Tales from the Teepee Volume 4: Jack Morris

Veteran Right-Hander Jack Morris was supposed to be one of the key off-season acquisitions for the Cleveland Indians in 1994. A 5-time All-Star and 4-time World Series Champion, he was brought in to provide veteran leadership along with Dennis Martinez and Eddie Murray. Morris posted a solid mustache and a solid 10-6 record, but yielded a hefty 5.40 era. A fiery competitor, he once told a female reporter in the locker room, "I don't talk to women when I'm naked, unless they're on top of me or I'm on top of them." Jack must not have liked his teammates too much either, as he often left the team during his one season with the Indians. Between starts he would fly back to his farm in Montana to tend to his wheat crops. His seed growin' led to his subsequent release on August 9th, a week before a baseball players' strike would end the season and cancel the 1994 World Series. Morris retired in 1995, but will always be remembered by Tribe fans as "Jack Morris pitched for the Indians? Really?"

Joe Borowski Update

Words cannot possibly describe how funny this ad is.

Fausto Carmona signs 7 year deal

Paul Hoynes is reporting that Fausto Carmona has signed a 7 year deal with options for the 2012-2014 seasons. This locks up the young right-hander until his 31st birthday. The Tribe tends to lock up their core young players most of the time to eliminate the arbitration years. Also, the signing allows Fausto to make more money in the years before arbitration. He has started off masterfully this year, throwing 13 innings while only giving up 1 earned run. An excellent move by Shapiro and company, this locks up a future ace for years to come.

Westcoast Unkind

Sporadic hitting, shaky defense and a shoddy bullpen were aplenty during the Tribe's series loss to the Angels. Exiting California with a 2-4 road record is not good, but it could have been worse. The Indians never had command of any game in either series, winning on a bases-loaded walk and a two out top of the ninth homerun. The good news is they have only played 1/18th of their season and are 3 games up on the Tigers. Hopefully some home cooking will help wake up the bats and CC can get back to being CC.

Here were some of the highlights:

Jake Westbrook: Complete Game win giving up 3 runs on 7 hits while striking out 4. What a gutsy performance, made one mistake to Vlad, shut the door in the ninth. Got the win when the Tribe really needed one.

Jhonny Peralta: 5-9 2 doubles, 2 homeruns, 3 rbi in two games! Played a little shaky defense but showed discipline in going to right field Monday. Desperately need him to find consistency for the lineup to produce any type of solid output.

David Dellucci: 3-6 2 doubles 3 runs scored. He was on base 5 times in two games. Amazing to see his name here, but hit well today. Should be our 4th outfielder to "spell" Gutierrez and Francisco. Hopefully Shapiro can trade Michaels and let Dellucci take on that role, a role he is more suited for.

Victor Martinez: 3-9 1 double. Having Victor back in the lineup makes the team considerably stronger. Had issues throwing runners out Monday, is a major key and the catalyst of this team in 2008. Looked to be taking it easy on the bases. Great to see him back.

Areas of Concern:

Joe Borowski: Blew a save by giving up a grand slam. His fastball is topping out at 85 mph, which is like throwing batting practice to major league hitters. I see a DL stint in his near future if he strings together a few of these implosions.

Grady Sizemore: 3-13, 5 K's. Looks to be trying to take walks instead of trying to drive the ball. He took some pretty good pitches for called strike threes.

Franklin Gutierrez: 1-8 3K's. He seems completely out of whack at the plate, wish he had options so if this continues on he is not glued to the bench. His spring training success seems forgotten.

Jason Michaels: 0-8. Can't get a bunt down, seems to be an albatross in the lineup. Good 4th outfielder who should never get consistent at bats, as proven after July 31st of last year. Needs to be moved on to another team since he has some tradeability.

Paul Byrd: Gave up 3 homeruns (one a grand slam) 6 runs in 3 innings. Needs to find his command or the Indians may have a 7 million dollar long reliever.

The Wahoos look to rebound at home this weekend as the take on the Athletics. Friday's matchup is a good one, pitting Joe Blanton against CC Sabathia.

Awful in Anaheim

Last nights' game was a microcosm of what can go wrong in baseball. When a team can't field consistently, or string together consecutive hits, they typically lose. The Cleveland Indians mustered one run and committed two errors (Garko missed a foul ball too,) through eight innings. But they were able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory

The team coasted through until the ninth, when an apparent victory was ripe for the taking. Hafner led off with a walk, Cabrera pinch ran, and then victor took the first pitch of Frankie Rodriguez down the right field line for a double. Dellucci then came in to pinch run for Victor, a postition where it is difficult for him to strike out in. Jhonny Peralta followed by stroking a double to right field. He then tried to take 3rd on an overthrow by Vladamir Guerrero, but was beaten to the unoccupied bag by K-Rod. This was a bigger out than most think, as the Indians were able to load the bases later in the inning. Skinner was yelling at Jhonny to run, but Jhonny hesitated. He is not the fleetest of foot. The baserunning blunder added to a long list of bad plays for the Tribe. Sizemore struck out by taking two close strikes with one out and the bases loaded, and Brett Michaels did what he does, grounded weakly to second base.

The ninth was a disaster. JoBo opened up a gas tank and decided to spray the contents all over the field, loading the bases with one out. My Cleveland upbringing told me the game was over. As Torii Hunter's bat went sailing into the air, I kept thinking back to the top of the ninth when the Tribe left the bases full. It is a bad omen when you root for you team to have a four run lead in the ninth so your gas can of a closer won't come in to fire 75 MPH curveballs down the middle of the plate.

The Indians didn't deserve to win last night, but they did show resilience. For 8 innings they looked terrible, but still put themselves in the position to win. Would Joe Borowski be able to pitch the 7th and 8th innings with a 5 era? Will Michaelucci be replaced soon after batting a combined .040 (1-25)? Probably not but Shapiro and Wedge will stick with "the plan" for the time being.

The Indians look to bounce back with Jake Westbrook facing Ervin Santana.

Tribe Barely Avoids Sweep

Pitching saved the Cleveland Indians from being swept this past weekend, and this is how Casey Blake celebrated today's 2-1 win. The Tribe batted a crisp .204 for the series, played spotty defense, and really only pitched well in one game. Teams go through hitting slumps from time to time as the Indians did in 2007, but it is extremely annoying to watch. The Lineup has a fever, but I don't believe the prescription was batting Dellucci, Michaels, Marte and Shoppach in a row. Manager Eric Wedge does believe in his veterans, so we may be stuck with Michaelucci for the month of April. Taking two out of three from the Angels will salvage a .500 road trip, which wouldn't be terrible, since the Detroit Tigers have been struggling mightily. Victor Martinez is expected to be back behind the dish tomorrow, so hopefully he will give the team a much needed boost. Here were some of the highlights:

Ryan Garko: Went 4-10, slugged a homerun and had the game winning walk today. Looking very solid in the field as well.

Grady Sizemore: 4-11 2 walks, one of the few Indians hitters who look comfortable at bat.

Cliff Lee: 6 2/3 innings, 4 K's, pitched a great game when the Tribe needed it, spotted his fastball and mixed in some off speed stuff as well. Looked confident as bailed his team out.

Craig Breslow: 2 innings, no runs. Solid debut for second lefty out of the pen.

Joe Borowski: Gave up just a walk in his save today, slowed the fans collective pulse down considerably.

Areas of Concern

The Collective Lineup: Struggled together, strung 2 hits together only once the whole series in the 7th inning today, need to find some slump busters in Anaheim.

Michaels/Dellucci: 1-11 look terrible at the plate, can't wait to look back in September and laugh that they were our starting left fielders. My friend Jon refers to Michaels as the Rock of Love.

CC Sabathia: 5 1/3 innings 4 earned runs, only 2 K's. Needs get back to finishing off batters on 2 strike counts. Seems to be overthrowing a bit.

Franklin Gutierrez: 0-9, 3 K's, hit the ball hard a few times, needs to be consistent on the road. Played a tremendous right field on Friday night.

Jhonny Peralta: 3-12, got 2 hits today, showed questionable range and made a few errors. Was cold but not an excuse, needs to keep his head in the game.

Fausto Carmona takes on Joe Saunders tomorrow night in Anaheim.