Sunday, July 3, 2011

Midseason Tribe Talk

Today the Indians played their 81st game of the season, which officially signifies the midway point of the 2011 season. Coming into the season most predicted the Tribe would finish with close to 100 losses, and finish at or near the bottom of the Central. Instead, they're currently 44-37, 1.5 games in front of Detroit for 1st in the Central.

Not bad.

The craziest part is that Travis Hafner has missed roughly half of the season. Grady Sizemore has missed close to half of the season. Shin-Soo Choo is currently injured and out for the next two months. Three of your best players have had injury problems and the Tribe are still in first.

Not to mention...Choo and Carlos Santana have both had horrible years thus-far, both struggling to even hit .230 on the season.

If you would've told me three of the five best hitters on the team would have missed significant time by being on the DL, and the two bright young talents on the team would both struggle to hit .230, I would've told you the Indians would probably be 30-51 at best right now.

Instead, they're in first.

A very solid rotation (not great, but not terrible) and one of the best bullpens in all of baseball have carried the Tribe so far. If they can continue to get good starts from Masterson, Carrasco and Tomlin throughout the season, and figure out a way to get Fausto Carmona on track, there's no reason to think the Tribe can't tread water in the AL Central. If they can just hang around until September, anything can happen.

Choo should be back in September, and Alex White will also be healthy by then. Adding him to the rotation (over Fausto should he continue to struggle, or Talbot if he can't get it together) would certainly make the rotation even stronger.

Either way, it was a fun first half of the season. Hopefully it continues and we have some meaningful baseball in September/October in Cleveland.