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Midseason Mojo Update

The All-Star Game has come and gone, and at Pronk Needs You! we pause to sum up the season so far:

• It's been a bloody awful mess.

All right. Enough reflection on the season so far. Others with far more ability to write reasoned discourse about the state of the Tribe (particularly the DiaTriber and the gang at Let's Go Tribe), have been much more eloquent about how things reached this sorry state where we've pretty much bagged the season and and are watching for prospect development and improvement and because we have that latent streak of masochism present in all Cleveland sports fans.

On to the Midseason Mojo Watch

Pitching:

• Bullpen: Ain't a damn one of them got the mojo necessary to back the car successfully out of the driveway. Well, maybe Raffy Perez has 1 Elvis. They're the primary reason that this team is in this mess.
• Cliff Lee: Enough said.
• Jake Westbrook: He looked great starting the year, then wham! TJ surgery.
• Fausto Carmona: Control problems, then an injury. Now rehabbing.
• CC Sabathia: No longer a Tribesman, he's got mojo aplenty now with the contending Brewers.
• Paul Byrd: Even when lightning strikes and he puts together a good outing, it gets shot to hell by the bullpen.
• Aaron Laffey: Has generally pitched well, if with a little hard luck. He's not the problem.
• Jeremy Sowers: Has not figured it out yet, but did strike out 8 in his last outing.
• Matt Ginter: ????????????

Hitters/Position Players

• Kelly Shoppach: After an awkward transition to the starting catcher gig, has generally hit well. Surprisingly, his throwing has suffered.
• Sal Fasano: He's Sal Fasano. He has the best mustache on the planet and he's OPSing .929 as backup catcher.
• Casey Blake: The Bearded One is having a career year, especially with RISP. With any luck, Shaprio will be able to flip him to a contender for a decent prospect or two.
• Jamey Carroll: He's filled in well since The Beaded One was sent down to work on his hitting.
• Asdrubal Cabrera: Hitting a ton in Buffalo. Probably should have started the season there. May not see Cleveland again before September now that the Tribe is out of contention.
• Ryan Garko: Swinging for the fences and generally looking awful.
• Andy Marte: Has actually been playing since The Concession and looking like a major leaguer. Hit his first homer of the year over the weekend. His line for July: .292 /.320 / .500
• Victor Martinez: Injured after a couple at bats in the first game of the year, hasn't gone yard all year, and stuck on the DL for a while.
• Pronk: Pronk has had no Elvis all year. On the DL with a bum shoulder. Date of return uncertain.
• Jhonny Peralta: All Jhonny does is field his position moderately well enough and hhit, hhit, hhit.
• Jorge Velandia: Roster filler.
• Shin-Soo Choo: Has made some puzzling decisions in the outfield, but has a plus arm and has demonstrated the ability to get on base and has shown some power.
• Ben Francisco: Tracking down fly balls remains a challenge for Ben, but there's no doubt about his arm. Has been very streaky - both in a good and bad way. OPS+ of 119 on the year.
• Franklin Gutierrez: No doubts about his fielding. Appears to be going through sophomore slump and has looked totally and completely lost at the plate for long stretches.
• Grady Sizemore: Having a career year and leading the AL in homers. Potential to join 40/40 club.
• David Dellucci: Has not performed as billed. Likely trade bait if he can pick it up just a little bit. At bats now solely for purpose of showcasing for potential trade.

Management:

• Mark Shapiro: His lack of impact off-season moves has hurt this team in hindsight, but he wasted no time throwing the towel in on the season and getting what looks like an outstanding package for CC. If he can spin off Byrd, Blake, Dellucci and, maybe even Jamey Carroll, he can increase his mojo dramatically.
• Eric Wedge: This team came out of spring training flat, his handling of the bullpen has been puzzling, and his handling of Andy Marte has been downright mystifying. I am beginning to wonder whether he really knows how to prepare a baseball team to come out of the gate and play baseball and whether he is suited to handle a team with high expectations.
• Derek Shelton: Generally, the veteran hitting on this team, with a few exceptions, has been pretty weak. It's a wonder he still has his job.
• Carl Willis: The starting pitching has generally looked good - downright blazing in spots. The bullpen has looked abysmal. As much as Willis should get credit for the starting pitching, he derserves some blame for the bullpen.

Overall:

This team has not played up to its Pythagorean record, primarily because of the bullpen and lack of clutch hitting. We'll see if giving the young kids some playing time will make the rest of the season interesting. Before the four-game sweep of the Rays, they pretty much had No Elvis.

So long, CC

CC Sabathia, the Hefty Lefty, has been traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for outfielder/first baseman Matt LaPorta, right-handed pitcher Rob Bryson, left-handed pitcher Zach Jackson and a player to be named later.

LaPorta is a significant power hitting prospect with a high ceiling and has been mashing at AA Huntsville. Bryson is being used as a relief pitcher, and some have projected him as a potential closer. Johnson is organizational filler. Speculation is that the PTBNL is either third baseman Taylor Green, last year's Brewers Minor Leaguer of the Year, or outfielder Michael Brantley. The Indians have until the end of the year to choose.

The fire sale has begun. Most likely to go before the fire sale ends: Casey Blake, Paul Byrd, and David Dellucci. Players that might go: Ben Francisco, Jhonny Peralta, Rafael Betancourt.

An Open Letter to Paul Dolan

Dear Mr. Dolan,

Thank you for your letter to Indians fans. Many of us understand that you tried to negotiate in good faith with CC Sabathia and made him the best offer you believed that the team could afford and still remain competitive.

CC himself came out on his website and told us that he was not going to negotiate during the season and that your best offer was just not good enough.

Many of us also appreciate that you did not trade CC Sabathia during the offseason coming off of the Indians' successful run in 2007. We appreciate your willingness to make this season a run at the title with CC and potentially lose him with only draft picks as compensation.

We are heartbroken that this season has turned out this way. Based on last year's performance, we thought we had a shot at winning it all. We are disappointed in the injuries and the regression that many players appear to have made from last year. We wanted this team to win very badly, since most of us were not even alive the last time the Indians won a World Series, and many of us have not experienced a championship team in Cleveland of any kind during our lifetimes.

You did what you had to do for the future. We hope that CC reconsiders during the offseason and signs a longterm deal with the Indians, but we know that the chances of that happening are remote, as teams with more money or better proximity to CC's California home will all be much more likely to overpay for CC's services.

We know that among many Indians fans that you have a reputation for being cheap; however, running a small market team like the Indians requires a lot of hard decisions - frankly, it's easy for these fans to have these opinions because, in the end, it's not their money. It could not have been easy saying goodbye to Manny Ramirez, Jim Thome, Bartolo Colon and CC Sabathia. Stay the course. Please let your general manager continue to build a team that can be a consistent winner with a shot at postseason.

We understand that CC is probably the first of many Indians to be traded before the deadline this year. We hope that the new infusion of prospects makes the rest of this year easier to follow and that with Mark Shapiro's help, the players we receive will give this team new hope to contend in 2009.

If we don't contend in 2009, however, all bets are off.

Sincerely,

woodsmeister

11.5

Cliff Lee pitched well. Senor Slow pitched a scoreless 9th. CasEy BlakE hit a go-ahead solo shot in the 10th. In came He Who Shall Not Be Named to try to hold down the division leading Whine Sox. Out went any hope of victory.

HWSNBN retired the first two batters. Then came Alexei Ramirez, who launched the 2-0 pitch over the left field fence, just out of reach of Ben Francisco. The next batter, DeWayne Wise, stole singled, stole second, and, of course scored on a single up the middle by Orlando Cabrera. He Who has now blown 4 of 10 save opportunities.

On what was deemed by Eric Wedge to be a make or break road trip against AL Central rivals, the Indians have looked broken, dropping the first two games in characteristic fashion to fall 11.5 games back of the division lead. Monday night, Jeremy Sowers was awful and the bullpen not much better. Last night, the Indians managed just 1 run in 8 innings off John Danks, wasting a similar performance by Cliff Lee.

Unless there's a press conference today to announce that CC's been traded, Sabathia will make what will likely be his last start tonight for the Tribe before being traded to try to pull them within 10.5 games of the Whine Sox. Get your DVR programmed for posterity, crimestoppers, because it may be the last you see of CC in a crooked Wahoo cap.

They're Done

10.5 games back. Even if they get wins from CC and Cliff in the next two days, they're still 8.5 games back.

Time to do some prospect shopping and reload. The sooner that the Indians unload CC, the more value he has to the team that gets him.

Sell Sell Sell

This team is going nowhere. They just lost 2 of 3 at home to the Cincinnati Freakin' Reds.

CCya later!

Casey - let's see how well your magic season with RISP and groundball booting translate to a team in contention.

Looch - too bad you're old and can't hit and that we'll have to eat your contract in order to get even a halfway decent organization player for you.

Free Byrd!

These are the players not in the Indians' plans for the future that will likely be hitting the highway soon.

C'mon, Mark! The sooner we start selling, the higher the return. Get on it!