More bullpen questions to ask…

So, do ya think that the Tribe brass is finding out why Jorge Julio has spent the past 4 seasons in five different MLB organizations? You can’t trust him, period. He’ll look real good in some outings and then he’ll completely take you out of the game in others. I was ok with them breaking camp with him and using him in low-leverage situations. Wedge didn’t have much choice last night, though.

Here is the recap of the 13 batters Mr. Julio faced last night:
3 walks
3 doubles
2 singles
1 grand slam home run
1 strikeout
2 fly balls to the center field warning track, including one that almost killed Grady.
1 line-drive smash that turned into a double play on a hit-and-run.

I must say that this might represent the worst 13-batter stretch that I can recall in recent memory. Yeah, I guess he “didn’t have it.”

Second question…why is Jensen Lewis coming into the game throwing 82-mph fastballs? He amped it up to 86-87 in his last two innings, but he was throwing 82 in Cincy as well, including during the bases loaded walk to Dunn. They had mentioned that Lewis had been regaining his velocity recently, but that is not the case now. He is not getting better. He is getting WORSE.

Now a pre-emptive question. So if JoBo supposedly has better velocity than he did in April, but not quite up to where he was last year, does that mean he will be not quite as “effective” as last year? Oh boy. I hope his first couple of save opportunites come with 3-run leads (of course, this means that the Tribe starter will have to throw a shutout in the first 8 innings).

Last one – even if JoBo does not have 100% arm strength, will his return help the rest of the bullpen?

Just when I was at an emotional low, this made me feel a little better, for some reason:

“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again…”

If a guy can play catch with his ghost father in the middle of Iowa, then why can’t the Indians be good again, this year?

How do you tell when Wedge is irate? I know this sounds like the beginning of a joke, but seriously.

Now THIS guy wrote the book on irate: http://www.youtube.com/v/kl-4FSRYagc

Our bullpen pitchers sucking it up could help us out actually. Our offense seemed to loosen up after we were down by 6 runs in the third inning or whatever it was. Being in 2-1 games for 7 innings seemed to make them tight. Being blown out early loosened everyone up and we finally did something. Or this theory could be completely wrong and we will revert back to boring offense.

Had to delete two more comments for profanity.

We need to take this back in the other direction. There is no profanity allowed, the Ground Rules are plenty clear on this. We have been lax on enforcing this in the Game Threads, but the result seems to be now that people just feel free to swear here.

Well, it stops today. I’m deleting all profanity, excepting only the actual moment when something totally awful is happening, live, in the game. A little self-control is not that hard, except for the very worst moments.

Discovering that Andy Marte is not in the lineup does not qualify as something awful happening, especially since it happens every day. I think a modest little “WTF” goes a long way anyway.