Projection systems throughout the country were rocked this morning by the news that all-World Super Hero Curtis Granderson was placed on the 15-DL with a broken finger. The Tigers are reportedly not concerned, since they have Cameron Maybin....uh, I mean...well a combination of Jacques Jones, Ryan Raburn, Inge, or...Freddy Guzman!?!?!?

Good times, people. Good times.

Link.

I guess everyone's getting a little sick of Spring Training....well not I!!!

Night game against the Mets, Laffey with the start and we'll see Sowers later. Dellucci still resting from those tired forearms that plague him.

Boxscore

Holy smokes look at Laffey go through 3 innings....our feline friend better come to play in his next outing.Jamie Carroll with another hit tonight! And J-Mike continuing to inflate his trade value! Woohoo!

I figured I'd get a head start on this since many of us lead lives that need plenty of advance planning. Yeah I'm a student, who am I kidding.

Is there any interest in an LGT trip to Spring Training around the dates of March 9-16? It looks like the Tribe has 4 straight games in WH right in the middle of that timeframe.

Post your thoughts here so we can get an idea of the amount of interest.

If you insist on talking about Wedge mismanaging our pitching tonight, please don't even bother here.

I don't blame Wedge for using JoeBo last night. Of course from a strictly baseball perspective it cannot be explained...Raffy B should've been in there. He's the better pitcher, and was rolling.

But as was brought up last night both on TBS and on the game thread, Wedge's management of this team doesn't exist in a bubble. He has to deal on a personal level with these guys every day, and as much as we hate to admit it, personal relationships and team comraderie may trump common sense, even in the playoffs. It may not make sense to us fans who cling to every win and loss like life and death, but these guys are friends, and their relationships will last well beyond this season. With JoeBo, Wedge has to constantly weigh the benefit of keeping him out of close games vs. what it will do to his clubhouse.

Which brings me to why I wrote this diary. I called out Nixon earlier in the season for being such a "team guy" but not having the balls to absolve Wedge of a duty to play him. You know you suck, you know there are better options, and you know the coach is just trying to keep peace by giving you at-bats. The situation with JoeBo is a little more high-leverage, but I don't see why the same logic cannot be applied. JoeBo is a great team guy. We all know this. But how he can continue to fool himself into thinking that he is our best 9th inning option is delusional.

He would actually become one of my biggest idols in sports if he went to Wedge today and said "Eric, I appreciate how you've supported me up to this point, but if you feel like the Raffies or Jensen give you a better chance, go for it. You don't owe me anything." Of course, the risk would be that Wedge takes this to be a lack of self-confidence by JoeBo in himself, and he takes all of his innings away....which I don't think would be fair either.

Someone in this organization has to address the elephant in the room instead of continuing to dance around this issue, hoping everything will turn out ok. We're 8 games from winning the World Series, and based on an entire season of data, I'm not sure how JoeBo goes through the next 3 weeks without a blown save.

Please, JoeBo, for the sake of your teammates, your coach, and the fans. Be a man.

Rant. Complete.

Not exactly sure how I missed this...

From Yahoo.com:

Former Indians pitcher Stanford pleads not guilty to disorderly conduct charge

September 21, 2007

CLEVELAND (AP) -- Former Cleveland Indians pitcher Jason Stanford pleaded not guilty Friday to a charge of disorderly conduct involving an alleged scuffle in a nightclub district.

Stanford, 30, who was designated for assignment by the Indians on Aug. 4, appeared in Cleveland Municipal Court with his attorney.

He was released on $250 bond, and the case was scheduled for an Oct. 30 trial.

Police arrested Stanford about 2:45 a.m. Thursday in the Warehouse District after he allegedly scuffled with a man, knocking off his glasses.

Stanford was arrested in the same area two years ago on a disorderly conduct charge that was cleared off his record after he finished a diversion program for first-time offenders, according to court spokesman George Yarbrough.

Stanford appeared in eight games for Cleveland, going 1-1 with a 4.78 ERA.

Lee's start tomorrow will be our last piece of data to base the 25th and 30th decisions on. Let's say for the sake of simplicity that we're choosing one pitcher for both starts.

So who ya got?

My pick is Sowers by a nose over Laffey.

His success in AAA over the last month or so has been well-documented here. He's given them 6+ innings consistently, seen his K rates increase, kept his walks down, had great movement on his pitches, and allowed only 9 ER over his last 5 outings. I think we can all agree he's been great down there.

And his success against the M's and Royals doesn't hurt. 2.50 ERA career against KC in 18.0 IP (including a gem this year) and a complete game shutout last year against the M's. Yeah it's only 4 games, I know. And you could argue that Laffey being a new pitcher to both teams could be just as useful as Sowers' success. Laffey has been good in his last two starts in Buffalo as well. A few too many baserunners today for my liking, but he's been just as solid. Either way, I'll be happy seeing Sowers or Laffey on Saturday.

I can say pretty confidently that Cliff won't be chosen based on his career stats against KC. 5.35 ERA, 1.42 WHIP in 79.0 IP. I think he could still use a few more starts in Buffalo too....not everything is ironed out with him just yet.

Let's hear it...who ya got?

I'm sure a lot of you saw this story this morning, but I'd like to hear what you guys have to say about its.

Here's a news article about this study.

Here's the actual study.

Here's a FAQ done by the authors.

And here's one random rebuttal I found on blog linked from AOL Fanhouse.

I'll wait to chime in until you guys have had a chance to read the material. You guys are the most statistically-inclined I've ever encountered so I figured this would be a great forum to discuss it in.

I haven't seen this posted yet....

From the Tampa Tribune:

"The Rays continued to explore signing former Indians RHP Fernando Cabrera and remained confident that they would eventually do so, although no deal appeared imminent late Monday night.

Baseball's waiver process is shrouded in secrecy, but Cabrera apparently cleared waivers Monday without being claimed. Although the Orioles were believed to also be interested in signing the 25-year-old Cabrera, reports out of Baltimore indicated the Rays had the inside track on closing a deal.

Cabrera was designated for assignment by the Indians on Aug. 1 and released on Thursday. In 94 career relief appearances, Cabrera is 6-6 with a 4.35 ERA in 130 1/3 innings."

Right now it's listed as Mr. Thomas Bartholemew Anderson, but from this article it looks like the Tigers are going to their farm system. All the way down to AA.

http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070812/SPORTS02/708120658/1050

Normally this would get me excited, but honestly I really don't know anymore. It's a guy making his major league debut. You tell me how the story ends.

But hey, if there's any way we're getting out of this slump, it's by facing Bondo and a really really young kid.