to see what happens in the next chapter of the Ubaldo Saga but all signs suggest it wont be a happy ending. Watch this space.

Infield Struggles

So far this year the Indians are not getting much production from their infield players, with the exception of Nick Swisher who has started his career in Cleveland pretty well (a .407 OBP, second on the team). The most troubling member of the Tribe infield has to be our All Star shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, one of my favourite players. He's mired in a deep slump at the moment and has started 2013 with a .127 batting average and a mere .200 OBP. It's early so there's obviously no need to panic yet but it's still a concern when one of your best guys only has 7 hits in two weeks, especially when he's been in every game. Cabrera is not alone though. Lonnie Chisenhall is taking some time to find his feet this year, stuck with a .200 BA and 13 strikeouts. This is Chisenhall's first full season starting at third base and it looks like he's pressing at the plate a bit, trying to do too much. He was scratched from the lineup last night in favour of Mike Aviles, who has performed relatively well in the nine games he's played in. Jason Kipnis, our second basemen, has also struggled this year, at the plate and with his health. The 26 year old hasn't played in nearly a week because of  some soreness in his left elbow but he wasn't exactly playing well before his omission from the lineup. In eight games Kipnis has a .125 BA with 11 strikeouts and only 4 hits. Not great statistics to look at I know, but at least it's a small sample in a long season.

The problem is we really need these guys to pick up their game. Kipnis, when he's healthy and back in the team, and Cabrera are two of our key guys, batting two and three in the lineup. In those positions you damn well ought to be hitting, or at least getting some walks. The lineup has had trouble getting runs over the past week because our infield isn't hitting at all, offering zero support to the rest of the offense. The Tribe travel to Houston today and now is the prime opportunity for these infield players to pick up some form and start hitting. The Astros are hardly loaded with top talent in their rotation and bullpen, so it'd be nice to see Cabrera get hot and start contributing like we know he can. I'm not expecting too much from Kipnis this weekend, returning from an injury and all, but anything he can add is obviously welcome. And if Chisenhall can also get into his groove then we're golden. There's no cause for panic or drastic changes yet but if this infield trio don't pick things up by the middle of May then something is seriously wrong out there. I don't think that'll be the case though, these guys just need a hit or two to go the right way and I think eventually their stats will recover. But they need to turn it around pretty quickly because the Tribe are already starting to lose ground in 2013 and we will need Cabrera, Kipnis and Chisenhall to play like the important players they're supposed to be.

The Tribe go on the road now for a ten game trip that begins in Houston today and won't end until we host the Phillies on the 30th April. It'll be a pretty important early season test of our abilities and we need to put a bit of a run together to keep in touch with the front-runners in the division. Tonight we have Brett Myers, he of the 8.82 ERA and 0-2 record, pitching against the Astros' Lucas Harrell, himself carrying an 0-2 record and a 5.63 ERA. Hopefully I'll be back Sunday night/ Monday with a re-cap on our travels in Houston. Until next time...

Thanks for reading.

Tribe Takes Series To Begin 2013

Despite Brett Myers getting absolutely pounded last night for a 10-8 Tribe loss, I'd say it hasn't been a bad way to begin the season overall. Not too bad at all. Winning the first two games of the year, guaranteeing us the series victory against the potential World Series contending Blue Jays, is a great way to start the season, even if we couldn't quite go all the way and get the sweep. Let's look at some of the positives over the past three days:

"The Power!" (say it in a He-Man Masters of the Universe voice)

The Tribe certainly didn't leave their bats behind when they left Spring Training. The club have gotten off to a powerful start so far, with Mark Reynolds in particular showing us what he does best: taking guys yard. He hit his first Tribe homer on Wednesday night, a magical 11th inning winner that hit Toronto's second deck and he homered again last night to keep us in the game. So far so good from Reynolds. We know the dude strikes out a tonne but that's the payoff for these home runs he can produce. Francona said on Wednesday night, "We all know he's going to miss sometimes, but when he does that, he's a game changer." Despite losing last night, Reynolds and his team-mates showed what this lineup can do, hitting eight extra-base hits out of a total 14 for eight runs. Most nights that's enough for a win, but Myers and the bullpen couldn't hold back the Jays, who let's be fair have a pretty damn powerful lineup themselves.

Carlos Santana also got off the mark last night, hitting his first home run of the year and finished up just a triple short of hitting for the cycle. Asdrubal Cabrera hit his first homer of the season in the 4-1 win Tuesday night, a two-run bomb off R.A. Dickey, the reigning NL Cy Young winner. It was a beauty, Cabrera smashing Dickey's hanging knuckler over the fence in right-centre. It reminded me of the 2011 AL Silver Slugger Cabrera. Let's hope our shortstop can keep it up and repeat that awesome 2011 season (he hit 25 HR and 92 RBI that year). Overall I'm happy with the offensive output the Tribe have displayed so far. It's important to get off to a good start and the lineup have done just that.

Masterson and Ubaldo Look Good... So Far

There's not a great deal to complain about when it comes to Justin Masterson and Ubaldo Jimenez, our two "aces" of the pitching staff. Both men took the mound and went 6 strong innings, both of them only surrendered 3 hits to that strong Jays lineup and both men only gave up 1 earned run, earning each man a 1.50 ERA so far. Looks pretty nice doesn't it? Granted, Masterson did walk 4 guys and Ubaldo did give up a HR but that's really all there is to moan about. We need to put this in perspective of course: Any guy in the bigs can have one good start. What we need to see now is both of them build on these solid outings and ride that momentum into their next starts. If all goes as planned Masterson should take the mound on Sunday in the final game against the Rays, looking to double his 1-0 record. Ubaldo should pitch on Monday in our home opener against the Yankees, searching for his first W since his start against the Jays on Wednesday only earned him a quality start.

Brett Myers on the other hand had a pretty rough go of it last night. In his Tribe debut, things didn't turn out the way Myers hoped. Over 5 innings he was shellacked for 7 hits, four of them via the long-ball, for 7 earned runs and didn't record a single strikeout. Four HRs (his career worst) in one game is rarely going to get you the win, even if our offense did try to keep Myers in the game. It's way too early to write Myers off, it's only one start, and he of all people will know this morning that he needs to pitch better. "I couldn't get the ball down tonight. Everything was up," he said. "When you pitch up in the zone against these type of hitters in the big leagues, it's not going to be good." Amen to that Brett.

But let's end this on a high note. The Tribe beat a really good team on the road to take the series victory, thanks to some solid pitching from our key guys and our lineup getting the important hits. Sure a sweep would have been great, and we were close, but you can't really ask for much more from this rejuvenated Indians squad. The big righty Zach McAllister takes on the Rays and their lefty Matt Moore tonight at the Trop. Here's hoping Zach can settle in and get the job done. A 3-1 record would look awfully nice when I wake up tomorrow morning.

Thanks for reading.