Game Seventy-Eight: Indians 4, Athletics 3

Byrd has given up 4 runs or less in 10 of his 13 starts this year. If you want three runs or less, he's done it in 7 of 13 starts matters. If you want to create some vauge standard for "giving the team a chance to win", Byrd meets it in over half of his starts, against teams of varying offensive ability.

To put another way, my thought is that Byrd's job is to get a quality start. He's 30th in the league in quality start percentage. That's pretty damn good.

Westbrook's ERA means nothing to me. If you want to argue that he's worthless because of injury concerns, go for it. But his ERA doesn't mean anything. He's thrown 34 innings on the year. It doesn't concern me at all. Especially after his last outing.

It's the same way you're telling people that the offense is fine because Hafner should get at least somewhat better. Well, so should Jake. It's an injury, not a slump, but there's no reason he shouldn't start being Jake again. This guy is nothing if not consistent. If Jake does somehow go into the tank, well, we have a consensus top ten pitching prospect stretching himself out.

Similarly, I don't care about Cliff Lee's ERA. He's our 5 starter. I see reasons for optimism but as is he's already better than the 5 starter on a lot of teams. Off the top of my head, he's better or as good as Horacio Ramirez, Jeff Weaver, Bartolo, Maroth, and Scott Baker. Cliffy is tied for 51st in the league in QS%. Again, good and reasonable for where he slots in our rotation.

Everyone thinks their number 5 is the absolute worst. It's because they aren't forced to watch anyone else's number 5 every 5th game.  

None of this is really my point though. My point is that, while Shap is certainly going to do his job and improve the team if he feels he needs to do, there's no reason this team, as constructed, can't win the world series. None of these players are giant albatrosses that are being dragged along. They're all useful pieces. Add to that Adam Miller.

So, while you're saying "You guys are crazy! The offense is great, it's the pitching that's troublesome!"

I'm saying, well, there aren't really any causes for worry. There are salient and interesting points and decisions to be made but this is a very good baseball team that's performing about as well as it should be.

Again, that's not to say I'm demanding we stand pat. Sure, explore trade scenarios, try to get better in ways that make sense, etc. But there's a lot already here-this isn't a team that has to add offense or has to add pitching.

In addition, some people seem so convinced that we should trade Peralta to make room for Asdrubal in the coming years or get ride of Marte and move Peralta to 3b. These people surprise me because it's almost as if they are oblivious to the 2b we have. It seems like a no brainer to me to replace Barfield with Cabrera in 2009.