Tribe Thoughts....

First off, let me start by saying the Cleveland Indians drive me absolutely nuts.

One of these days, I'm just going to stop torturing myself. I mean, why am I still watching these games? The Tribe are done for the year.

Yet I still find myself sitting in front of the TV, watching Ryan Garko suck every night. It must be a disease or something. I don't know how else to explain it.

• Who's next? CC, then Casey Blake. I'm sure Shapiro isn't done yet.
• Ben Francisco is terrible. Every game, you are guaranteed that at least one of his at bats will result in a pop-up in the infield.
  
• Ryan Garko is a joke. Seriously? Every single game....0-4, 2 Strikeouts. Time to go, meatball.
• Paul Byrd needs to get the hell out of Cleveland. I don't know who would want him, but he needs to go. Anywhere.
• Fausto Carmona is starting to look like the pitcher who went 1-10 two seasons ago. Which one is the real Fausto?
• David Dellucci shouldn't get another at bat the rest of the season. If you want to find out what you have in these young guys, why keep playing Dellucci?
• Andy Marte doesn't look that bad. He's bad, but not terribly bad.
• Kelly Shoppach has proven, with V-Mart out for so long, that he deserves to play more than once a week. It wouldn't be a bad idea to put Victor at first more and more when he comes back, and keep Shop in the lineup more often. Besides, Garko sucks. So get him out of the lineup by putting Victor at first.
• Jhonny Peralta is thriving in the cleanup spot. He's been hitting the ball real well ever since he was moved there. I say keep him there--for good. Put Victor 3rd, and let Hafner hit 5th--if he ever comes back.
• We still need a second baseman. Jamey Carroll is bad. Asdrubal Cabrera is bad. Josh Barfield is bad.
  
• When is Matt LaPorta going to be sent up? Since the season is already over, you might as well bring him up in September to get some at bats. Even if he hits .090, it doesn't matter. The season is already over.
• K-Rod anyone? Hey Shapiro...PAY HIM WHATEVER HE WANTS. We haven't had a closer in over 10 years. Kobayashi isn't the answer. Neither of the Rafael's are the answer. Joe Borowski sure as hell wasn't the answer. Francisco Rodriguez is the answer.
  
• Who in the hell is going to be in the rotation next year? The only sure things are Cliff Lee and Fausto Carmona. Byrd will (hopefully) be gone, and Sowers and Laffey are pitching terrible. What does that leave?
• I've been saying this for two years now--Trevor Crowe needs to be in Cleveland. Playing in Akron isn't doing the kid any good. He rakes in Akron. He's the leadoff hitter the Indians need. Then, Sizemore can move down in the batting order, and produce more runs for this team. Crowe is a base burner.

Well, that's about it for the evening. Preseason football officially kicks off a week from Thursday. I can't wait. Maybe, just maybe, the Browns can finally do something special.